Israeli archaeologists say they have discovered an 800-year-old lead seal of the Mar Saba Monastery at the archaeological site of Horbat Mizmil, Jerusalem.
This image shows a seal of the Mar Saba Monastery found in Jerusalem. Image credit: Clara Amit / Israel Antiquities Authority.
Mar Saba (439–532), or Saint Sabbas the Sanctified, was one of the most important and influential leaders of the Christian monastic movement in the Judean desert during the Byzantine period. He was the founder of several monasteries, most notably the one known as the Mar Saba Monastery.
The monastery, situated on a cliff overlooking Nahal Kidron, was home to several hundred monks. This is the only monastery in the Judean desert continuously inhabited since its foundation, and even today there are about ten Greek monks who reside in the monastery belonging to the Greek Orthodox Church.
Saint Sabbas was greatly involved in local Byzantine era political and religious affairs and twice he traveled on foot to the capital Constantinople in order to request assistance from the emperor for the country’s inhabitants. He was canonized following his death and his name appears among the list of Christian saints.
A rare seal of the Mar Saba Monastery was found in a farmstead, unearthed at an archaeological site in the Bayit VeGan neighborhood of Jerusalem. The site was abandoned at the end of the Byzantine period and resettled during the Crusader period (11th-12th centuries CE), reaching its maximum size during the Mamluk period (13th-15th centuries CE).
The seal, dating to the Crusader period, is in excellent condition. It shows a bearded bust of Saint Sabbas wearing a himation and holding a cross in his right hand and the Gospel (?) in his left hand.
The inscription on the obverse of the seal, in Greek, reads: ‘Saint Sabbas.’ On the inverse, there is another inscription that says: ‘This is the seal of the Laura of the Holy Sabbas.’
This is an aerial view of the Mar Saba Monastery. Image credit: Godot13 / CC BY-SA 3.0.
“The Mar Saba Monastery apparently played an important role in the affairs of the Kingdom of Jerusalem during the Crusader period maintaining a close relationship with the ruling royal family,” said team member Dr Robert Kool of the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA).
“This is an extraordinarily rare find because no such seal has ever been discovered to date,” added team members Dr Benyamin Storchan and Dr Benyamin Dolinka, both from the IAA.
“Also, the object possibly contributes important historical information about the surroundings of the site in the Bayit VeGan neighborhood.”
“The excavated farmstead may well refer to a farming settlement sold to the monastery in 1163-1164. The document, part of the archives of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher during the Crusader period, mentioned a farming settlement by the name of Thora, whose whereabouts are unknown. It is quite possible the document refers to this site.”
