[ad_1]
Israel unveiled on Tuesday a stone pillar engraved with an ancient inscription showing that the spelling of Jerusalem in its current Hebrew form was already commonly used 2,000 years ago.
During construction work in Jerusalem in February, archaeologists unearthed the pillar bearing the inscription "Hananiah, son of Dodalos of Jerusalem," written in Aramaic with letters in Hebrew.
The Hebrew spelling of the city – pronounced Yerushalayim – is the same today.
The name of the city in this form appears only very rarely in the time of the second Jewish temple (first century AD) and usually in religious and political contexts, said David Mevorach of the Museum of Art. Israel, where the stone is now exposed.
The name of the city appears hundreds of times in the Bible, almost always in the form slightly different from Yerushalem and only five times under that of Yerushalayim, said Yuval Baruch of the Authority of Israeli Antiquities.
Yerushalayim is also used on a Jewish coin dating from the time of the Great Revolt against the Romans (66-70 AD).
Identity marker
"This registration is important because it's a daily thing," said Mevorach.
"It's not for religious, messianic or propaganda purposes. He is a person who identifies with the city. "
Mr. Baruch said, "At the present time, we understand that during the second Temple period, some people living in this area of Jerusalem, when they mean, read or spell the name of the city, they use the same way as we use today, Yerushalayim. "
"We understand that the name has a very deep root … This is not something that has been created in the diaspora."
The stone was originally part of a Jewish potter village dating from the 2nd century BCE, near Jerusalem.
The site, which is now in the city, became the ceramic workshop of the 10th Roman legion in the early second century AD. It was the same legion that destroyed Jerusalem and the second Jewish temple in 70 AD.
[ad_2]Source link
