The oldest stone tablet that contains the Ten Commandments of the Jewish and Christian religions in Paleo-Hebrew will be auctioned next December, more than a hundred years after its discovery. Dating to the late Byzantine period, it is estimated to be approximately 1,500 years old and is the only complete plate with the precepts preserved from this era.
It was in 1913, during some railway excavations that were being carried out on the southern coast of what is now Israel, near historical sites where some of the first synagogues, mosques and churches were erected. The slab went unnoticed for decades and was even used as a paving stone at the entrance of a house.
Thirty years later, a scholar recognized its importance and acquired the piece. He confirmed that it was a valuable Samaritan decalogue containing the fundamental divine principles for the Christian and Jewish religions.
The original site of the tablet, a synagogue or private residence, is thought to have been destroyed during the Roman invasions between 400 and 600 AD or in the Crusades of the 11th century.
The stone, weighing 52 kilos and about 60 centimeters high, contains twenty lines of carved text that closely follow biblical verses known in Christian and Jewish traditions. However, it includes only nine of the commandments from the Book of Exodus, omitting the prohibition “Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord in vain” and incorporating a new instruction: worship on Mount Gerizim, a sacred place for the Samaritans.
This ancient treasure, which captures key moral principles in the history of Western civilization, will be on public display at Sotheby’s New York starting December 5 and will be auctioned on the 18th with an estimated starting price ranging from one to two million dollars.
“This remarkable plaque is not only a historical artifact of enormous importance, but a tangible link to the beliefs that helped shape Western civilization. To encounter this shared piece of cultural heritage is to travel through millennia and connect with cultures and beliefs told through one of humanity’s oldest and most enduring moral codes,” said Richard Austin, global director of books and manuscripts at the auction house.
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