In ancient times, small clay objects known as bullae were used to seal scrolls and to identify their authors. An Israeli archaeologist, along with his son, recently discovered an enormous trove of bullae in a cave located in the ancient Judean city of Mareshah. According to experts, the original scrolls had disintegrated while the bullae survived. Amanda Borschel-Dan writes:

An initial survey of 300 of the 1,020 clay sealings indicates they were strung on documents from a large private archive. The quantity and quality of the new, almost unprecedented hoard of sealings is rare on an international scale. . . .

Located in Israel’s Sh’feylah region in the foothills of the Judean Mountains, Mareshah, today a recognized UNESCO World Heritage Site, was once a culturally diverse city with a small Jewish population at the crossroads of [Alexander the Great’s] empire. . . . Mostly dating to the time of the Maccabees, previous “incredibly rich” artifacts discovered at the site come from corners of the empire as far-flung as the Black Sea. . . .

[The bullae, which] primarily date from the 2nd century BCE, depict images of gods, including Athena, Aphrodite, and Apollo, as well as erotic themes, masks, standing figures, and cornucopia. There were a few with Greek letters and numbers indicating dates, but as yet none of the sealings have been found with other written inscriptions.

[Mareshah] was conquered by Jews [during the Maccabean revolt, around 160 BCE] and abandoned in 107 BCE by King John Hyrcanus I. Roman-era pottery discovered at the site give indications that the cave complex was also used by Jews weathering the Bar Kokhba revolt of 132-135 CE.

Early Friday morning, Israel attacked military installations near the Iranian cities of Isfahan and nearby Natanz, the latter being one of the hubs of the country’s nuclear program. Jerusalem is not taking credit for the attack, and none of the details are too certain, but it seems that the attack involved multiple drones, likely launched from within Iran, as well as one or more missiles fired from Syrian or Iraqi airspace. Strikes on Syrian radar systems shortly beforehand probably helped make the attack possible, and there were reportedly strikes on Iraq as well.

Iran itself is downplaying the attack, but the S-300 air-defense batteries in Isfahan appear to have been destroyed or damaged. This is a sophisticated Russian-made system positioned to protect the Natanz nuclear installation. In other words, Israel has demonstrated that Iran’s best technology can’t protect the country’s skies from the IDF. As Yossi Kuperwasser puts it, the attack, combined with the response to the assault on April 13,

clarified to the Iranians that whereas we [Israelis] are not as vulnerable as they thought, they are more vulnerable than they thought. They have difficulty hitting us, but we have no difficulty hitting them.

Nobody knows exactly how the operation was carried out. . . . It is good that a question mark hovers over . . . what exactly Israel did. Let’s keep them wondering. It is good for deniability and good for keeping the enemy uncertain.

The fact that we chose targets that were in the vicinity of a major nuclear facility but were linked to the Iranian missile and air forces was a good message. It communicated that we can reach other targets as well but, as we don’t want escalation, we chose targets nearby that were involved in the attack against Israel. I think it sends the message that if we want to, we can send a stronger message. Israel is not seeking escalation at the moment.