WHAT: A 2-foot square slab of white marble weighing almost 115 pounds, the earliest known inscription of the Ten Commandments known to exist, sold for $850,000 recently at auction. Dating to the 4th century A.D., and chiseled with 20 lines of letters in Samaritan script, the tablet probably once decorated the entry of an ancient synagogue. The language used descends from Hebrew and Aramaic.
MORE: The tablet had been on display at the Living Torah Museum in Brooklyn, N.Y., and sold in an auction of ancient biblical archaeological artifacts at Heritage Auctions in Beverly Hills, California, Scholars suspect the stone was probably inscribed during the late Roman or Byzantine era, in or around what is now Yavne in western Israel.
SMART COLLECTORS KNOW: Considered a national treasure of Israel, the tablet was allowed export to the U.S. in 2005 on the condition that it is displayed in a public museum. That condition applies to the recent buyer as well. The buyer declined to be identified at this time, but the tablet will be on public display.
HOT TIP: Ancient artifacts that sell at auction are offered in dedicated sales as “antiquities.”
BOTTOM LINE: In the same sale, a circa 70-200 Common Era nine-spouted Hanukkah lamp sold for $17,500.
