Posted to Jewish News on

Israeli Archaeologists Find 1,500-Year-Old “Hechsher”

Haaretz

The ‘bread stamp’

A 1,500-year-old seal with the image of the seven-branched Temple Menorah has been discovered near the city of Acre.

The ceramic stamp, which dates from the Byzantine period in the 6th century CE, was found during ongoing Israel Antiquities Authority excavations at Horbat Uza, east of Acre, which are being undertaken before the construction of the Acre-Carmiel railroad track.

It is thought the stamp was used to mark baked goods, and is known as a “bread stamp.”

“A number of stamps bearing an image of a menorah are known from different collections. The Temple Menorah, being a Jewish symbol par excellence, indicates the stamps belonged to Jews, unlike Christian bread stamps with the cross pattern which were much more common in the Byzantine period,” said Gilad Jaffe and Dr. Danny Syon, the directors of the excavation, on behalf of the Israel Antiquities Authority.

According to the excavation directors, this was the first time that a stamp of this kind has been found in a controlled archaeological excavation, meaning that it is possible to determine where it comes from and when it was made.

“The stamp is important because it proves that a Jewish community existed in the settlement of Uza in the Christian-Byzantine period. The presence of a Jewish settlement so close to Acre – a region that was definitely Christian at this time – constitutes an innovation in archaeological research,” Syon said.

“Due to the geographical proximity of Horbat Uza to Acre, we can speculate that the settlement supplied kosher baked goods to the Jews of Acre in the Byzantine period,” Jaffe and Syon added.

Horbat Uza is a small rural settlement where other archaeological finds, a Shabbat lamp and jars with menorah patterns painted on them, have alluded to it having been a Jewish settlement.

The stamp bears the image of a seven-branched menorah, and the handle of the stamp is engraved with Greek letters. According to Dr. Leah Di Segni of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, this is probably the name Launtius, which was common among Jews of the period and has appeared on other Jewish bread stamps.

“This is probably the name of the baker from Horbat Uza,” Jaffe and Syon said.

Related Articles

11 Comments

  • Yehuda

    The Rebbe said there were different types of menorahs around the Beth Hamikdash, but the one that was lit every day was like the onethat Chabad uses.

  • Bread Baker

    It’s either a Hechsher stamp or a Brand Name. Since they didn’t use packaging, bakers would stamp a unique design right onto the (pita) bread, so that people would know from which bakery it came.

    Since you have to give credit where credit is due … (and I promise you I’m not his Chosid) but the “Liozhne’s” museum website has a different seal, and this is where I first heard about bread stamps.

    As for the image of the menorah, this is allegedly a seven-branch beis hamikdosh menorah … it doesn’t score any points for shitas Chabad.

  • Milhouse

    Yes, the branches are round, as are the branches on EVERY ancient depiction of the menorah, including ones made by people who had seen the actual menorah. The evidence is overwhelming that the menorah’s branches were rounded and not straight. The Rebbe seems to have been unaware of all this; in the sicha he seems to think that the source for round branches is the Arch of Titus, and it bothers him that we should rely on such a source. But the fact is that we’re not relying on that, we’re relying on 2000 years of Jewish tradition, as now evidenced by dozens of ancient drawings.

  • Milhouse

    I suggest that instead of relying on propaganda people learn the sicha, and see directly what the Rebbe’s point was. It’s no big deal what shape the branches were; the Rebbe’s point was that we should not be giving authority to Titus’s Arch, because it was made by resho’im, our enemies, and it shows an inferiority complex when we give it more credibility than Rashi and the Rambam. But since the source is not from there, the Rebbe’s problem goes away. From the authentic sources it seems that the branches were neither half-circles nor straight, but U-shaped.

  • Milhouse

    More information in case people are interested: in some places you will see it claimed that the Ibn Ezra held the arms were round. This is not true; he doesn’t comment on this. What he does say is that they were round and hollow in cross section (i.e. like pipes), and that they were arranged in a half-circle behind the central branch. But he doesn’t say whether they were straight or bent.

    The only rishonim whose opinion we know on this subject are Rashi and Rabbi Avrohom Ben Horambam, who both hold they were straight. The Rambam’s own opinion is not known; the drawing is not a proof, because it may be intended only as a schematic diagram, and because the Rambam’s drafting tools did not allow him to produce an elliptical curve.