A 1,500-year-old seal with the image of the seven-branched Temple Menorah has been discovered near the city of Acre.

The ceramic stamp, which dates from the Byzantine period in the 6th century CE, was found during ongoing Israel Antiquities Authority excavations at Horbat Uza, east of Acre, which are being undertaken before the construction of the Acre-Carmiel railroad track.

It is thought the stamp was used to mark baked goods, and is known as a “bread stamp.”

“A number of stamps bearing an image of a menorah are known from different collections. The Temple Menorah, being a Jewish symbol par excellence, indicates the stamps belonged to Jews, unlike Christian bread stamps with the cross pattern which were much more common in the Byzantine period,” said Gilad Jaffe and Dr. Danny Syon, the directors of the excavation, on behalf of the Israel Antiquities Authority.

“The stamp is important because it proves that a Jewish community existed in the settlement of Uza in the Christian-Byzantine period. The presence of a Jewish settlement so close to Acre—a region that was definitely Christian at this time—constitutes an innovation in archaeological research,” Syon said.

“Due to the geographical proximity of Horbat Uza to Acre, we can speculate that the settlement supplied kosher baked goods to the Jews of Acre in the Byzantine period,” Jaffe and Syon added.

Horbat Uza is a small rural settlement where other archaeological finds, a Shabbat lamp and jars with menorah patterns painted on them, have alluded to it having been a Jewish settlement.

-www.haaretz.com, 10 January 2012




The discovery is considered extraordinary, as it highlights the presence of Jewish culture in that area. Israeli archeologists, often under political pressure, continue to document Jewish presence over all the territory under Israeli control. Actually, they are in a hurry. 

What seems strange is the fact that Israel must fervently search for archaeological evidence to prove to the world that the territory of the Promised Land is Jewish. The Babylonians, Persians, Greeks and Romans have no need of proving their presence during the time of their expansion. There are ample buildings and ruins testifying to their historical presence. 

But Israel is different. The people and the land experienced the fulfillment of the words found in Ezekiel 12:19-20, “And say unto the people of the land, Thus saith the Lord GOD of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and of the land of Israel; They shall eat their bread with carefulness, and drink their water with astonishment, that her land may be desolate from all that is therein, because of the violence of all them that dwell therein. And the cities that are inhabited shall be laid waste, and the land shall be desolate; and ye shall know that I am the LORD.”

(For more on the Jewish right to Jerusalem, read Why Jerusalem Is Jewish, Item 1070.)


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