Last week, the Israel Antiquities Authority announced the discovery of part of a rare bronze oil lamp from the 1st or 2nd century CE in the City of David—believed to have been buried under a building to bring good luck. Raoul Wootliff describes what happened next:
According to Jerusalem’s City of David archeological site, after the announcement of the find, the Hungarian archaeologist Gabor Lassanyi reached out to say that he may be in possession of the other half, which was uncovered during a 2012 excavation in Budapest.
“In an excavation we conducted at Aquincum (modern-day Budapest), we found a remarkably rare object: at the bottom of the building, we discovered a bronze half-lamp depicting the right half of a face shaped like a Roman theater mask,” Lassanyi wrote to Ari Levy, the head of the Jerusalem excavation.
The lamp found in Jerusalem is of the left-hand side of a face, while the Budapest lamp is of the right-hand side. Upon an initial examination of the two lamps, Lassanyi and Levy found that the two halves had exactly the same dimensions. Additionally, the lamp in Hungary has a connecting slot that is depressed, while the lamp discovered in Israel has a protruding ridge, indicating they could connect together.
Read more on Times of Israel: https://www.timesofisrael.com/matching-half-of-2000-year-old-lamp-found-in-jerusalem-said-located-in-budapest/