As if every find in the ancient capital of the Jewish nation was not extraordinary, a new discovery might just have the honor of being the find of the decade. When archaeology can turn preconceived beliefs on their head and confirm biblical accounts, it deserves that title and this find has done just that. The relics, a collection of ivory plaques from the First Temple era in unique in that nothing like them has ever been seen before, anywhere in the world.

These Ivories from that holy period are the only ones to be discovered in the world with the level of detail and craftsmanship - and certainly the first of its kind in Jerusalem. They were discovered by the excavations of a parking lot funded by the Antiquities Authority and Tel Aviv University in the National Park adjacent to the walls of Jerusalem.

The ivories, considered in the ancient world to be one of the most valuable raw materials - even more than gold, were found among the ruins of a large governmental structure, which operated during the period when Jerusalem reached the peak of its power (8th and 7th centuries BC). Ivory was mentioned in the Bible, however to date, no ivory relics have been found in Jerusalem from that far back, and until now it was thought that ivory was simply not in ancient Israel depiste the Bible verses claiming that they were. The find and the carbon dating show that as small and isolated as Israel was at the time, it was part of an international trading society not thought to have existed in the Judean kingdom back then.

In first, ivory panels mentioned in Bible found in Jerusalem https://t.co/ACxOY9CdXq

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According to the researchers, the decorated ivories were placed in wooden furniture, which was used by the occupants of the building which the researchers believe were people who had significant means, influence, and power; the hypothesis is that these people were most likely ministers or priests. The rare items will be presented at the 23rd City of David Research Conference. Also, the findings will be presented at the Jerusalem conference of the Antiquities Authority, which will take place in October.

According to the excavation managers, Prof. Yuval Gadot from the Department of Archeology and Ancient Near Eastern Cultures at Tel Aviv University and Dr. Yiftach Shalu from the Antiquities Authority, "Until today, we only knew decorated ivories from the capitals of the great kingdoms during the First Temple period, such as Nimrod, the capital of Assyria, or Samaria, which was the capital of the kingdom Israel. Now, for the first time, the Judean capital of Jerusalem also joins these cities.”

“The importance and centrality of Jerusalem in the area during the days of the First Temple was already known, but the new find illustrates to us how important it was, and places it in the same line as the capitals of Assyria and Israel. The exposure of the ivories constitutes another layer in the understanding of the political and economic status of the city, as part of the global administration and economy system."

🧵Archaeologists have found the remains of luxury items appearing in the Tanakh. These are tiny ivory panels that would have been embedded on wooden furniture of the high and mighty during the First Temple period in ancient Jerusalem. They were found south of the Temple Mount. pic.twitter.com/9S8rL0KCcd

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The impressive structure inside which the ivories were discovered was destroyed by a large fire, apparently during the Babylonian destruction of Jerusalem in 586 BCE, and the ivories were discovered crushed into tiny, burnt pieces.

Only at the end of a unique and painstaking restoration process, which was supervised by curator Orna Cohen, together with Ilan Noor from the Antiquities Authority, were the panels reassembled, and the quality of the assemblage revealed.

The ivories were “small square plates (about 5 cm by 5 cm and 0.5 cm thick at the most), which were originally embedded inside the wooden furniture," Cohen and Naor said.

‘Rare ivory plaques dating back thousands of years to Solomon's Temple and are believed to have been part of a throne have been unearthed in Jerusalem.’ https://t.co/S9yKl8oe0s

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The decorations on most of the ivories are uniform, and include a frame on which roses are engraved, with a stylized tree in the center. Other panels were decorated with lotus flowers and a geometric pattern.

According to Dr. Ido Koch and Reli Avishar of Tel Aviv University, who studied the representations, the rose and the tree were popular symbols in the visual repertoire in Mesopotamia and other cultural centers. Ivory items with similar decorations were discovered in the ivory collection of Samaria, and in more distant palaces such as Nimrod and Horsbad, in the heart of the Assyrian empire. The adoption of these symbols by the elite in Judea (Judah) took place while the kingdom was under the rule of the Assyrian Empire (starting from the 2nd half of the 8th century BC).