Neanderthal DNA reveals ancient long-distance migrations

In their new study an international team led by the University of Vienna reports the discovery and extraction of ancient DNA from a tiny 5 cm long Neanderthal bone found in the Crimean peninsula, shedding light on long-distance migrations during the Late Pleistocene period 40,000 - 50,000 years ago. The Neanderthal bone, called "Star 1", after the site from which it was excavated – Starosele Cave – was found using a biomolecular method that uses ancient proteins to determine if a bone belongs to humans or animals. Ancient DNA extracted from the bone showed that it was genetically closest related to Neanderthals from the Altai region of Siberia, over 3,000 kilometers away. Climate modelling suggests that Neanderthal groups probably migrated across the vast Eurasian steppes during a time of favourable climate. The study was published in PNAS.

A site with a long history

The Crimean Peninsula rock shelter of Starosele has been studied since 1952. Until now, only post-medieval human remains had been recovered. However, using new molecular methods, researchers from the University of Vienna now examined more than 150 unidentified bone fragments from the site. Amongst these fragments they discovered a small, 5 cm fragment of what was probably a human thigh bone.

The site's four archaeological layers contain rich cultural material: levels 1, 2, and 4 are associated with stone tools from an archaeological industry called the Crimean Micoquian stone tool industry, which is linked to Neanderthals.

Revisiting the past with new techniques

Researcher Emily M. Pigott, a doctoral student at the University of Vienna and lead author on the paper, employed a palaeoproteomic method known as Zooarchaeology by Mass Spectrometry (ZooMS) to determine the species of 150 fragmented bones. While these bones could not be identified taxonomically due to their small size, by extracting the collagen peptides and analysing their mass it is possible to identify even tiny fragments to species or genus level. Of the 150 analysed bones, 93% belonged to horses and deer, with smaller numbers of mammoth and wolf remains — suggesting that Palaeolithic humans in Crimea relied heavily on horse hunting. Remarkably, one small fragment — only 49.8 mm long and 18.8 mm wide — was identified as human.

The human bone was scanned using micro-CT imaging, which revealed it was likely to have come from a thigh bone. Subsequently, it was also radiocarbon dated using the most up-to-date decontamination methods, which placed the bone between 46,000 and 44,000 years ago, securely within the Palaeolithic period.

"This was an extremely exciting discovery, especially since previous human remains at Starosele were thought to be Homo sapiens from much later periods," said Pigott. "When the radiocarbon results came back, we knew we had found a truly Palaeolithic human. It was an unforgettable moment — and it happened to be only the 46th bone I analysed with ZooMS. Across Eurasia, very few human fossils are known from this crucial period when Neanderthals disappeared and Homo sapiens replaced them, and still fewer with genetic Information".

A glimpse into Neanderthal mobility

The discovery highlights the mobility and resilience of Neanderthals, revealing that these ancient humans were more widespread in their dispersal than often previously assumed.

Co-authors Konstantina Cheshmedzhieva and Martin Kuhlwilm of the University of Vienna led the genetic analysis on the new human remains, finding that the human bone belonged to a Neanderthal, which the team named "Star 1". Surprisingly, this individual was most closely related to Neanderthals from Siberia's Altai region, more than 3,000 kilometers to the east, but also with Neanderthals that once lived in regions of Europe such as Croatia. The findings confirm previous studies suggesting that Neanderthals once dispersed over vast distances across Eurasia during the Late Pleistocene, from as far west as central Europe to central Eurasia. This work places the Crimean Peninsula at the crossroads of this Neanderthal migration corridor.

Through climate and human habitat modelling, Elke Zeller (University of Arizona, US) and Axel Timmermann (Pusan National University, South Korea) identified two favourable climatic periods (120,000 and 60,000 years ago) during which Neanderthals may have moved between Crimea, central Asia, and Europe, perhaps following migrating herds of animals.

"Our work demonstrates that by combining techniques such as ZooMS, radiocarbon dating, and ancient DNA analysis, even the smallest bone fragments can yield profound information about our evolutionary past", senior author Tom Higham from the University of Vienna summarizes. "This type of multianalytical work applied to other collections will help us uncover more hidden human remains, and bring us closer to understanding the complex story of human evolution across Eurasia. Our understanding of Neanderthals has changed so much over the last few years. Our new study confirms that they were capable of moving long distances in various directions, something we thought for many decades was restricted almost exclusively to our species."

