While today most Hanukkah menorahs are made to accommodate wax candles, in ancient times the holiday was marked by lighting an oil lamp, like the menorah of the Jerusalem Temple itself. And even modern-day oil menorahs are rarely made from clay, as was once commonplace. The discovery of such a lamp—although not one designed for Hanukkah—last week thus seems fortuitous. The Times of Israel reports:
A group of children recently found a 2,000-year-old oil lamp at Kibbutz Parod in the northern Galilee region of the country, shedding light on the ancient Jewish community that lived in the area, the Israel Antiquities Authority said in a statement Monday. The 4th-grade students—Alon Cohen, Liam Atias, and Rotem Levnat—from the kibbutz’s Nof Hagalil School, made the discovery as they were out for a walk about ten days ago.
The trio said they noticed something poking out of the ground, and at first they thought it was just an unusual stone. However, after carefully pulling it out they realized it was a complete oil lamp made of clay. The students took the lamp to their parents, who informed the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA), which was able to confirm the age of the object, the statement said.
The director of education at the IAA, Einat Ambar-Armon, said the area of Parod in ancient times was a large Jewish village. “The lamp that was revealed is a typical lamp for the Jewish settlement in the early Roman period,” Ambar-Armon said. “For the most part, the lamps of this type are without decoration, in contrast to the Roman lamps of the same period. This is a special discovery. It is quite rare to find just a whole lamp like this.”
Read more on Times of Israel: Thttps://www.timesofisrael.com/children-out-for-a-stroll-in-north-discover-2000-year-old-lamp-in-the-ground/