Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of the Treasure Beaches Report.
Discovering a symbol of Jewish faith within an excavation of Jerusalem typically wouldn’t prompt much surprise, but archaeologists recently made an exceedingly rare find during an excavation of the Temple Mount in the form of a lead pendant decorated with a menorah. The 1,300-year-old pendant, only the second like it ever found in the world, is dated to the Late Byzantine period, from the sixth to the early seventh century C.E., found left in Jerusalem in a time Jews were prohibited from the site.
The piece was located during archaeological excavation in the Davidson Archaeological Park of Jerusalem under 26 feet of fill that piled up as part of construction activities during the creation of an Islamic monument at the beginning of the eighth century....
The disc-shaped pendant features a loop at the top, likely so it could be worn as a necklace. The identical menorah—each one has three arms on either side of the central shaft, a horizontal crossbar at the top of each arm, and flames—fits inside a circular frame. The researchers said that one side was well-preserved, while the other had a high level of patina. Analytical laboratory testing confirmed the pendent is 99 percent lead....
During the Byzantine period, Jews were prohibited form entering Jerusalem, leading to questions about how the pendant could have made its way to the temple area. The experts surmise the pendant could have come from a secret pilgrim entering the city under unofficial circumstances, or from a Jew visiting on an administrative mission or as a merchant....
Here is the link for the rest of that article.
Archaeologists found a rare pendant beneath a temple. It shouldn’t have been there.
Things are occasionally found in unexpected places, which leaves you with a bit of a mystery to be solved.
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On Thursday, Dec. 11, the United States Mint unveiled imagery showcasing the one-year-only designs of its semiquincentennial circulating coins for 2026. As part of the year-long celebrations of the nation’s 250th anniversary, the Mint is producing an updated cent and nickel and completely new versions of the dime, half dollar, and five quarters recognizing the Mayflower Compact, the Revolutionary War, the Declaration of Independence, the U.S. Constitution, and the Gettysburg Address — three of them replacing earlier proposed themes.
Oi Vey! I know that isn't the standard English spelling, but its close and expresses my feeling when I catch a segment of the long-running "reality" treasure show on the same channel as Ancient Aliens (another TV show that evokes similar sentiments). Could it be that drunken ancient shipwrecked aliens that look like the one-eyed lead cross created the tunnels?
What I love most about the treasure program is the humor. Every find is followed by something like WOW! It's a --- . Sure it is.
Besides the humorous conclusions, the program astoundingly avoids any acknowledgement of actual local history. For example, they for some reason, they never mention the indigenous peoples that inhabited the area or the Acadians or the rich gold mining history of Nova Scotia despite the actual archaeological dig that is being conducted on the island. The avoidance seems too blatant to be accidental. Perhaps it would provide a distraction from the central narrative of the program.
And you have to have a short memory. Whatever happened to the ship's spike and planking from the treasure ship conjectured to be buried in the swamp? Could it be... (to repeat once again that famous and oft repeated phrase) that it wasn't a ship's spike at all, but maybe something like a railroad spike? There was a lot of talk about that spike at one point in the program, but has faded aways, like many other now forgotten BIG finds.
Or, remember the "gold" object in the water-filled void? What happened with that?
Or Josephine's jewels that looked more like a plated piece of junk jewelry.
But the program does teach you to mark your finds with flags so when you happen to run aimlessly across the same spot with your metal detector you can recognize that you've been there before.
I figured they'd want to be somewhat systematic about their searches, but that doesn't seem to be the case. I'd think that after all these years the entire searchable area could have been systematically and thoroughly detected. There seems to be no search pattern for the metal detecting other than wondering around aimlessly. I can't tell though, because I'm sure there is a lot of editing. It don't think the search strategy can be as bad as it looks. I would have thought that GPS would have been used, but it doesn't look that way when a flag marking a previous find is the sign that tells you that you've been there before. But that could be an artifact of program production so select finds can be dug and pinpointed for the camera.
At least there is the humor to make viewing the program more tolerable when trying to outwait a commercial interruption on a program of more interest.
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| Surf Chart from SurfGuru.com. |
A six foot surf can be of some help if everything else is right, although I doubt it will help beach conditions much. The tides aren't huge.
Christmas is getting close.
Good hunting,
Treasureguide@comcast.net