Mother-of-Pearl Ornament Found at Caesarea Maritima

CAESAREA, ISRAEL—The Times of Israel reports that Israel Antiquities Authority archaeologists discovered a 1,500-year-old mother-of-pearl tablet inscribed with a six-branched menorah near a first-century B.C. temple dedicated to Augustus Caesar. The ornament is thought to have adorned a box that contained a Torah scroll, and to date to the fourth to fifth centuries A.D., pointing to a Jewish presence in Caesarea during the Byzantine period. The excavation team, led by archaeologist Peter Gendelman, also uncovered the Augusteum’s altar and a fragment of a Greek inscription. For more, go to “Byzantine Riches.”