Hanukkah ڪهاڻي مان نادر آثار مليا

Visitors to Jerusalem next year will be able to see these rare artifacts connected to the story of Hanukkah. They were discovered inside a dusty old storage box at the Tower of David Museum in Jerusalem. The artifacts will be displayed to the public for the first time in over 30 years. 

The newly conserved arrowheads, sling bullets, and catapult ballista stones date back to the Hasmonean Period nearly 2,200 years ago. 

Also known as the Festival of Lights, Hanukkah is a Jewish midwinter holiday that includes candle lighting and eating delicious treats cooked in oil. This year the eight-day-long festival is set to begin on Dec. 18 at sunset. 

It commemorates the rededication of the Holy Temple in Jerusalem during the Maccabean Revolt, which took place in the 2nd century BCE. During the rebellion, the Maccabees fought against the Seleucid Empire. 

The story of the revolt and the rededication of the Jewish temple that followed is the central narrative of the festival of Hanukkah. 

“During excavations in 1982 and 1983, archaeologists discovered many artifacts connected to the siege that was taking place here in Jerusalem when the Hasmonean ruler John Hyrcanus was here and the Hellenistic Seleucid ruler Antiochus VII besieged the city,” Reut Kozak, an archaeologist at the Tower of David Museum, told The Media Line. “We found a large quantity of these weapons here. This is not something that you find everywhere, which means that there was a very significant battle that took place here in the 2nd century BCE.” 

Source and Courtesy: Written by Maya Margit, The Medialine