Rare Second Temple-era merchants box displayed at Israel Museum
2,000-year old artifact likely used to display wares in ancient Jerusalem’s pilgrims’ market; burned sides might be from Jewish Revolt fires
Gavriel Fiske is a reporter at The Times of Israel
An unusual, multi-chambered limestone box from the Second Temple period, now on display in the Israel Museum, was likely used to present small items for sale in the pilgrims’ market alongside the main road in ancient Jerusalem, the Israel Antiquities Authority said Tuesday.
The square box, 30 centimeters (1 foot) on a side and thought to be 2,000 years old, is divided into nine internal compartments and was discovered about two years ago “in a destruction layer inside an ancient store dated to the end of the Second Temple period that once stood alongside the Pilgrimage Road in the City of David,” according to a press release. The sides of the box are blackened, indicating that it was burnt “perhaps during events of the Great Jewish Revolt, which ultimately led to the destruction of Jerusalem,” the notice said.
Excavations in the same area have revealed a myriad of objects linked to commercial activities and a busy city market, including glass and ceramic vessels, weights, coins, measuring tools and manufacturing and cooking facilities, a “testament to the flourishing commercial activity that took place alongside the road during the Second Temple period,” the archaeologists said.
The Pilgrimage Road connecting the Siloam Pool to the Temple Mount was the major boulevard in Jerusalem 2,000 years ago. The box was possibly used to display pre-measured goods for sale. A similar box, discovered in fragments in the 1970s, was labeled at the time a “nuts and seeds bowl” by archaeologists, in an educated guess as to what it might have usually contained.
Second Temple Jerusalem would have had economic and commercial activity similar to other cities in the ancient Roman world, with various market areas presenting local, imported and exotic wares. Jerusalem, as a pilgrimage center for Jews, would have had particular specialty items including, perhaps, the stone box.
Thousands of fragments of ancient limestone vessels have been uncovered in Jerusalem. Jewish law indicates that stone vessels cannot become impure, unlike metal or clay, explaining their widespread use in the city.
“It seems that the multi-compartment stone box from the City of David was related to the unique Jerusalem economy conducted in the shadow of the Temple, maintaining strict observance and in accordance with purity laws. Therefore, we can consider this box a distinctly Jerusalem find,” lead archaeologists Dr. Yuval Baruch and Ari Levy said.
The box is currently being shown in the Israel Museum in Jerusalem, a new addition to the Second Temple period display.
