COURTESY ASAF PERI / CITY OF DAVID
A gold ring with bright red garnet inset discovered in Jerusalem is the latest find indicating the considerable wealth and status of the city’s residents during the Hellenistic period (c. fourth–first centuries BCE), when many scholars had assumed Jerusalem was just a small town with few connections to the larger Mediterranean world.
Marion Zindel of the Israel Antiquities Authority described the ring’s manufacture and stylistic significance: “The ring was manufactured by hammering thin pre-cut gold leaves onto a metal ring base. Stylistically it reflects the common fashion of the Persian and early Hellenistic periods. In that period, people began to prefer gold with set stones rather than decorated gold.”
This ring and several other ornamental artifacts discovered at the Givati Parking Lot excavations in the City of David Archaeological Park, just south of Jerusalem’s Old City, are rewriting the history of Hellenistic Jerusalem. “In the past, we found only a few structures and finds from this era, and thus most scholars assumed Jerusalem was then a small town,” remarked archaeologists Yuval Gadot and Efrat Bocher. “These new finds tell a different story. The character of the buildings—and now, of course, the gold finds and other discoveries—display the city’s healthy economy and even its elite status.”
A gold ring with bright red garnet inset discovered in Jerusalem is the latest find indicating the considerable wealth and status of the city’s residents during the Hellenistic period (c. fourth–first centuries BCE), when many scholars had assumed Jerusalem was just a small town with few connections to the larger Mediterranean world. Marion Zindel of the Israel Antiquities Authority described the ring’s manufacture and stylistic significance: “The ring was manufactured by hammering thin pre-cut gold leaves onto a metal ring base. Stylistically it reflects the common fashion of the Persian and early Hellenistic periods. In that period, people began to […]
