Other finds include gold coins, a ring, and the lid of a stone reliquary.<\/p>\n
The limestone mold was used to produce vessels known as \u201campullae,\u201d which appear to have been popular gifts taken home by the pilgrims.<\/p>\n
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\t\t\t\tBy signing up, you agree to the terms<\/a><\/p>\n A large number of similar flasks dated to the 6th\/7th centuries CE were found, among others, in the Monza Cathedral in Northern Italy, donated by the local 7th-century king and queen, Agilulf and Theodolinda.<\/p>\n \u201cThese types of vessels were produced at the height of the Byzantine period in the Land of Israel, part of the flourishing Christian pilgrimage industry,\u201d said archaeologist Michal Haber, who co-directs the excavations at Hyrcania with Dr. Oren Gutfeld.<\/p>\n The third season of excavations at the site opened last month and is ongoing. The mold is one of the most recent finds. Although their research is still in the preliminary stage, Gutfeld said that, at present, they are not aware of any similar artifact having been found.<\/p>\n \t The dig is a joint project by the Hebrew University and the Archaeology Unit at the Civil Administration, a branch of the Defense Ministry\u2019s Coordinator for Government Affairs in the Territories (COGAT), which manages civilian affairs in the West Bank. It combines salvage excavations and academic research, as archaeologists described it as an effort to prevent looters from further damaging the site (the prevailing interpretation of international law<\/a> is that Israel is only permitted to conduct salvage excavations, rather than academic digs, in the West Bank).<\/p>\n \u201cFor nearly a century, the site has suffered from heavy looting and vandalism, and we are just staying several steps ahead of the antiquities looters,\u201d Haber said in a phone interview. \u201cThis is the reason that we launched this project, in addition to the great research potential.\u201d<\/p>\n \t Hyrcania was initially built by Hasmonean rulers between the end of the 2nd and the beginning of the 1st centuries BCE, as one of several desert fortress palaces intended to guard the eastern border of their kingdom. Destroyed by the Romans a few decades later, it was then rebuilt by Jewish-Roman client king Herod the Great and abandoned shortly after his death at the very end of the 1st century BCE.<\/p>\n In the 5th century CE, the site was resettled by Christian monks. In 492 CE, historical sources document that Holy Sabas, a leader of Judean Desert monasticism, ascended what he described as a \u201cterrifying mountain\u201d and established the monastery as a dependence of the nearby Great Laura of Saint Sabas, a monastery overlooking the Kidron Valley that is still used to this day, currently affiliated with the Greek Orthodox Church.<\/p>\n The Hyrcania monastery survived the Islamic conquest in 636 CE but fell into disuse in the late 8th or early 9th century CE.<\/p>\n The archaeologists are working on both the remains from the end of the Second Temple Period (circa 510 BCE \u2013 70 CE) and from the Byzantine times.<\/p>\n The dating of the site is based on a cross-reference of the written sources (1st-century Roman-Jewish historian Josephus regarding the Hasmonean and Herodian periods and 6th-century monk Cyril of Scythopolis for the monastery\u2019s founding) with the archaeological evidence, including the stratigraphy and archaeological context, construction style, pottery typology, numismatic dating, and epigraphy, according to Haber.<\/p>\n \t \u201cWe tentatively suggest that the presence of the mold indicates that the vessels were produced at the site during the Byzantine monastery phase, indicating that it was a stop on the itinerary of pilgrims,\u201d Haber said.<\/p>\n While she and Gutfeld stressed that they could not be sure this was the case, they explained that there could have been several reasons for the pilgrims to visit the monastery built in Hyrcania, also known as \u201cCastellion,\u201d or \u201clittle fortress\u201d in Greek. The site was not far from the main road connecting Jerusalem and Jericho and lay between the Holy Sabas monastery and Bethlehem. Other pilgrimage sites, such as the Mount of the Scapegoat and the Mount of Temptation, were also within a few kilometers.<\/p>\n \u201cBased on what we have been uncovering, we know this was a wealthy monastery,\u201d Haber said.<\/p>\n \t Since excavations began in 2023, the archaeologists have found many unique testimonies of the monastery\u2019s life, including a rare inscription painted in red<\/a>, under a cross, on the side of a large building stone, paraphrasing part of Psalm 86 in the Greek used in the New Testament, and remains of colorful mosaics.<\/p>\n In recent weeks, they also discovered the lid of a small reliquary that likely contained some bones or remains of a saint and a fragment of another Byzantine Greek inscription, possibly a grave marker, which, according to a preliminary reading by Ecker, reads: \u201cChrist\u2026Pau[lus]\u2026 Servant of God.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cTwo weeks ago, we found another Greek inscription that we have not been able to decipher yet,\u201d Gutfeld said.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/WhatsApp-Image-2025-12-24-at-19.58.33-640x400.jpeg\")
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\n\t\tA gold coin featuring the 7th-century Byzantine Emperor Heraclius found at the Hyrcania archaeological site in the West Bank, in a discovery announced on December 24, 2025. (Tal Rogovski\/Hebrew University of Jerusalem)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Syrian_-_Pilgrim_Flask_of_Saint_Sergios_-_Walters_55105_-_Side_A-300x480.jpg\")
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\n\t\tA 6th-century pilgrim ampulla from the shrine of Saint Sergios in Syria. (Wikipedia)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/DUA4L-1-640x400.jpeg\")
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\n\t\tDr. Oren Gutfeld and Michal Haber of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem\u2019s Institute of Archaeology. (Oren Gutfeld\/Michal Haber).<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/1b-640x400.jpg\")
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\n\t\tHyrcania in the Judean Desert in the West Bank as seen at the end of the second excavation season in February 2025. (Oscar Bejarano\/Staff Officer of Archaeology)<\/p>\n
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