UPDATE: ARCHEOLOGIST REVISES READ OF ANCIENT SEAL INSCRIPTION

Archeologist revises read of ancient seal inscription (JPost)
A prominent Israeli archeologist said Monday that she has revised her reading of an inscription on ancient seal uncovered in an archeological excavation in Jerusalem's City of David after various scholars around the world critiqued her original interpretation of the name on the seal.

The 2,500 year-old black stone seal was found last month amid stratified layers of debris in the excavation under way just outside the Old City walls near the Dung Gate, said archeologist Dr. Eilat Mazar, who is leading the dig.

Mazar had originally read the name on the seal as "Temech," and suggested that it belonged to the family of that name mentioned in the Book of Nehemiah.

But after the find was first reported in The Jerusalem Post, various epigraphers around the world said Mazar had erred by reading the inscription on the seal straight on (from right to left) rather than backwards (from left to right), as a result of the fact that a seal creates a mirror image when used to inscribe a piece of clay.

The critics, including the European scholar Peter van der Veen, as well as the epigrapher Ryan Byrne, co-director of the Tel Dan excavations, suggested in Internet blogs that the correct reading of the seal is actually "Shlomit," also a biblical name.

SEE: FIRST TEMPLE SEAL FOUND 

FIRST TEMPLE SEAL FOUND

First Temple Seal Found in Jerusalem- Etgar Lefkovits (Jerusalem Post)
A stone seal bearing the name of one of the families who acted as servants in the First Temple and then returned to Jerusalem after being exiled to Babylonia has been uncovered in an archeological excavation in Jerusalem's City of David, Israeli archeologist Dr. Eilat Mazar said Wednesday.

The 2,500-year-old black stone seal, engraved with the name "Temech," was found this week in an excavation just outside the Old City walls near the Dung Gate.

ANCIENT JEWISH ARTIFACTS FOUND IN RUSSIA

Ancient Jewish artifacts found in Russia (JTA)
Ancient artifacts bearing Judaic symbols were found in a southern Russia city.

The five stone fragments unearthed in Volograd bear Stars of David as well as inscriptions in Hebrew.

Archaeologists passed the fragments on to a local synagogue. One inscription reads "Remember Torah" and another contains the commandments "Don't kill" and "Don't steal," according to Vologograd Chief Rabbi Zalman Joffe.

Local scientists date the findings to the early 1900s, when the town of Tsaritsyn existed on the lands occupied by contemporary Volgograd. Between 1924 and 1961 the town was renamed Stalingrad, and in 1961 was given its current name. It now has a population of 1 million.

Stalingrad was destroyed in a battle between Soviet and German armies in the fall of 1942. Only a handful of buildings remained intact, including the main city's synagogue erected in the beginning of the 20th century.

Valentina Serebryanaya, a professor at the Volgograd Architecture and Construction Institute, told JTA that architect Sergei Sena discovered the fragments during excavations where an old merchant's house razed during fighting in 1942 had stood. The destroyed building housed a Jewish school in Tsaritsyn at the turn of 20th century, according to Serebryanaya.

12TH CENTURY JEWISH GRAVESTONES FOUND IN GERMANY

Ancient gravestones a ‘sensation’ (Jewish Bulletin)
Jewish gravestones from as early as the 12th century were found in southwest Germany. Some 20 Jewish gravestones were found during excavations for planned housing construction next to the wall of the old Jewish cemetery in the community of Mainz. The stones are among the oldest ever found in the Rheinland-Pfalz region, experts said. Construction plans have been halted pending a decision from the Berlin-based Orthodox Rabbinical Council.

An on-site meeting held recently included representatives of the Jewish community, the city, the rabbinical conference, landmarks preservationists and construction foremen. Jewish studies expert Andreas Lehnardt of Mainz told a German news agency that the find was a “sensation” and some of the stones included the names of famous learned rabbis.

TURKEY RETURNS 2,700 OLD ARTIFACT TO ISRAEL

Hezekiah Inscription to Return to Israel - Jay Bushinsky
An ancient inscription memorializing Jerusalem's salvation from Assyrian invaders 2,700 years ago is to be returned to the Holy Land from Turkey for study and public display. Israel has been trying for about 20 years to recover the artifact. As Assyrian forces under King Sennacherib were about to march on Jerusalem, a defiant King Hezekiah ordered the construction of a tunnel connecting the city to the Gihon Spring outside its walls, ensuring a source of drinking water. An inscription inside the tunnel described the dramatic moment when stonecutters working from either end converged in the middle. Ottoman Turkish authorities shipped the inscription to Istanbul where it has been kept in the Museum of the Ancient East near the Topkapi Palace. (Washington Times)

ISRAEL SEEKS RETURN OF ANCIENT TABLET FROM TURKEY

Jerusalem Seeks Return of Ancient Tablet - Matti Friedman
Jerusalem's mayor, Uri Lupolianski, has asked the Turkish government to return a 2,700-year-old tablet uncovered in an ancient subterranean passage in the city, as a "gesture of goodwill" between allies. Known as the Siloam inscription, the tablet was found in a tunnel hewed to channel water from a spring outside Jerusalem's walls into the city around 700 BCE - a project mentioned in the Old Testament's Book of Chronicles. It was discovered in 1880 and taken by the Ottoman rulers to Istanbul, where it is now in the Istanbul Archaeology Museum. (AP/Washington Post)

RECOVERING JEWISH ARTIFACTS FROM EUROPE

The hair on Pharaoh's head (JPost)
Jews should learn from Egypt's example in fighting to reclaim its ancestral heritage. Shouldn't the Vatican and European museums who snagged these artifacts through dubious means return them to the Jewish people, asks Michael Freund.

VARIOUS JEWISH historical relics, such as ancient Hebrew manuscripts, incunabula and religious items, now grace the galleries and storehouses of museums worldwide, when their rightful place is here at home, in the Jewish state. Yet hardly anything is being done to retrieve them.

The Vatican, for example, is said to have the largest repository of Hebrew manuscripts in the world, accumulated over the centuries as a result of church-inspired pogroms and persecutions. These include early medieval copies of the works of Maimonides and Rabbi Jacob ben Asher, along with some of the earliest-known illuminated copies of the Bible.

These treasures are Jewish in content, in history and in origin, and many were ripped from the hands of their owners just moments before their massacre, forced conversion or expulsion. Why they should these stolen pieces of our heritage now sit abandoned in a Vatican basement rather than being returned to their rightful owners, the Jewish people? And how about the 14th century rimonim, the decorative silver ornaments known in English as finials which are placed on the wooden staves of a Torah scroll, that currently sit in the La Seu Cathedral in Spain's Palma de Majorca? What does it say about our sense of national pride that we allow these sacred religious objects to be displayed in a Catholic church?

Similarly, there is hardly a major museum in all of Europe that does not have a collection of Jewish artifacts, at least some of which were surely obtained through dubious historical circumstances. Shouldn't we be fighting to get them back? Egypt, by contrast, has not remained silent over the fate of its national heritage. Indeed, in recent years, Egyptian antiquities officials have been waging a vigorous campaign aimed at regaining the country's countless relics that were pilfered over the centuries by various European explorers, scientists, archeologists and museums.