Andrew Curryfor National Geographic News
September 9, 2009
It didn't look like much at first, just a broken, mud-caked stone mug.
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But when archaeologists in Jerusalem cleaned the 2,000-year-old vessel, they discovered ten lines of mysterious script.
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"These were common stone mugs that appear in all Jewish households" of the time, said lead excavator Shimon Gibson of the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.
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"But this is the first time an inscription has been found on a stone vessel" of this type.
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Deciphering the writing could provide a window into daily life or religious ritual in Jerusalem around the time of Jesus Christ (interactive time line of early Christianity).
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http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/09/090909-code-biblical-cup.html
