At Sotheby’s New York, the oldest inscribed stone tablet of the Ten Commandments—dating to the Late Roman-Byzantine period (ca. 300–800 CE)—achieved $5,040,000, surpassing its pre-sale estimate of $1–2 million.
The 115-pound marble artifact, inscribed in Paleo-Hebrew, sparked fierce global competition, with over ten minutes of intense bidding before ultimately being acquired by an anonymous buyer who plans to donate it to an Israeli institution.
Unearthed in 1913 along the southern coast of the Land of Israel, this extraordinary tablet is the only complete example of its kind from antiquity. A tangible link to ancient beliefs that have profoundly shaped global religious and cultural traditions, it serves as a rare testament to history.
After being used as a paving stone, the Tablet was identified in 1943 by leading archaeologist Dr. Jacob Kaplan as a rare Samaritan Decalogue. It features nine Biblical commandments and a unique directive to worship on Mount Gerizim, central to Samaritan tradition. In 1947, Kaplan published its significance in the Bulletin of the Jewish Palestine Exploration Society, explaining its 1913 discovery during railroad excavations.
Main Image: Courtesy Sotheby's
Anna Melnykova, "Palace of Labor (palats praci), architector I. Pretro, 1916", shot with analog Canon camera, 35 mm Fuji film in March 2022.
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