[ad_1]
An intriguing 2,000-year-old copper alloy ring bearing the inscription "Pilatus" could be a second artifact of the historicity of the infamous Pontius Pilate. Unearthed 50 years ago, the ring has been neglected until recently when he had a good scrub and a second look.
Pilate, a Roman prefect who led the Roman province of Judea from 26 to 36 AD. AD, about, is mentioned in several New Testament stories, as having ordered the trial and crucifixion of Yeshua, a mob of the Second Temple period inspired by Galilee. , more commonly called Jesus.
The ring was discovered for the first time among hundreds of other artefacts during excavations conducted in 1968-1969 under the direction of archaeologist Gideon Foerster, in part of Herod's tomb and burial palace, used during of the First Jewish Revolt (AD 66-73). King Porat, current director of the excavations, recently requested that the engraved copper seal be subjected to thorough laboratory cleaning and scientific review.
Receive by e-mail the daily edition of the Times of Israel and never miss our best stories
Free registration
The scientific badysis of the ring was published last week in the Israel Exploration semi-annual newspaper, by the 104-year-old Israeli Exploration Society. He was also the subject of a popular advertisement – with slightly different conclusions – on Thursday in Haaretz, under the title "Ring of the Roman governor Pontius Pilate who crucified Jesus, found on the website of Herodion in the West Bank ".
Pilate presents Jesus, as illustrated in Ecce Home by Antonio Ciseri, 1871. (Wikipedia)
The archaeologist Porat told the Times of Israel Thursday that, for him, all explanations were also possible for who was the historical owner of the simple copper ring.
"It was important to publish an attentive scientific article," he said. "But in practice, we have a ring bearing the name of Pilate and the personal connection that is expressed is well established," said Porat.
The badysis of the IEJ, "An engraved copper alloy ring from Herodium illustrating a crater," was written by a group of specialists including emeritus professor Shua Amorai-Stark from the Art Department & Aesthetics from Kaye Academic College, as well as several archaeologists and scholars from the Hebrew University. from Jerusalem: Malka Hershkovitz, Foerster, who searched the ring, Yakov Kalman, Rachel Chachy and Porat. The epigraph Leah DiSegni, also from the Hebrew University, would have deciphered the inscription.
Although it is not known exactly when the ring was forged, it was discovered in an eastern garden built on a porch in a room built with secondary building materials. The hall offered an archaeological layer dating back to 71 CE at the latest, with "a profusion of finds", including a set of glbad, ostraca, pottery and decorated mud caps, and an "abundance" of 39 metal objects, such as iron arrowheads, a large number of coins of the first Jewish revolt and a copper alloy sealing ring.
View of 2010 from the Herodium mountain fortress in the Gush Etzion region, outside of Jerusalem. (Abir Sultan / FLASH90)
In the center of the ring is an engraved crater, a large wine vase surrounded by "partially deformed" Greek letters spelling "Pilatus". It is interesting to note that, according to DiSegni, the meaning of writing the two words is different. , and a word is "disturbed by a defect" in the metal.
Could this "Pilatus" be the Pontius Pilate described in the New Testament?
To look closer
According to scientists, the beveled ring, which has a narrow outer edge, was melted in a unit by a non-expert craftsman. There is evidence that the "mold of this ring was etched quickly before pouring the molten metal or that the device was not prepared by a master blacksmith," they write.
The drawing in the center of the ring, write the authors, was not necessarily an elite either. They refer to an unpublished clay bubble that was discovered as part of the Sifting Mount Temple project. Archaeologists have dated the first century of our era.
The unpublished clay print has in its center a single ship, described in the article of the YEI as "flanked by Greek letters placed in a similar way to that of the letters on the Herodium ring bezel. As for the inscription on the ring, the one on the bubble gives the name of a person (or his nickname or title). "
View of the Herodian Garden in which the Pilate Ring was discovered. (Courtesy of G. Foerster, via the Hebrew University)
Note that a pattern close to the large wine vase without handle appeared on a bronze pruta The coin, which dates back to 67-68 AD, the second and third years of the Jewish Revolt, depicts a processed amphora. These pieces date from the same archaeological layer in which the ring was found.
According to archaeologist Porat, the rebels have so messed up the palace that it is quite possible that they have moved a ring found elsewhere in this room and that the discovery of this ring among the rubble of the populace does not cancel the Pilate connection. "The context is actually very appropriate," he said.
The authors conclude, however, that nothing in the design of the ring makes it particularly Roman or elite. They write that during the Second Temple period, the vessel "served as a significant Jewish symbol on the sealing rings."
"So we propose that this ring was made in a local workshop, perhaps located in Jerusalem," write the authors.
So who was this ring?
There is a lot in one name
While the name of Pontius was common to the Romans during the Second Temple, Pilate was not. The only accepted historical artifact that bears witness to the life of the prefect of Rome lies in this unusual surname.
In the Israeli port of Caesarea, in the 1960s, a stone bearing the Pontius Pilate's Latin dedicatory inscription, dating from about 30 CE. (AP Photo / John Bazemore)
The "Pilate Stone" is a mbadive building block inscribed in the 1961 excavations in a theater or arena of Caesarea Maritime. According to an article by Lawrence Mykytiuk of the September 2017 Biblical Archeology Journal, "New Testament Political Figures have been Confirmed," it has been found face-down and modified to be used for secondary purposes.
The stone contains four lines of text, two of which read:[Po]Ntius Pilate … [Pref]ect of Judah[ea]. According to Mykytiuk, the best estimated dating of the stone is between 31 and 36 AD. The scholar writes that "the Pontius surname was common in central and northern Italy at the time, but the name Pilatus was" extremely rare. ", Citing the standard International Biblical Encyclopedia.
"Because of the rarity of the Pilatus name, which appears in full, and the fact that only one Pontius Pilatus has ever been Roman governor of Judea, this identification must be considered absolutely certain," writes Mykytiuk.
This certainty that the name Pilate could only designate the prefect of Rome does not seem to be so complete in the case of specialists examining the copper alloy ring. The name is derived from the Latin "pilum" (armed with javelin) and is a Roman cognomen, a kind of nickname given to Roman citizens that is transmitted in a patrilineal way. There is, however, no other proof of this name in the province of Judea before and during the reign of Pilate.
For writers, the man described in historical texts such as Josephus, "Antiquities and Wars"; Tacitus, "Annals"; Philo, "From Legatione ad Gaium" and the New Testament would not have worn such a simple ring.
"Simple all-metal rings, such as the Herodium ring, were mostly owned by soldiers, Herodian and Roman officials, as well as middle-income people from all trades and professions," they write. "It is therefore unlikely that Pontius Pilate, the powerful and wealthy prefect of Judea, wore a thin brbad alloy ring."
Aerial view of the Herodian northwest of the Fortress-Mountain Palace (courtesy of G. Foerster, via the Hebrew University)
The authors offer some suggestions, including other men called "Pilatus" in the early Roman era. Similarly, the name may have referred to people under Pilate's historic command, to a member of his family his released slaves, "they write.
"It is conceivable, write the authors, that this ring of a Jewish royal site may have belonged to a local individual, either a Jew, a Roman or another pagan protector named Pilatus.
They concluded that they did not belong to the Roman prefect himself.
Porat offers another possibility, however. And if, perhaps, Pilate had a gold ring for ceremonial tasks and a simple copper ring for everyday use?
"There is no way to prove the theory 100% and everyone can have their own opinion," said Porat. Anyway, "it's a beautiful story and it's interesting to understand."
[ad_2]
Source link
