Four years ago, eight-year-old Neshama Spielman participated with her family in the Temple Mount Sifting Project in Jerusalem’s Emek Tzurim National Park. The Sifting Project, which sifts and analyzes the dirt illicitly removed from the Temple Mount by the Waqf in 1999, welcomes volunteers of all ages and from all around the world.1
Neshama found a rare amulet bearing the name of Egyptian Pharaoh Thutmose III!
The partially preserved amulet (its bottom is missing) is shaped like a pendant and measures less than an inch wide and a quarter of an inch thick. Made of clay, the pendant has a hole at the top where a string could be inserted to make a necklace. The front side of the pendant displays the cartouche of Thutmose III. A cartouche is an oval frame that encircles the name of the pharaoh written in hieroglyphs. The symbol of an eye is depicted above the cartouche, and to the right of the cartouche is the symbol of a cobra.
The sixth pharaoh of the 18th Dynasty in the New Kingdom of Egypt, Thutmose III reigned from c. 1479 to 1425 B.C.E. Through his military campaigns in the Near East, Thutmose III brought Canaan under Egyptian rule. The Egyptian pharaoh boasted of his conquests, including a decisive victory at Megiddo, on the walls of the Temple of Amun at Karnak. Egypt’s authority over Canaan lasted for the next 200 years, which may explain why the amulet with the cartouche of Thutmose III was found in Jerusalem.
“The amulet may have been buried in earth brought to the Temple Mount to be used as fill for the expansion of the Mount in [the] Second Temple period,” said Sifting Project leader Zachi Dvira. “This earth probably originated in the slopes of the Kidron Valley near the Temple Mount, an area that contained tombs of the Late Bronze Age (1550–1150 B.C.E.).”
Neshama’s discovery represents the first time an amulet bearing the name of Thutmose III has been found in Jerusalem. The amulet is identical to one found in 1978 at Nahal Iron, a site in northern Israel.
Four years ago, eight-year-old Neshama Spielman participated with her family in the Temple Mount Sifting Project in Jerusalem’s Emek Tzurim National Park. The Sifting Project, which sifts and analyzes the dirt illicitly removed from the Temple Mount by the Waqf in 1999, welcomes volunteers of all ages and from all around the world.1 Neshama found a rare amulet bearing the name of Egyptian Pharaoh Thutmose III! The partially preserved amulet (its bottom is missing) is shaped like a pendant and measures less than an inch wide and a quarter of an inch thick. Made of clay, the pendant has […]
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