Just in time for Hanukkah, experts at the Tower of David Museum in the Israeli capital discovered a cache of bronze and iron arrowheads dating roughly to the time of the revolt the holiday celebrates. Melanie Lidman writes:
[T]he stunningly preserved artifacts weren’t hidden under meters of dirt and carefully excavated by veteran archaeologists. Instead, they were sitting in a dusty cardboard box behind an old air conditioner in one of the guard towers at the Tower of David, which is undergoing a massive renovation. . . .
[O]ne of the foremost archaeological experts who excavated the Tower of David in the 1980s, Renee Sivan [believed] that some of the archaeologists must have put [the artifacts] aside in hopes of publishing a future paper on the intricate markings of the Greek letters epsilon and beta on some of the bronze arrowheads.
On a sunny winter day, the Tower of David stands sentinel at the entrance to the Jaffa Gate in the Old City. . . . The site’s geographic importance made it a crucial place for every passing conqueror. Therefore it’s no surprise that the arrowheads are just part of a collection of war detritus that littered the area next to the ancient Hasmonean walls at the Tower of David, including slingshot bullets inscribed with winged lightning icons and more than 100 ballista, or carefully carved stone balls that were flung from the walls as projectile missiles.
More about: Ancient Israel, Archaeology, Jerusalem, Maccabees