A student on a school trip in Israel found a unique artifact. The object is 1600 years old.
About 1600 years ago, Roman soldiers used this item to illuminate night watches. The unique olive oil lamp was discovered in Israel by a teenager during a school trip.
The Scorpion’s Ascent, also known as Scorpion Hill or Akrabim in Arabic, is a mountainous trail in the southern part of Israel in the Negev Desert. It is renowned for its breathtaking views and is often visited by school trips for this reason.
Scorpion Hill in Israel: Past and Present
Scorpion Hill in Israel is an important location on the map of the Middle East. This location is mentioned several times in the Bible. It marks the southern border of the Promised Land. The trail is 30 km long and was closed to vehicular traffic several years ago because it was simply too dangerous. For millennia, this place has been at the crossroads of different cultures and the borders of ancient states. Over 1600 years ago, even the Romans ventured here.
Scorpion Hill is part of the Israeli National Trail, a hiking route that stretches from the north to the south of the country.
Surprising Discovery on a School Trip
Sixteen-year-old Yonatan Frankel, a student at Tamar High School in Hod Hasharon, was on his class’s annual trip. The route led right along Scorpion Hill.
When his group stopped for lunch near the late Roman fort of Mezad Tzafir, Yonatan began picking up stones from the sand.
“One of the stones I picked up was very dirty. I shook it off, and suddenly I saw a pattern. That’s when I realized it was an object made by humans, not just an ordinary stone,” recounts the happy finder of the artifact. It turned out to be an ancient ceramic olive oil lamp.
According to a statement from the Israel Antiquities Authority, the lamp illuminated the nights for Roman soldiers guarding the fort on Scorpion Hill. It was an important stronghold located along a major ancient trade route used for transporting copper and likely gold.
Yonatan brought the lamp to his teacher, who showed it to a guide. The guide then passed the artifact on to Alex Freiberg, an archaeologist with the Israel Antiquities Authority in the southern district of the Negev. Yonatan was honored with a special certificate for his discovery and civic-mindedness.
Olive Oil Lamp: What Do We Know About It?
The olive oil lamp discovered by the teenager in Mezad Tsafir was produced in Petra, Jordan, in the 4th to 5th centuries CE. Petra is commonly associated with the famous rock city, which is a destination for numerous tours. The lamp was found less than 100 km away from where it was produced.
“Lamps of this type have been found in Mezad Hazeva, as well as in Mamshit, Mezad Yotvata, and Petra, but the one found by Yonatan is identical to the lamp discovered in the same place 90 years ago by archaeologist Nelson Glueck,” said Dr. Tali Erickson-Gini of the Israel Antiquities Authority.
Similar items are known from across the entire Mediterranean world of that time. Olive oil was poured into small ceramic containers, in which plant wicks were placed. For hundreds of years, these were the only sources of portable lighting, serving as a kind of ancient torches.
The expert added that between the Nabatean-Roman city of Mamshit and the copper mines of Feinan (biblical Punon) in central Arabia in the 4th to 6th centuries CE, there was a trade route.
“To secure the transport of copper, and perhaps even gold, from the mines between Scorpion Hill and Mezad Hazeva, a series of forts were built. Mezad Tsafir was one of them. Horse patrols guarded the important route. It is easy to imagine a lamp illuminating the darkness in a lonely, isolated fort occupied by Roman soldiers,” describes the archaeologist.
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