Digs at Jerusalem’s City of David archaeological site have turned up an “exceptionally well-preserved” 2,300-year-old gold ring thought to have belonged to a boy or girl living in the area during the Hellenistic period.
The piece of jewelry, which is “made of gold and set with a red gemstone that appears to be a garnet,” has “neither rusted nor suffered any other damage from time,” the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) announced on Monday.
“I was sifting earth through a screen and suddenly saw something glitter,” Tehiya Gangate, a member of the City of David excavation team, said in a statement. “I immediately shouted, ‘I found a ring, I found a ring!’ Within seconds, everyone had gathered around me, and there was great excitement.”
“This is an emotionally moving find, not the kind you find every day,” she added. “In truth, I always wanted to find gold jewelry, and I am very happy this dream came true – literally a week before I went on maternity leave.”
The Israel Antiquities Authority says the ring was “recently found in the joint Israel Antiquities Authority-Tel Aviv University excavation in the City of David, part of the Jerusalem Walls National Park, with the support of the Elad Foundation.”
It will be put on display to the public in early June during Jerusalem Day.
“The ring is very small. It would fit a woman’s pinky or a young girl or boy’s finger,” the IAA cited Dr. Yiftah Shalev and Riki Zalut Har-Tov, Israel Antiquities Authority Excavation Directors, as saying.
Tel Aviv University Professor Yuval Gadot and excavator Efrat Bocher added that, “The recently found gold ring joins other ornaments of the Hellenistic period found in the City of David excavations, including the horned-animal earring and the decorated gold bead.”
“Whereas in the past we found only a few structures and finds from this era, and therefore many scholars assumed Jerusalem was then a small town, limited to the top of the southeastern slope (“City of David”) and with relatively very few resources, these new finds tell a different story: The aggregate of revealed structures now constitutes an entire neighborhood,” they said.
“They attest to both domestic and public buildings, and that the city extended from the hilltop westward. The character of the buildings – and now, of course, the gold finds and other discoveries, shows the city’s healthy economy and even its elite status. It certainly seems that the city’s residents were open to the widespread Hellenistic style and influences common also in the eastern Mediterranean Basin,” the researchers added.
The IAA says “Gold jewelry was well-known in the Hellenistic world, from the reign of Alexander the Great onward” as “his conquests helped spread and transport luxury goods and products.”