Summary:

• When examining more than 150 unidentified bone fragments from the Crimean peninsula rockshelter of Starosele one small 5 cm fragment was identified as a small piece of a Neanderthal bone – named "Star 1" by the team. 
• The fragment was scanned using micro-CT imaging, which revealed it was likely to have come from a human thigh bone. It was also radiocarbon dated using the most up-to-date decontamination methods, which placed the bone between 46,000 and 44,000 years ago, securely within the Palaeolithic period.
• Further investigations showed, the individual was most closely related to Neanderthals from Siberia's Altai region, more than 3,000 kilometers to the east, but also with Neanderthals that once lived in regions of Europe such as Croatia.
• The findings suggest that Neanderthals must have once dispersed over vast distances across Eurasia during the Late Pleistocene; from as far west as central Europe, all the way to central Eurasia, with Crimea being at the crossroads of this pathway.
• Through climate modelling the scientists identified when humans were most likely to move, taking advantage of favourable climates. They found the so-called 'last interglacial period' around 120,000 years ago was one of these periods, and another around 60,000 years ago.

About the study:

The scientists used Mass Spectrometry (ZooMS) to identify different species among the fragmented bones. The fragment identified as human was scanned using micro-CT imaging, was radiocarbon dated and genetically analysed, revealing it belonged to a late Neanderthal. Climate modelling identified key periods when humans were most likely taking advantage of favourable climates along which they could move.

Ancient tombs reveal the story of Chinese history

Tombs scattered across China, built between the 4,000-year old Xia Dynasty and the modern era, reflect the political and social patterns of Chinese history, according to a study published October 29, 2025 in the open-access journal PLOS One by Quanbao Ma from the Beijing University of Civil Engineering and Architecture, China, and colleagues.

The research team mapped the location of ancient tombs in China to search for patterns in their distribution across the country and throughout history. They found that both socioeconomic factors and geography may have influenced where these burial sites are located.

For example, many of the surviving tombs are from periods of Chinese history with relative political and economic stability, such as the Qin-Han and Yuan-Ming-Qing dynasties. Times of war and instability, like the Five Dynasties era, are not as well represented in the archaeological record of tombs. The researchers note that when people’s living standards were high, they could likely spend more time focusing on the afterlife.

Population trends might also have influenced where tombs were built. The researchers note, for example, that war was common in northern China from the late Eastern Han dynasty through the Northern and Southern dynasties. This led people to move southward, and tombs from this era are clustered in these southern locations.

Both the Chengdu-Chongqing and Central Plains regions have a higher number of surviving tombs. The researchers note that Chengdu-Chongqing has relatively flat land and fertile soil, and the Central Plains have flat land and plenty of water, which would have helped ancient settlements develop in these areas. Both areas are also relatively humid, which likely helped preserve artifacts inside the tombs.

Burial sites represent an indispensable source of cultural heritage knowledge, the research team notes — and they hope that this study will help provide some of the scientific foundations needed to preserve these tombs in the future.

The authors add: “This study conducted a systematic digital survey and analysis of the spatiotemporal distribution characteristics and influencing factors of ancient tombs in China, revealing their evolution patterns and influencing factors, thus laying an important theoretical foundation for building a scientific and precise protection system.”

The freely available article in PLOS One: http://plos.io/4okWzT5

Neanderthals and Mesolithic hunter-gathereres shaped European landscapes

 

New research shows that humans left their mark on the landscape through hunting and the use of fire tens of thousands of years before the advent of agriculture. The research paints a new picture of the past, say co-authors of the new study.

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Imagine Europe tens of thousands of years ago: dense forests, large herds of elephants, bison and aurochs – and small groups of people armed with fire and spears. A new study shows that these people left a much clearer mark on the landscape than previously assumed.

Using advanced computer simulations, an international research team, which includes researchers from Aarhus University, has investigated how climate, large animals, fire and humans affected Europe’s vegetation during two warm periods in the past. By comparing the results with extensive pollen analyses from the same periods, the researchers have calculated how the different factors shaped vegetation cover.

The conclusion is clear: both Neanderthals and the later Mesolithic hunter-gatherers had a strong impact on vegetation patterns in Europe – long before the advent of agriculture.

“The study paints a new picture of the past,” says Jens-Christian Svenning, professor of biology at Aarhus University and one of the researchers behind the study, which was undertaken in collaboration with colleagues in archaeology, geology and ecology from The Netherlands, Denmark, France, and UK.

“It became clear to us that climate change, large herbivores and natural fires alone could not explain the pollen data results. Factoring humans into the equation – and the effects of human-induced fires and hunting – resulted in a much better match”, says Jens-Christian Svenning.

