A rare object used to measure volume that dates back some 2,000 years that was recently unearthed by the Israel Antiquities Authority in the City of David National Park gives credence to the theory that researchers have uncovered the city square that served as a marketplace in the Second Temple era.

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Researchers suggest that the office of the "Agoranomos" – represented the official in charge of weights and measures in the city of Jerusalem.

Professor Ronny Reich, who is studying the artifact, explained that the stone "standard of volumes" table unearthed in the City of David still bears two of the original deep cavities, each with a drain at its bottom.

"The drain at the bottom could be plugged with a finger, filled with a liquid of some type, and once the finger was removed, the liquid could be drained into a container, therefore determining the volume of the container, using the measurement table as a uniform guideline. This way, traders could calibrate their measuring instruments using a uniform standard," Reich noted.

Reich explained that the "standard of volumes" was a rare find, as only two similar tables have been excavated in Jerusalem to date: one in the Jewish Quarter in the 1970s, and the second in excavations in the Shuafat neighborhood in the north of the city.

Archaeologist Ari Levi of the Israel Antiquities Authority, one of the directors of the Pilgrims Road excavation, said that the Pilgrim's Road project has turned up "a great number of stone weights measuring different values. The weights found are of the type which was typically used in Jerusalem. The fact that there were city-specific weights at the site indicates the unique features of the economy and trade in Jerusalem during the Second Temple period, possibly due to the influence of the Temple itself."

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The lawmakers sent their appeal to Netanyahu ahead of his first scheduled visit to Hebron since 1998.

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The market area of Hebron is owned by Jews, but after the Jewish quarter of the city was wiped out in 1929, Arabs took it over. For the past 25 years, the area has stood empty after it was shut down following Baruch Goldstein's 1994 massacre of 29 Muslim worshippers at the Cave of the Patriarchs.

Nine months ago, Attorney General Avichai Mendelblit decided that the land belonged to Jews. Following that decision, head of the Hebron Jewish community Avraham Ben-Yosef called to build a renewed Jewish neighborhood there. Now 17 Likud ministers and MKs are backing Ben-Yosef's initiative.

Maj. Gen. (res.) Uzi Dayan has spent the last few days collecting signatures in favor of a Jewish neighborhood to be built in the Hebron market.

The Prime Minister's Office said the request was under review.

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Most trading in Israel is done through banks as well as institutions.

The TASE, which has been struggling with delistings and declining trading volumes, became a public company this month after completing an initial public offering.

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Entities which are considering entering Israel's capital market as retail brokers in order to trade in securities and mutual funds are invited to apply by Sept. 15, 2019.

The TASE and ISA said they want to promote technological innovation in the capital market and have already met with 15 interested parties. They are also planning to promote changes in regulations that ease the work of retail brokers locally.

Changes include reducing capital requirements and promoting full digitization of the securities account-opening process.

TASE CEO Ittai Ben-Zeev said it was important to open the TASE to new players.

"The TASE is updating the rules to remove barriers and aligning itself to international standards, to increase the number of active members of TASE," he said.

"We are confident that the entry of new players with advanced technologies into the Israeli capital market will increase competition for investors and will make the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange dominant and more accessible to the public."

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The Tel Aviv 35 Index fell 2.06% to 1,419.50 points, the Tel Aviv 125 Index dropped by 2.07% to 1,287.62 points, the BlueTech Global Index fell 1.72% to 312.60 points and the TelBond 20 corporate bond index slipped by 0.30% to 334.31 points. Monday's overall trading turnover came to NIS 1.9 billion ($504 million).

Meanwhile, the global market slump following U.S. President Donald Trump's surprise decision last week to pull American troops from Syria has wiped out billions of Israel's foreign currency reserves.

According to the financial daily Globes, the Bank of Israel, which holds 19% of its $115 billion foreign exchange portfolio in shares and corporate bonds, has suffered heavy losses and as a result is expected to report a $2 billion loss on its foreign currency portfolio in 2018.

The central bank's forex portfolio is invested overseas in the capital markets of the U.S., Japan, Germany, France, South Korea, and Hong Kong.

Chief Economist at the Israeli IBI Investment House Rafael Gozlan said Monday that an upcoming election is not much of a surprise, but the timing, amid sell-offs in global markets, adds to uncertainty to which markets do not respond well.

Differences within Netanyahu's coalition over a new military conscription bill affecting exemptions for ultra-Orthodox Jews were given as the main reason for the early ballot.

But there has long been speculation that Netanyahu, whose popularity has held up despite corruption allegations, might call an election before the attorney general decides whether to follow police recommendations to indict him.

An election was due in November in any event.

Opposition lawmakers said they were happy with the announcement of an early election, saying they were sure these would bring a replacement to the Netanyahu-led government.

Netanyahu has served four terms as prime minister: first from 1996 to 1999, then consecutively in 2009, 2013 and 2015. He has been prime minister since March 2009. A fifth election win would give him the most victories in Israeli history.

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