The previously-reported discovery of a stone cup with an inscription dating from the 1st century A.D. is covered by National Geographic. The inscription is proving quite difficult to decipher.
“These were common stone mugs that appear in all Jewish households” of the time, said lead excavator Shimon Gibson of the University of North Carolina.
“But this is the first time an inscription has been found on a stone vessel” of this type.
Deciphering the writing could provide a window into daily life or religious ritual in Jerusalem around the time of Jesus Christ.
Working on historic Mount Zion—site of King David’s tomb and the Last Supper—the archaeologists found the cup near a ritual pool this summer. The dig site is in what had been an elite residential area near the palace of King Herod the Great, who ruled Israel shortly before the birth of Jesus.
[…]
What sets the newfound cup apart is its inscription, which is still sharply etched but so far impossible to understand.
Similar to intentionally enigmatic writing in the Dead Sea Scrolls, the cup’s script appears to be a secret code, written in a mixture of Hebrew and Aramaic, the two written languages used in Jerusalem at the time.
“They wrote it intending it to be cryptic,” Gibson said.
In hopes the script can be deciphered, Gibson’s team is sharing pictures of the cup with experts on the writing of the period. The researchers also plan to post detailed photos of the cup and its inscriptions online soon.
One thing the team is sure of, though, is that whoever inscribed the cup had something big in mind—and didn’t want just anyone to know.
“They could be instructions on how to use [the cup], could have incantations or curses. But it’s not going to be something mundane like a shopping list.”
The complete article is here and it includes a nice photograph (enlarged here). A friend of mine dug this cup out of the dirt, but as with all excavations, the credit goes to the archaeologists, not to the laborers, and you’ll never see his name in print. The official excavation website is here.
HT: Paleojudaica