The results have just been published in PLOS One.

Humans displaced large animals

The researchers have focused on two warm periods in the past.

One is the Last Interglacial period around 125,000-116,000 years ago, when Neanderthals were the only humans in Europe. The second period is the time just after the last ice age, the Early Holocene, 12,000-8,000 years ago, at which time Mesolithic hunter-gatherers of our own species, Homo sapiens, lived here.

During the Last Interglacial period, Europe was home to a rich and varied megafauna, with elephants and rhinoceroses living side by side with bison, aurochs, horses and deer.

In the Mesolithic, the picture was different: The largest species had disappeared or their populations had been greatly reduced in size – due to the general loss of megafauna that followed in the wake of the spread of Homo sapiens across the globe.

New view of prehistoric man

“Our simulations show that Mesolithic hunter-gatherers could have influenced up to 47% of the distribution of plant types. The Neanderthal effect was smaller, but still measurable – approximately 6% for plant type distribution and 14% for vegetation openness,” says Anastasia Nikulina .

The human-induced effects on vegetation included both fire effects – burning of trees and shrubs – and a previously overlooked factor: the hunting of large herbivores.

“The Neanderthals did not hold back from hunting and killing even giant elephants. And here we’re talking about animals weighing up to 13 tonnes. Hunting also had a strong indirect effect: fewer grazing animals meant more overgrowth and thus more closed vegetation. However, the effect was limited, because the Neanderthals were so few that they did not do eliminate the large animals or their ecological role – unlike Homo sapiens in later times,” says Jens-Christian Svenning.

Anastasia Nikulina  and Jens-Christian Svenning both believe that the results offer a new perspective on the role of our ancestors in the natural landscape. In fact, it challenges the notion of an ‘untouched landscape’ in Europe before agriculture came along:

“The Neanderthals and the Mesolithic hunter-gatherers were active co-creators of Europe’s ecosystems”, says Jens-Christian Svenning. “The study is consistent with both ethnographic studies of contemporary hunter-gatherers and archaeological finds, but goes a step further by documenting how extensive human influence may have been tens of thousands of years ago – that is, before humans started farming the land,” elaborates Anastasia Nikulina .

Interdisciplinary knowledge behind study

She highlights the interdisciplinary collaboration – between ecology, archaeology palynology (knowledge about pollen) – and the development of advanced computer models for simulating past ecosystems as strengths of the study.
“This is the first simulation to quantify how Neanderthals and Mesolithic hunter-gatherers may have shaped European landscapes. Our approach has two key strengths: it brings together an unusually large set of new spatial data spanning the whole continent over thousands of years, and it couples the simulation with an optimisation algorithm from AI. That let us run a large number of scenarios and identify the most possible outcomes”, says Anastasia Nikulina .

Jens-Christian Svenning adds:
“The computer modelling made it clear to us that climate change, the large herbivores such as elephants, bison and deer, and natural wildfires alone cannot explain the changes seen in ancient pollen data. To understand the vegetation at that time, we must also take human impacts into account – both direct and indirect. Even without fire, hunter-gatherers changed the landscape simply because their hunting of large animals made the vegetation denser,” says Jens-Christian Svenning.

Despite the new study, there are still gaps in our understanding of the early impact of humans on the landscape, says Jens-Christian Svenning.

Anastasia Anastasia Nikulina  and Jens-Christian Svenning emphasise that it would be interesting to do computer simulations of other time periods and parts of the world. North and South America and Australia are particularly interesting because they were never populated by earlier hominin species before Homo sapiens, and you are therefore able to compare landscapes in the recent past with and without human influence.

“And although the large models paint a broad picture, detailed local studies are absolutely essential to improve our understanding of the way humans shaped the landscape in prehistoric times,” says Jens-Christian Svenning.

 

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Ancient stone tools trace Paleolithic Pacific migration

 A new analysis of stone tools offers strong evidence for the theory that ancient people from the Pacific Rim traveled a coastal route from East Asia during the last ice age to become North America’s First Peoples, according to a paper published this week in the journal Science Advances.

“This study puts the First Americans back into the global story of the Paleolithic – not as outliers – but as participants in a shared technological legacy,” said Loren Davis, professor of anthropology at Oregon State University and one of the study’s lead authors.

“This marks a paradigm shift. For the first time, we can say the First Americans belonged to a broader Paleolithic world—one that connects North America to Northeast Asia,” he said.

