1,700-year-old marble statues discovered in Israel during excavation

A recent archaeological dig in Israel revealed ancient faces not seen for centuries.

According to a June 15 press release from the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA), two statues were discovered near the Israeli city of Binyamina.

The IAA said archaeologists found two marble statues in the wine collection pit of a Roman-Byzantine winery while excavating ahead of high-speed railway construction on the coast.

A RARE 1,600-YEAR-OLD MOSAIC BELONGING TO A CHRISTIAN MONASTERY WAS REVEALED AFTER AN UNKNOWN SITUATION FOR CENTURIES

Dating back approximately 1,700 years, the statues depict two unknown figures from the ancient Greco-Roman world.

According to authorities, one of the statues has a Greek inscription bearing the name “Lycurgus”.

IAA archaeologist Michael Sorotskin, who helped find the statues, called the discovery “simply amazing.”

“While I was digging the wine press, something was coming out of the ground and the workers called me,” Sorotskin said in the press release. “There was a feeling that we were about to discover something that shouldn’t actually be there.”

ANCIENT CHRISTIAN FIGURES WERE FOUND IN 1,500-YEAR-OLD DESERT TOMBS

“We suddenly saw that this was not the usual pottery; it was marble,” he added. “Then slowly two statues appeared. I’m still having trouble finding the right words.”

Eliran Oren and Avishag Reiss, the project’s excavation directors, said the statues were found “neatly placed face down.” It turned out that they were deliberately buried when the wine press went out of use.

Archaeologists described the discovery of two marble figures as a rare and unexpected find from the Roman period. (Israel Antiquities Authority)

“It is currently unknown why the statues were stored here; perhaps to protect them,” Oren and Reiss said in a joint statement. he said.

“This is a once-in-a-lifetime discovery.”

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“It was very unexpected, but somehow the truly great discoveries always emerge on the last day of the dig,” they added.

Caesarea region expert Peter Gendelman of the IAA said the discovery was the first of its kind in nearly three decades.

“This is a once-in-a-lifetime discovery.”

Gendelman said the “Lycurgus” statue may depict two different men, one Lycurgus of Sparta and the other Lycurgus of Athens.

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“Possibly this statue may turn out to be one of these two historical figures, but our investigation is just beginning,” he said.

The expert noted that the statues were most likely displayed in public buildings or in the homes of wealthy residents during Roman times as a way to “connect themselves to the cultural and spiritual world of antiquity.”

Israeli researchers say marble figures stored face down may have been preserved when the wine press went out of use. (Israel Antiquities Authority)

“The ruins of a bathhouse were previously unearthed not far from the discovery site, and it is possible that the statues decorated the luxury villa of a Caesarea resident,” he said.

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Researchers are currently cleaning and preserving the statues before analyzing them further in the hope of determining exactly who they depict.

The discovery is the latest in a series of notable archaeological finds announced by Israeli researchers this year.

Researchers are cleaning and preserving the statues as they work to determine the identities of the figures depicted. (Israel Antiquities Authority)

A chance discovery by a child in the Negev Desert led to the identification of a 1,700-year-old Roman-era figurine fragment, IAA officials said earlier this May.

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Around the same time, archaeologists uncovered a “mysterious and impressive” ancient tunnel near Jerusalem, not far from sites associated with the biblical Kingdom of Judah.