Teen finds 1,800-year-old ring featuring Minerva, Roman goddess of battle
Yair Whitestone, 13, found ring while hiking near Haifa with reservist dad, was commended for turning it over to Antiquities Authority; goddess was ‘very popular’ in Land of Israel
A nearly 2,000-year-old ring engraved with the image of Minerva, the Roman goddess of wisdom and battle — known to the Greeks as Athena — was found on Mount Carmel, near Haifa, the Israel Antiquities Authority said on Wednesday.
Yair Whitestone, 13, of Haifa, discovered the ring near an ancient quarry site below the mountain’s Khirbet Shalala while hiking with his father, the IAA said. The boy’s family contacted an inspector from the IAA’s theft prevention unit, who transferred the ring to the National Treasures Department.
Whitestone was commended for good citizenship, and he and his family were treated to a private tour of the Jay and Jeanie Schottenstein National Campus for the Archaeology of Israel in Jerusalem, where the ring will be displayed.
“While hiking I noticed a small green item and picked it up. It was corroded, and at first I thought it was just a rusty bolt,” said Whitestone. “I thought about heating it, but then, fortunately, I understood it was a ring. At home, I saw it had an image on it. At first glance, I thought it was a warrior.”
IAA inspector Nir Distelfeld determined that the ring, which appeared to be made of bronze, was from the second and third centuries CE, during the Late Roman Period.
He gave several possibilities for its provenance: It may have belonged to a girl or woman who lived on the farm at Khirbet Shalala, or fallen from a worker at the nearby rock quarry. Alternatively, it may have served as an offering at the nearby burial sites.
“On this beautiful ring, preserved in its entirety, is the image of a helmeted naked figure,” said Distelfeld. “In one hand she holds a shield, and a spear in the other,” he said, adding that Whitestone’s identification of the figure as a warrior was “very close to reality.”
“The figure is, apparently, the goddess Minerva from Roman mythology, also known as Athena in Greek mythology,” said Distelfeld, noting that she was “very popular during the Roman period in the Land of Israel.”
Roman, and later Byzantine, dominion over the Land of Israel lasted until the Muslim conquests of the 7th century.
