A team of German archaeologists unearthed an artefact believed to be the earliest known evidence of the Jewish culture un the Iberian Peninsular during an excavation in S.B. Messines, Silves.
The team from the University of Friedrich-Schiller in Jena, Germany found a marble plaque measuring 40cm by 60cm with the name ‘Yehiel’ inscribed as well as other letters that have not yet been deciphered. It is believed the artefact could be a funerary stone.
Radiocarbon dating of deer horns found next to the stone artefact gives a date of no later than 390AD.
According to Dr. Dennis Graen, who was responsible for the excavation, the oldest archaeological evidence associated to the Jewish culture in Portugal is also a funerary stone with a Latin inscription and an engraving of a Menorah dated to 482AD, while the oldest known Hebrew inscription is dated to the 6th or 7th century AD.
Archaeologists from the German University have been excavating the site of a Roman villa for the past three years near the town of S.B. Messines.
The aim of the project is to study the economy of the inhabitants of Lusitania, who lived in the rural inland parts of the Algarve.
This latest discovery of the stone artefact is one more mystery adding to the many others that have been unearthed at the site.
“We were really expecting to find a Latin inscription when we turned to stone over,” said Henning Wabersich, a member of the team.
“While we were looking for specialists, between Jena and Jerusalem, to decipher the writing, we obtained a clue from Spain,” said Dr. Dennis Graen, adding: “Jordi Casanovas Miro from the Nacional Museum of Catalunya Art in Barcelona (a specialist in Hebrew inscriptions from the Iberian Peninsular) had no doubt that is read the name ‘Yehiel’, a name which appears in the Bible.”
To date, no other inscriptions have been found at the site, and nothing is known about the identity of the people who lived there.
The inscribed artefact however is of great interest to the team due to its date and also the place where it was found.
According to Dr, Graen, never before have Jewish artefacts been found in a Roman villa.
Jewish people often wrote in Latin during the time of the Roman Empire and the date the artefact is from, for fear of reprisals.
Evidence of writing in Hebrew has only been found from the period after the Roman supremacy was in decline, from the 6th and 7th centuries.
The presence of a Jewish community in Silves is known from the middle ages until the expulsion of the Jews in 1496.
This summer, the archaeologists from Jena will continue excavations at the villa. Until now, around 160m2 have been excavated.
“We want to know more about the people who lived here,” said Dr. Graen, adding: “And of course we want to answer questions about the Hebrew inscription.”
source: theportugalnews.com
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