by Karen Faulkner, Worthy News Correspondent
(Worthy News) – Archaeologists excavating in Jerusalem announced last week that they unearthed a rare 1,700-year-old oil lamp with a clearly defined Jewish Temple Menorah engraving on it, Crosswalk reports.
Experts have said discovery of the lamp is all the more remarkable as little evidence has been uncovered of Jewish life in Jerusalem from the third to the fifth centuries, after Roman Emperor Hadrian suppressed the Bar Kochba rebellion and expelled Jews from the city in 135 AD.
Announcing the find on Thursday December 26, the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) said the ancient lamp is believed to be a “Beit Nattif-type” named after an ancient workshop unearthed nearly 100 years ago near Bet Shemesh, a town west of Jerusalem.
“Oil lamps with menorah decorations are exceedingly rare, and only a few similar Beit Nattif-type lamps can be found in the National Treasures archive, IAA research archaeologist Benjamin Storchan said in a statement.
“The choice of symbols on the lamp is not accidental. This is a fascinating testimony connecting everyday objects and faiths among ancient Jerusalem’s inhabitants. It seems that the lamp belonged to a Jew, who purchased it because of its religious affiliation and memorial to the Temple,” Storchan explained.
“It is evident that the lamp maker dedicated a great deal of time and effort to its decoration,” Storchan added. “The molds were made in two parts (upper and lower). To create the lamp, the potter pressed the clay into the molds and then pressed them together. Finally, the vessel was fired, and it could be used. This method of producing lamps in molds allowed for refined designs, as well as the addition of delicate and intricate decorations,” he said.
Copyright 1999-2025 Worthy News. This article was originally published on Worthy News and was reproduced with permission.
Latest News from Worthy News
A leading Dutch Jewish voice and longtime politician has filed a police complaint against the British punk-rap duo Bob Vylan, after the band’s frontman appeared to urge violence against Jews and to celebrate the recent assassination of born-again Christian influencer Charlie Kirk during a controversial concert in Amsterdam.
President Donald Trump announced Tuesday that the Republican Party will host the first-ever Midterm National Convention in 2026, an unprecedented move in U.S. political history.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee on Monday formally opened the restored Pilgrimage Road in Jerusalem’s City of David, the ancient thoroughfare once used by Jewish worshipers ascending to the Temple Mount during the Second Temple era.
A pastor in Southern California was shot and killed inside his home, authorities and church members said, shocking a close-knit evangelical community in the rural town of Ramona east of the city of San Diego near the U.S.–Mexico border.
Ukraine says Russia’s military has bombarded the southern city of Zaporizhzhia with rockets overnight, killing one person and wounding 13 people, including two children, while another person died and several were injured elsewhere in the country.
The United States and the United Kingdom are set to unveil a wave of major nuclear energy agreements during President Donald Trump’s state visit to Britain this week, in what both governments are calling the start of a “golden age” of nuclear power.
Archaeologists in Turkey have uncovered a 2,050-year-old Roman council hall etched with early Christian carvings, offering fresh historical insight into the biblical church of Laodicea–one of the seven congregations addressed in the Book of Revelation.