For decades, experts have debated whether people migrated across the Siberian land bridge known as Beringia around 13,000 years ago as the last ice age waned or if they followed a Pacific coastal route at a much earlier time, possibly around 20,000 years ago.

The archaeological evidence presented in this study supports the earlier coastal scenario, indicating that early seafarers gradually moved into the Americas from the northwestern Pacific Rim during the last glacial period, from regions that now include Hokkaido, the northernmost of Japan’s islands.

Recent genetics research also supports the narrative that Indigenous Peoples in areas that became the United States and Canada are linked to East Asian and Northern Eurasian ancestry.

Davis and his collaborators analyzed stone tool technologies from North American sites dating between about 20,000 and 13,500 years ago, linked to a period they call the American Upper Paleolithic. They showed that the earliest of this style of projectile points first appear around 20,000 years ago in Hokkaido.

Called bifaces, the projectile tips are flaked on both sides to create a durable, razor-sharp penetrating hunting weapon, which represents a major leap in hunting technology. The study demonstrates that this advanced weapon system was carried into the Americas, where these tools display strong continuity with each other and with artifacts from many Late Upper Paleolithic sites across East Asia.

 “The discovery of this archaeological connection rewrites the opening chapter of human history in the Americas,” Davis said. “It shows that the First Americans were not cultural isolates, but participants in the same Paleolithic traditions that connected people across Eurasia and Asia.”

The earlier stone tools that Davis and his team studied are smaller and lighter than later Paleoindian technologies and were made using distinctly different methods. This dual system of core-and-blade production combined with bifacial point manufacture forms the technological foundation from which later Paleoindian and subsequent American traditions evolved.

This system serves as the technological fingerprint linking the American Upper Paleolithic to its roots in Northeast Asia. Prior papers have suggested this pattern, but this deep dive provides the strongest evidence that’s been assembled to date, Davis said.

Researchers have long known of American Upper Paleolithic sites, but if people had traveled at higher latitudes across Beringia, these earliest sites should be in Alaska and Yukon in Canada. Instead, the five primary sites that Davis and his team studied were in Virginia, Pennsylvania, Texas and Idaho.

And while tools found at similarly aged sites in Oregon, Wisconsin and Florida follow the pattern, they contain too few artifacts to include in the recent analysis, Davis said. Additional archaeological evidence that could support this model is likely submerged along the eastern Pacific Rim due to rising sea levels at the end of the last ice age, he added.

Many prior papers about human settlement sites of the same era focused on evidence from a single location. This study is the first to connect multiple research sites globally, presenting a coherent model for the initial human occupants of the Americas.

“We can now explain not only that the First Americans came from Northeast Asia, but also how they traveled, what they carried, and what ideas they brought with them,” Davis said. “It’s a powerful reminder that migration, innovation, and cultural sharing have always been part of what it means to be human.”

 

Dating of Egyptian artifacts puts Thera (Santorini) volcanic eruption prior to Pharaoh Ahmose

One of the largest volcanic eruptions in the last 10,000 years took place at the Greek island of Thera (Santorini) in the Aegean Sea, but its dating during the late 17th or 16th century BCE remained controversial.  Volcanic ash from the eruption spread over a large area in the eastern Mediterranean region. One of the lingering questions in archeology was how this huge geological event lined up with royal Egyptian chronologies. Now, a new study by Ben-Gurion University of the Negev and University of Groningen researchers produced the first radiocarbon dates concerning King Ahmose, the Pharaoh who reunited Upper and Lower Egypt and established the New Kingdom. Their results show that the explosive eruption occurred prior to the New Kingdom during the Second Intermediate Period. The new radiocarbon dates significantly favor a “low” (i.e. younger) chronology for the beginning of the 18th Dynasty, which is of great importance in our understanding of Egyptian relations with neighboring civilizations in the region.

 

Caption

The eastern Mediterranean region and Egypt, showing the location of the Thera (Santorini) volcano and other places mentioned in the text.

Credit

Based on Mapcarta, the open map with CC BY license © OpenStreetMap, Mapbox, and Mapcarta.

Their findings were published in PLOS One last month.

Prof. Hendrik J. Bruins of the Jacob Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research at BGU's Sylan Adams Sde Boker Campus and Prof. Johannes van der Plicht of the University of Groningen in the Netherlands received rare permission to select samples of Egyptian artifacts at the British Museum and the Petrie Museum in London for radiocarbon dating. Supervised by museum staff samples were taken of a mudbrick from the Ahmose Temple at Abydos (British Museum), a linen burial cloth associated with Satdjehuty (British Museum), and six wooden stick shabtis from Thebes (Petrie Museum).

