(25 Dec 2011) SHOTLIST
1. Medium of archaeologist Eli Shukron, of Israel Antiquities Authority, showing clay seal to journalists
2. Close-up of clay seal
3. Professor Ronny Reich of the University of Haifa talking to media
4. SOUNDBITE: (English) Ronny Reich, Professor at the University of Haifa:
"Under the street, in the waste.. the debris, we found a small, a very small, tiny impressed, seal impression or clay lump with a seal impression on top of it and it bears an Aramaic inscription, six letters in two lines "dakay leya", which means in English "pure to God"."
5. Artefacts on table
6. SOUNDBITE: (English) Ronny Reich, Professor at the University of Haifa:
"This is for the first time that an impression or a seal was found of this period and the first time where we have an indication brought by archaeology about the activities in the Temple Mount, the religious activities of buying and offering and giving it to the Temple itself."
7. Wide of archaeologist Eli Shukron, of Israel Antiquities Authority, surrounded by media
8. Wide of Jerusalem's Old City
STORYLINE
A rare clay seal found under Jerusalem's Old City appears to be linked to religious rituals practiced at the Jewish Temple 2,000 years ago, Israeli archaeologists said on Sunday.
The coin-sized seal found near the Jewish holy site at the Western Wall bears two Aramaic words meaning "pure to God."
Archaeologist Ronny Reich of Haifa University said it dates from between the first century BC to 70 AD (the year Roman forces put down a Jewish revolt and destroyed the second of the two biblical Jewish temples).
The find marks the first discovery of a written seal from that period of Jerusalem's history, and appeared to be a unique physical artefact from ritual practice in the Temple, he said.
Almost no such artefacts have ever been discovered.
The site of the Temple itself, the enclosure known to Jews as the Temple Mount and to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary, remains off-limits to archaeologists because of its religious and political sensitivity.
Archaeologists said the seal was probably used by Temple officials approving an object for ritual use, oil, perhaps, or an animal intended for sacrifice.
Materials used by Temple priests had to meet stringent purity guidelines stipulated in detail in Jewish legal texts, which also mention the use of such seals.
The site where the seal was found is on the route of a main street that ran through ancient Jerusalem just outside the Temple compound.
The seal was found in an excavation run by archaeologists from the government's Israel Antiquities Authority.
The dig is under the auspices of a broader excavation nearby known as the City of David, where archaeologists are investigating the oldest part of Jerusalem.
The City of David dig, located inside the nearby Palestinian neighbourhood of Silwan and funded by a Jewish group affiliated with the settlement movement, is the Holy Land's highest-profile and most politically controversial excavation.
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