Discovery · c. 600 BCE

The silver amulets of Ketef Hinnom

Ketef Hinnom, Jerusalem

Age of TeachersDifferent paths
A wider world

The moment

Illustration · AI-generated: artistic, not documentary.

Two tiny rolled sheets of silver, worn as amulets and buried with their owners in a burial cave, carry words close to the priestly blessing of Numbers 6. Most scholars date them to just before the Babylonian destruction of Jerusalem, which makes them the oldest known objects bearing a text found in the Hebrew Bible, centuries older than the Dead Sea Scrolls.

People: Gabriel Barkay

↑
Explore the atlas
↑ ↓ to explore   ·   Enter to open   ·   Esc to close