They discovered that, contrary to traditional archaeological understandings, the volcanic eruption did not occur during the Egyptian New Kingdom, but occurred earlier, during the Second Intermediate Period. Radiocarbon dates of the Santorini eruption are significantly older than the first-ever radiocarbon dates concerning Pharaoh Ahmose and the other artifacts investigated of the 17th to early 18th Dynasty.

"Our findings indicate that the Second Intermediate Period lasted considerably longer than traditional assessments, and the New Kingdom started later," says Prof. Hendrik J. Bruins.

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DOI

10.1371/journal.pone.0330702 

 

Rare evidence of correspondence between the court of the king of Assyria and the king of Judah

 For the first time in Jerusalem, an Assyrian inscription from the First Temple period has been discovered

The rare historical evidence was discovered near the Western Wall, during excavations by the Israel Antiquities Authority and the City of David. It is an inscription in cuneiform on a tiny piece of pottery, telling of a delay in payment by the Kingdom of Judah to the Assyrian Empire. One of the research directions being examined: a tax revolt, such as the one familiar from the biblical description of Hezekiah's revolt against Sennacherib, king of Assyria. The inscription will be presented to the public for the first time at the conference "Innovations in the Archaeology of Jerusalem and Its Surroundings"

A tiny, extremely rare pottery shard bearing a cuneiform inscription in the Akkadian language from about 2,700 years ago was discovered in an archaeological excavation near the Western Wall of the Temple Mount, north of the City of David. This is an extraordinary find and the first of its kind; it is the only Assyrian inscription from the First Temple period (8th to 7th centuries BCE) found in the city.

The inscription will be presented to the public for the first time this Thursday, October 23, at the conference "Innovations in the Archaeology of Jerusalem and Its Surroundings" by the Israel Antiquities Authority, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and Tel Aviv University, at the J. and Ginny Schottenstein National Center for Archaeology in Jerusalem.

The seal impression - rare evidence of correspondence between the king of Assyria and the king of Judah. ​​Photo: Eliyahu Yannai, City of David

The rare discovery was uncovered as part of an archaeological excavation by the Israel Antiquities Authority, in cooperation with the City of David and managed by Dr. Ayala Zilberstein of the Israel Antiquities Authority. The excavation is taking place in the Davidson Archaeological Park in Jerusalem, managed by the Society for the Restoration and Development of the Jewish Quarter. The rare inscription was deciphered in collaboration with Dr. Philip Wakusbowitz and Dr. Anat Cohen-Weinberger of the Israel Antiquities Authority, together with Dr. Peter Zilber from Bar-Ilan University.

Researchers examine the rare inscription. From right to left: Dr. Philip Wokosobowitz, Dr. Peter Silberg, Dr. Ayala Silberstein and Dr. Anat Cohen-Weinberger with the rare find. Photo: Yuli Schwartz, Israel Antiquities Authority

The tiny fragment, about 2.5 cm in size, was discovered as part of a wet screening conducted at the "archaeological experience" in Emek Tzurim National Park – a joint project of the Israel Nature and Parks Authority and the City of David Association.

The discovery of the find in an organized archaeological excavation was accompanied by great excitement.

Moriah Cohen, who works at the "Archaeological Experience" in Emek Tzurim , described the moments of the discovery: "I was sifting through the dirt and suddenly I noticed pottery with a strange decoration. I looked at it closely, and it looked like cuneiform writing to me, but it seemed so illogical because even though so many fascinating finds have been discovered here, we've never found anything like this. I examined the pottery again and after realizing that it wasn't decoration but really cuneiform writing - I screamed with excitement. Everyone gathered around me and I called Ayla - the director of the excavation, who was very excited by the find. The thought that after 2,700 years, I am the first person to actually touch this pottery with my hands - is a very exciting thought. This is a once-in-a-lifetime find."

Right: The drainage canal next to which the rare find was discovered. Left:  Dr. Ayala Zilberstein, director of the excavation on behalf of the Israel Antiquities Authority, in the drainage canal. Photos: Shai Halevi, Israel Antiquities Authority; Emil Aljam, Israel Antiquities Authority

The find was discovered in dirt that had been swept to the edge of the central drainage canal from the Second Temple period, likely from the collapse of an earlier structure from the First Temple period that was discovered in an area where the drainage canal was not preserved.  

The site, located at the foot of the eastern slope of Jerusalem's western hill, is one of the closest points to the temple complex that has been excavated so far, a fact that gives the find great importance for understanding the urban and political development of the period.

