Ivory plaques from First-Temple Jerusalem

DECORATIVE ART: First-Temple Period Decorated Ivories Found in City of David. (David Israel, The Jewish Press).

An extraordinary treasure was unearthed in Jerusalem: ivory plaques from the First Temple period, the first of their kind to be found in Jerusalem. They were discovered in the excavations of the Israel Antiquities Authority and Tel Aviv University at the Givati Parking Lot in the City of David at the Jerusalem Walls National Park, funded by the City of David Foundation.

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The ivories will be on display next Tuesday, September 13, at the 23rd Conference of the City of David Studies of Ancient Jerusalem. They will also be displayed in October at the Jerusalem Conference of the IAA, Tel Aviv University, and the Hebrew University.

The article mentions that the site also produced residue of ancient vanilla-flavored wine. More on that here. For more on ancient ivory plaques in the Middle East, see here.

For more on the Nathan-Melech bulla, also discovered there, see the links here. And follow the links from there (plus here) for additional posts on the many discoveries at the Givati Parking Lot excavation.

UPDATE (6 September): Todd Bolen comments on the story here.

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