The reason why young girls were buried in Jerusalem during the Roman era and were ornamented with priceless gold jewelry has led researchers to this conclusion.
According to a Monday statement from the Israel Antiquities Authority, the spectacular jewelry discovered in a burial cave in Jerusalem was worn 1,800 years ago as amulets to ward off evil.
On Monday, the 48th Annual Archaeological Conference in Israel will hold its first public presentation of the jewelry in Jerusalem.
In an excavation whose findings were not previously disclosed, the jewels were first found in 1971.
On Mount Scopus in Jerusalem, the remains of a lead coffin were discovered, together with jewelry that included gold earrings, a hairpin, a pendant, and gold beads, as well as glass and carnelian gold beads.
The jewels were recently discovered as part of the Israel Antiquities Authority’s Publishing of Previous Excavations Initiative, a campaign to make previously unpublished historical digs more widely known.
Ayelet Dayan, the project’s leader, believes that finding the original reports that had been collecting dust in the Israel Antiquities Authority archives over the years and physically locating the objects’ locations have revealed long-lost gems.
“One example of such riches is the lovely jewelry we studied.”
Dayan, Ayelet Gruber, and Yuval Baruch of the Israel Antiquities Authority, who researched the jewelry, think that the extremely priceless items, which bear the symbols of Luna, the Roman moon goddess, accompanied the girls during their lifetime and were buried with them to continue protecting them in the afterlife.
Their investigation found two gold earrings with a similar design in 1975 during a different Mount of Olives dig.
According to the experts, the girl appeared to have been interred with an expensive collection of gold jewelry that included earrings, a chain with a pendant named after the goddess Lunula, and a hairpin.
These jewelry pieces are typical of young female burials and are well-known in the Roman world. They may provide proof of the identities of those interred at these locations.
Once the Second Temple was destroyed and the Jews were forced to leave, a mixed population moved into late Roman Jerusalem, now known as Aelia Capitolina.
Individuals immigrated to the city from various regions of the Roman Empire, bringing their distinctive values, customs, and beliefs. The city’s new residents practiced an extensive and diverse pantheon of pagan gods.
Director of the Antiquities Authority Eli Escusido said: “The interring of the jewelry with the young girl is heartwarming. One can imagine that the girl’s parents or relatives parted ways with her while she was wearing the jewelry or, more likely, with it resting by her side, reflecting on the protection it would bring in the afterlife.
Regardless of culture or time era, everyone can relate to the impulse to protect one’s children in this very human circumstance.
The Israel Antiquities Authority, the Israel Exploration Society, and the Israel Archaeological Association are responsible for organizing the Archaeological Congress.
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