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Visitors watch the Mausoleum of Herodium, where once stood the palace of Herod Fortress, south of the city of Bethlehem in the West Bank on March 31, 2015.
(photo credit: AMIR COHEN / REUTERS)
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An inscription on a copper alloy ring, discovered nearly 50 years ago during a search near Herodium, was deciphered and probably belonged to Pontius Pilate.
The prefect of Rome, who was notoriously attributed to the death of Jesus, reigned over the province of Judea from 26 to 36 BC. The inscription, published in the latest edition of the Israel Exploration Journal, includes the words "Of Pilate" [πιλατο] on the small seal ring dating from the first century BCE to the middle of the first century of our era.
It also contains a representation of a crater, a type of jar originally from ancient Greece that was used to sprinkle the wine. The recently published article also discusses the typology of ancient depictions of kraters in the Jewish art of the Second Temple.
The site of Herodium was excavated by Professor Gideon Prester of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem from 1968 to 1969, during which the ring was found at the top of a hill. King King Porat of the Hebrew University led the exploration of site discoveries and led the team to clean and examine the ring.
The name of Pilate was not considered common at this time and the seal is typical of the status of the cavalry in Roman society. This is why the authors of this publication believe that it belonged to the prefect. Although the ring was simple, it was probably used for everyday tasks, such as the signing of documents by officials or judicial personnel who allegedly signed documents on behalf of Pilate.
Pilate was the fifth of the Roman prefects in Judea. Archaeologists badume that Pilate used Herodium, built in the first century AD by King Herod, as an administrative center.
The study of the ring was directed and produced by Malka Hershkovitz and Professor Shua Amorai-Stark, and was co-written by Gideon Foerster, Yakov Kalman, Rachel Chachy and Porat.
According to the ancient historian Josephus and canonical evangelical narratives, Pilate lobbied for Jesus to be spared from his fate of execution, but eventually yielded to public demands of his death. He had sought to avoid personal responsibility for the death of Jesus, as the Gospel of Matthew shows with his symbolic "washing of hands".
The only other physical archaeological evidence that confirms the existence of Pilate is an inscription in Latin found on a limestone block that is Pilate's tribute to Tiberius. It was found in the form of a reused block in a staircase of the Roman theater of Caesarea. He is now in the museum of Israel. The inscription on the stone also refers to Pilate as prefect of Judea.
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