According to Dr. Ayala Zilberstein, director of the excavation on behalf of the Israel Antiquities Authority : "The inscription provides direct evidence of official correspondence between the Assyrian Empire and the Kingdom of Judah. ​​The discovery strengthens our understanding of the depth of the Assyrian foothold in Jerusalem, and the extent of its influence on the conduct of the city. In addition, it expands knowledge about the status of the new neighborhood that developed at that time on the slopes of the hill west of the Temple. It appears that this area served as a focus for the activities of ministers and high-ranking figures."

Dr. Peter Silberg and Dr. Philip Wokosbowitz believe that the fragment of the inscription was part of a royal stamp - a seal impression intended to sign a letter or official dispatch on behalf of the Assyrian royal court. "Stamps of this type bore an impression that was sometimes accompanied by a short inscription, which explained the contents of the dispatch or its destination in Assyrian cuneiform, and they differ in size and shape from the local stamps known in Judea," the Assyrian scholars explain.

Analysis of the inscription fragment and its content reinforces the hypothesis that the signed document deals with a delay in paying a tax or other obligation. The inscription specifies a due date – the first of the month of Av, and explicitly mentions a chariot officer (“one who holds the reins” in the Assyrian language). This title indicates a high-ranking personality, responsible for conveying official messages on behalf of the royal house, and such a figure is well known from the archives of the Assyrian administration.

Right:  Dr. Philip Wokosobowitz and the Assyrian inscription. Left:  Dr. Peter Zilberg of Bar-Ilan University with the rare inscription. Photo: Yuli Schwartz, Israel Antiquities Authority

Although the inscription fragment does not explicitly mention the name of the king of Judah to whom the shipment was intended, the chronological context and the partial text allow us to assume that it was sent to the court of one of the kings of Judah, Hezekiah, Manasseh, or Josiah early in their reigns, during which Judah was a protectorate of Assyria. Items of this type served as a means of communication between the envoys of the Assyrian government and the rulers of Judah, conveying official instructions and tax demands.

"Although we cannot determine whether this was a technical delay or a deliberate step with political significance, the very existence of such an official appeal may indicate a certain point of friction between Judah and the imperial government," say the researchers. One of the directions of research being examined is that the royal seal impression was sent to Judah during the time of Sennacherib, king of Assyria, since the characteristics of the inscription, and its dating to the reign of this king or one of his descendants, may perhaps echo a story of a tax revolt, such as the biblical description of Hezekiah's revolt, which is told in 2 Kings (18:7): "And he rebelled against the king of Assyria, and did not serve him."

A petrographic examination of the bulla indicated that it was not produced in Jerusalem, but was sent here from a long distance, most likely from one of the administrative centers of Assyria such as Nineveh, Ashur, or Nimrod.

Right: Researchers examine the rare find. Left: Dr. Ayala Zilberstein, director of the excavation, with the rare inscription. Photo: Yuli Schwartz, Israel Antiquities Authority; Emil Aljam, Israel Antiquities Authority

According to Dr. Anat Cohen-Weinberger of the Israel Antiquities Authority , "Examination of the composition of the inscription fragment clearly showed that the material from which it was made is completely different from the local raw materials used to produce pottery, bullae and clay certificates in Jerusalem and the southern Levant. In addition, the mineral composition of the bulla generally matches the geology of the Tigris Basin region, where the central cities of the Assyrian kingdom were located, such as Nineveh, Ashur or Nimrod. A chemical analysis of the bulla's composition is currently being conducted in collaboration with Dr. Yehudit Harleben of the Geological Institute, with the aim of precisely determining the source of production."

The researchers add that "this is a small fragment of great significance. The find opens a window into understanding the political and administrative ties between Judah and Assyria, and is the first evidence of its kind of the official, and perhaps even tense, communication that took place between Jerusalem and the most powerful power during the period we are discussing."

According to the Minister of Heritage, Rabbi Amichai Eliyahu , "The Assyrian inscription from the First Temple period that was discovered in the heart of Jerusalem is a moving and extremely impressive testimony to the city's status as the capital of the Kingdom of Judah some 2,700 years ago. This rare discovery, once again, illustrates our deep roots in Jerusalem - which has been the spiritual and national center of the Jewish people for thousands of years."

The inscription will be presented to the public for the first time this Thursday, October 23, at the conference "Innovations in the Archaeology of Jerusalem and Its Surroundings" by the Israel Antiquities Authority, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and Tel Aviv University, at the J. and Ginny Schottenstein