MOSHAV HAYOGEV, ISRAEL—The Times of Israel reports that a gardener discovered a 700-year-old bronze ring while weeding a planting bed in Lower Galilee. The intact artifact bears an image of St. Nicholas, who is revered in Eastern Christianity as the patron saint of travelers. He is shown as a smiling bald man with a bishop’s crook. Israel Antiquities Authority archaeologist Yana Tchekhanovetz said the ring dates to sometime between the twelfth and fifteenth centuries, and may have been dropped by a pilgrim. “We know that the main Roman road from Legio to Mount Tabor passed next to Moshav Yogev, and the road must have also have been used throughout the centuries by Christian pilgrims on their way to the sites on Mount Tabor, Nazareth, and around the Sea of Galilee,” added IAA archaeologist Yotam Tepper. For more, go to “Gods of the Galilee.”
