When Naomi Meir, 18, spotted an object during a KKL-JNF archaeological excavation in northern Israel, she jumped for joy. After all, it's not every day that one comes across a 2,000-year-old candlestick – and the fact that she made the find during the Hanukkah holiday made it more special.
Meir, a resident of Jerusalem who is performing a year of community service with the JNF before starting her military service, is a volunteer on a dig at Tel Usha, along with a group of ninth-graders from Nahariya.
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"During the dig, I spotted a long, weird, colorful object," Meir recounts.
"When I realized it was a glass item, I got really excited and I ran to the archaeologist to show him what I'd found. He explained what it was and we got so excited we were yelling," she says.
JNF archaeologists explain that the candlestick is made of glass and dates to the Roman-Byzantine era, somewhere between 68 BCE and 638 CE. The candlestick contains traces of oil and was apparently part of a lighting fixture that included numerous other candles.
Sar-Shalom Jerbi, head of the JNF's Education Division, called Meir's discovery a "real Hanukkah miracle," even though the candlestick was from a period later than that in which the Hasmoneans lived.
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