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.
Read more on Times of Israel: https://www.timesofisrael.com/1020-untouched-clay-sealings-discovered-after-two-millennia-in-hidden-cave/