Rare Ancient Golden Bell Discovered in Jerusalem

Bridges For Peace (Link) - BFP Israel Mosaic Radio - Joshua Spurlock (July 25, 2011)

A small golden bell�that was apparently originally sown on to the clothing of a high official in Jerusalem roughly 2000-years-ago and bring to mind the Biblical priestly garments�has been discovered in an archaeological excavation. According to an Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) press release, the rare gold bell has a small loop on its end and is presumed to have come from the edge of a garment. In the Bible, Exodus 28:33 describes the robe of the high priest: �Upon its hem you shall make pomegranates of blue, purple, and scarlet, all around its hem, and bells of gold between them all around.�

The IAA press release said of the possible connection of the discovered bell to the priesthood, �It is impossible to know for certain if the bell did indeed belong to one of the high priests; however, the possibility should not be entirely discounted.�

The bell itself was discovered during an archaeological excavation of a drainage tunnel that runs from the Shiloah Pool (Pool of Siloam beneath the City of David) to near the Western Wall. In the region of the excavation, back during the Second Temple Period (first century AD), there was a main road above the channel, which was linked with a bridge, known today as Robinson�s Arch, that led up to the Temple Mount.

The incident appears to be an expensive and long-lasting case of lost and found. The IAA press release said that �apparently, the high official was walking in the Jerusalem street in the vicinity of Robinson�s Arch and lost the gold bell that fell from his garment into the drainage channel beneath the road.�

According to comments in the press release from the excavation directors, archaeologists Eli Shukron and Professor Ronny Reich of Haifa University, �It seems the bell was sewn on the garment worn by a high official in Jerusalem at the end of the Second Temple period. The bell was exposed inside Jerusalem�s main drainage channel at that time, among the layers of earth that had accumulated along the bottom of it.

�This drainage channel was built and hewn the length of the Western Wall of the Temple Mount on the bottom of the slope descending to the Tyropoeon Valley. This drainage channel conveyed rainwater from different parts of the city, by way of the City of David and the Shiloah Pool, to Nahal Kidron [Kidron Valley].�

The excavations are being done on behalf of the IAA in cooperation with the Nature and Parks Authority and the Ir David Foundation. �