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© Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion
Seventh century calendar? This smooth bone plaque measures just over two inches long and one inch wide. Perhaps a peg was moved each day of the month from one to the next of the 30 holes arranged in three rows of ten holes each. In the fourth row of 12 holes, another peg might have been moved to mark off the completion of each month. Scholars are not sure, however, that the plaque is a calendar.
Although similar plaques with holes have been found at other sites in Israel, only this one is topped with the form of a proto-Aeolic capital.