While we often speak of the “Persian Period” in Jerusalem in the context of the mid-6th to mid-4th centuries BCE, from the return from the Babylonian exile under Cyrus, and the reconstruction of the city under Ezra and Nehemiah until the toppling of the Persian Achaemenid empire by Alexander the Great, it is exceptionally rare to find artifacts from Jerusalem’s “Second Persian Period,” the brief 14-year window of Sassanid rule between 614 and 628 CE. A few dramatic discoveries from this period include the Ophel menorah medallion, likely intended as an ornament for a Torah scroll, and the “House of Menorot”, where a Christian cross was plastered over to reclaim the space. We also have the tragic evidence of the conquest’s violence found in the Byzantine mass graves at Mamilla, a somber reminder of the 614 CE siege.And now this Sasanian-era animal seal.
(Sassanian is an alternative spelling.)
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