A weight with a Hebrew inscription from the First Temple era, when the temple was destroyed by the Babylonians, was found in Jerusalem this week.
The 3,000-year-old weight, dated from the 10th century BCE to 586 BCE, was discovered in an archaeological dig at the foot of Robinson's Arch at the Western Wall.
The "beka" weight was used to examine the half-shekel donation given by Jews for maintenance of the Temple and as a census.
As written in the Book of Exodus: "One beka per head; [that is] half a shekel, according to the holy shekel, for each one who goes through the counting, from twenty years old and upward, for six hundred three thousand, five hundred and fifty [people]."
The biblical shekel weighed almost 0.4 ounces.
"When the half-shekel tax was brought to the Temple during the First Temple period, there were no coins, so they used silver ingots. In order to calculate the weight of these silver pieces they would put them on one side of the scales and on the other side they placed the beka weight," explained Eli Shukron, who directed the excavations on behalf of the Israel Antiquities Authority.
"The beka was equivalent to the half-shekel, which every person from the age of 20 years and up was required to bring to the Temple," he continued.
"Beka weights from the First Temple period are rare; however this weight is even rarer because the inscription on it is written in mirror script and the letters are engraved from left to right instead of right to left," added Shukron. "It can therefore be concluded that the artist who engraved the inscription on the weight specialized in engraving seals, since seals were always written in mirror script so that once stamped the inscription would appear in the regular legible script."
The artifact will be on display to the public in Emek Tzurim National Park during Hanukkah, according to the City of David Foundation.
