A remarkable financial record dating back 2,000 years was found inscribed on a fraction of a tablet in archeological excavations outside the wall of the Old City of Jerusalem.
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The inscription contained seven lines of letters and numbers and is believed to be a receipt or payment instruction dating to the time of the Second Temple, and ends with the name ‘Shimon’, followed by the Hebrew letter “mem.” (M) understood to represent a coin value and the letter "resh," (R) indicating the value of a quarter.
According to an article published recently in Atiqot, four similar inscriptions were found in the past and documented in a study conducted by Esther Eshel from Bar Ilan University and Nahshon Szanton from the Israel Antiquities Authority.
"The inscription preserves part of a list mentioning proper names and sums of money. Similar lists are known from the Second Temple period, commonly interpreted as payment received or rendered from individuals." Adding that was connected to the ossuary (a burial chest) on which it was inscribed, "perhaps by the ossuary craftsman?"
The latest finding was dug up on the lower levels of the pilgrimage route to ancient Jerusalem and spans 600 meters (1,968 feet) connecting the city gate and the gate to the Temple, in a channel that was excavated in the 19th century by American archeologist Frederick Jones Bliss and his British partner A. C. Dickie who dug along the route. The inscription was found outside its original archeological context but its type of writing and the stone used allowed its accurate dating to the early Roman period.
"Day-to-day lives of residents of Jerusalem 2,000 years ago are illustrated by such simple artifacts," researchers said. "The apparent list of names and numbers on their own are not a source of much excitement but to think that like today, people used receipts in commerce, and we now found one, is rare and happily provides us with a window into lives of ordinary people who lived at the time."