Archaeologists in Jerusalem have unearthed a rare 1,300-year-old lead medallion decorated on both sides with the image of a seven-branched menorah — the ceremonial candlestick unique to the Second Temple.
Researchers think the medallion was worn on a necklace by a Jewish person in the late sixth or early seventh century, when the city and surrounding region were under the rule of the Christian Byzantine Empire — only decades before the city fell, first to the Sasanian Persians in 614 and then to mostly Arab Islamic invaders in about 638.
