The Only Relic from Herod’s Temple?
This limestone sundial is the only known surviving artifact from King Herod’s Temple. Found during the late Benjamin Mazar’s excavations in a pile of debris from the 70 C.E. Roman destruction of the Temple, the dial has a seven-branched menorah carved on its back, a symbol reserved for the Temple priests. It is so small (a mere 2 inches high and 2 inches wide) that the excavators used a matchstick as its gnomon. Though its diminutive size makes it easily portable, the dial’s face is carefully calibrated for Jerusalem and the two indentations in its back indicate that it was fixed in a specific place when it was in use. This sundial has been published only once before, in an article in Hebrew that devoted a single sentence to it. It is now in the Hecht Museum in Haifa.
