As part of an excavation project on Mount Zion led by Professor Dieter Vieweger and coordinated by the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) and the German Protestant Institute for Archaeology (GPIA), numerous finds from the Byzantine and Second Temple periods, more than 1.500 years ago, have been discovered.
However, they recently found a less ancient but no less surprising artifact, as it shows unexpected historical links between Israel and China.
While preparing the site for the upcoming excavation season, archaeologist Michael Chernin found a fragment of a porcelain bowl with a Chinese inscription dating back to the 16th century. The inscription is engraved on the base of the bowl and reads “Forever we will guard the eternal spring.”
According to experts, the object was made between 1520 and 1570, during the Ming Dynasty, and is the first discovery of Chinese porcelain in Israel to bear an inscription, and they attribute the presence of the bowl in Jerusalem to trade relations between the Ottoman Empire, which ruled the region in the XNUMXth century, and the Chinese Empire.
Eli Escusido, director of the Israel Antiquities Authority, said: “In archaeological research we already knew of evidence of trade relations between Israel and the Far East from earlier periods, such as the spice trade. However, finding a Chinese inscription on a tangible object, in such an unexpected place as Mount Zion, is truly fascinating.”