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.
Copyright 1999-2026 Worthy News. This article was originally published on Worthy News and was reproduced with permission.
Latest News from Worthy News
Newly declassified FBI records released by the White House detail what officials describe as a years-long Chinese intelligence effort to penetrate American political circles through sexual relationships, campaign donations, and strategically placed interns.
President Donald Trump’s Board of Peace is considering a significant overhaul of its Gaza disarmament framework after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected a plan that would have linked Hamas weapons handovers to phased Israeli troop withdrawals, according to an exclusive report by The Times of Israel.
Iran’s rulers were quietly preparing for a broader and potentially prolonged Middle East war even as Tehran publicly engaged in diplomatic efforts with the United States, according to an exclusive investigation by The Wall Street Journal.
U.S. President Donald J. Trump announced Sunday that he had ordered the Pentagon to “substantially reduce” military exercises with key regional ally South Korea, citing his “very good relationship” with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and Seoul’s refusal to assist Washington in its confrontation with Iran.
Rescue teams in eastern Indonesia recovered six more bodies Sunday following a powerful magnitude 7.7 earthquake, raising the death toll to at least 53 as Christians prayed for victims and rescuers struggled to reach isolated communities.
The U.S. Department of Defense is introducing a course centered on Christianity and Western civilization this fall in the schools it operates for military families, while casting Islam as a threat to both.
New York’s Jewish community was reeling Sunday as a judge ordered a man held on bail after prosecutors said he admitted to disrupting Shabbat services at Manhattan’s Central Synagogue and assaulting two people there.