Jewish Secrets Scratched in Stone: 2,000-year-old Cryptic Text Found in Jerusalem

Haaretz ^ | May 26, 2025 | Ruth Schuster

[SunkenCiv]

In June 2009, a broken limestone mug was discovered by archaeologists in the rubble of a Jewish home on Mount Zion. The house had been destroyed in 70 C.E. when the Romans leveled Jerusalem and the Temple to stomp home the message of their victory over the unmanageable Jews.

Ostensibly typical of tableware in Jewish homes of the Second Temple period, this mug was unlike any other ever found, Professor Shimon Gibson of the University of North Carolina at Charlotte reports in the recent issue of Biblical Archaeology Review, just out.

Limestone dishes began to emerge in about the year 40 B.C.E., under King Herod the Great, for reasons of kashrut. The assumption emerged that while pottery exposed to impurity was ruined forever more, stoneware could be cleansed (on the grounds that Jewish sources didn't mention that it couldn't). Some were made on the lathe, while others were handmade and somewhat clumsy. Only Jews used stone vessels, not their pagan neighbors at that time, and its finishing tended to the functional, not the ornate. Stone dishes were simple and rarely featured décor, let alone inscriptions.

But this mug did, albeit not in any kind of writing seen before in Jerusalem, but with a mysterious script instead.

The mug was found broken into four pieces above the ceiling of a mikveh (a Jewish ritual bath). It was about 15 centimeters (six inches) high and originally had a single perforated handle. It was hand-carved from soft limestone. Its inside, rim and base were smoothed but the sides were roughly cut from top to bottom by knife, creating a series of facets.

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TOPICS: History; Science; Travel
KEYWORDS: deadseascrolls; epigraphyandlanguage; godsgravesglyphs; jerusalem; letshavejerusalem; mountzionmug

[SunkenCiv]

Sketch of the "spidery writing" on the mug

Credit: Shimon Gibson

[SunkenCiv]

In before the first mindless kneejerk complaint.

[SunkenCiv]

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• Discovery of Biblical Scrolls Shows Importance of Greek Old Testament, Scholar Says [03/21/2021]
• Israeli archaeologists discover biblical scroll fragments for the first time in 60 years [03/18/2021]
• Dead Sea scroll discovery brings tantalizing prospect of more yet to be found [03/17/2021]
• In a Remarkable Find, Archaeologists Exploring the 'Cave of Horror' in Israel Have Discovered a New Dead Sea Scroll [03/16/2021]
• Bible scroll from Bar Kochba era discovered in Judean Desert [03/16/2021]
• Israeli archeologists discover new Dead Sea Scrolls for first time in 60 years [03/16/2021]
• 12th Dead Sea Scrolls cave discovered in Israel [02/08/2017]
• New Dead Sea Scrolls Fragments Found in Judean Desert [12/23/2016]
• Palestinians claim Dead Sea Scrolls as their own [11/12/2016]
• Researchers Reconstruct Early Version of Old Testament Text From Burned Scroll [09/27/2016]

[Southside_Chicago_Republican]

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[kelly4c]

Bookmark. I find this stuff fascinating:)

[HYPOCRACY]

Did they have ovaltine beck then?

[SunkenCiv]

:^) Thx.

[Jamestown1630]

I guess it’s caused by translation; but this is very interestingly written.

[fidelis]

Here's a little clearer picture of it:

[ComputerGuy]

Any of my girls could have written that by age 3.

[Ezekiel]

It almost looks like children were making up a cipher to write instead of Hebrew, that only they can read and that will keep safe their childish secrets, Tov says.

The Ovaltine theory isn't all that wet then.

A mug, a mikveh, and a little girl walk into a bar.

The bartender says, "Whatcha Mädchen?"

To which she replied, "I don't know, but I'm pouring my whole heart into it!"

💗 🥹

The mug is a small piece of evidence pointing to an entire world hidden from view, one we can only glimpse at, like looking through a crack in a wall.

[Red Badger]

Like the sides of a dreidel.................

[UnwashedPeasant]

The first line translates as “To Serve Man.” The rest is harder to make out.

[Ezekiel]

Like the sides of a dreidel.................

Brilliant!

[EvilCapitalist]

Must be part of the 5 Commandments that Mel/Moses dropped. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4wunGF3oMA0

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

It says, “pick the alexanders, make dinner, whitewash the front door and weave at least two feet of linen”

[wally_bert]

I still write like that or worse.

[gitmo]

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