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Join Us A marble tablet inscribed with nine of the Ten Commandments, said to be the oldest intact version of its kind in stone, is set to go under the hammer next month in a single-lot sale at Sotheby’s in New York. The artifact, which measures two feet (~61 cm) and weighs 115 pounds (~52 kg), is emerging on the market for the first time since 2016 with an estimated sale price of $2 million. According to the auction house, the Commandments were inscribed into the tablet in Paleo-Hebrew script in the Late Roman-Byzantine Era (c.
300–800 CE). The slab was unearthed in 1913 during railway excavations near what was once known as Iamnia during the Roman-Byzantine period (the modern city of Yavneh in Israel and Jabneh to Palestinians, who were forced out following the 1948 Nakba). The object was being used as a paving stone at the threshold of a local residence for 30 years before its significance was recognized, Sotheby’s said.
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