In the ruins of the ancient port city of Caesarea, Israeli archaeologists have discovered a magnificent marble statue of ram.
The marble ram unearthed in Caesarea, Israel. Image credit: Vered Sarig / Caesarea Development Corporation.
The marble ram was unearthed near a Byzantine-era church (6th – 7th centuries CE) in Caesarea in December 2015.
“Caesarea never ceases to surprise as evidenced by this amazing statue,” said Israel Antiquities Authority archaeologists Dr. Peter Gendelman and Dr. Mohammad Hater.
“In ancient Christianity Jesus was not portrayed as a person. Instead, symbols were used, one of which was the ram. It may or may not be a coincidence, but the statue was uncovered on Christmas Eve,” they said.
The statue “might have been part of the decoration of a Byzantine church at Caesarea.”
“In Christian art the ram is often depicted carried on the shoulders of the ‘Good Shepherd’ (that is, Jesus, who is portrayed as the shepherd tending his flock), and sometimes the ram is situated to the left or right of Jesus,” the scientists said.
“In Christianity the ram, like the lamb, represents the faithful, or Jesus himself, whose anguish and death were meant according to Christian belief to atone for original sin (the origin of the image is in John 29:1).”
Dr. Gendelman and Dr. Hater added: “by the same token it could also be earlier, from the Roman period, and was incorporated in secondary use in the church structure.”
“The ram appeared alongside the Greek gods Hermes and Mercury in Roman art, and it was a representation of the god Amun in Egyptian mythology.”
