An impressive limestone capital decorated with menorahs (Jewish ritual candelabras) unearthed in Jerusalem and dating from a period when Jews were barred by the Romans from living in the holy city will be on display for the first time on Independence Day, the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) announced Tuesday.

The artifact was discovered in 2020 during excavations ahead of constructions in the Motza neighborhood at the city’s entrance. It lay upside down in the room of a Byzantine structure dating to the 6th or 7th centuries CE. Experts believe the capital is more ancient and was repurposed for the building in what is known as “secondary use.”

“It seems this capital stood atop a column in a magnificent building or on a street, in a late Roman period settlement here (2nd-4th Centuries CE),” IAA excavation managers Dr. Uzi Ad and Anna Eirich said in a statement.

In the first half of the second century, after the major Jewish uprising against the Romans that became known as the Bar Kochba revolt, Jerusalem was destroyed, and no Jew was allowed to remain in the city or its surroundings.

“From its local context and finds, this settlement was apparently populated by descendants of Roman army retirees,” the statement said. “If so, what was a capital with a menorah decoration on it doing here, of all places........

© The Times of Israel