by Karen Faulkner, Worthy News Correspondent
(Worthy News)— Researchers working near the Temple Mount in Jerusalem have uncovered a 2,000-year-old clay token they believe may have been used by Jewish pilgrims to exchange for offerings during visits to the Biblical Second Temple before it was destroyed by the Romans in 70 AD, Christian Headlines reports.
The token was discovered by the Temple Mount Sifting Project, an organization that is sifting through more than 9,000 tons of dirt that was dumped in the Kidron Valley following illegal renovations carried out by the Northern Branch of the Islamic Movement at the Temple Mount in 1999.
“[The token] depicts a wine jar, aligning with the Mishnaic text that discusses ‘nesachim,’ a term for the wine libation poured on the Temple altar and also used to refer generally to all the offering components,” the archaeologists said in a statement.
“It is plausible that this token was intended for Greek-speaking pilgrims, possibly including Jews from the diaspora.”
The researchers noted that the Jewish Mishna “confirms the presence of Greek writing in the Temple, noting in another chapter of Tractate Shekalim (3:2) that baskets in the treasury chamber were marked with Greek letters.”
The token is inscribed with the word ‘Doulês,’ the name of its owner, Christian Headlines reports. “This name was common in Thrace, Macedonia, and the northern regions of the Black Sea, areas where Jews had settled by the late Hellenistic-Early Roman periods,” the researchers said.
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