[Bonetools] Roman bone pins and an interesting story

[Etan Ayalon]

Hello,

Here are 10 bone pins of the 2nd-3rd centuries found in Beth-Shan (Beit
She'an, Bisan), Israel, known in the Roman period as Nysa-Scythopolis.
Excavations in the center of the Roman city revealed, inter alia, two
temples, one of which was dedicated to Dionysus and the other - to
Demeter and Kore-Persephone. The temples went out of use in the 4th
century due to the accepting of Christianity (and possibly also
following the 363 CE earthquake). However, as the local population were
probably still attached to the pagan beliefs, they collected many
objects stored in the Persephone temple and buried them in an organized
way in a vault under the temple before it was dismantled, using the
vault as a favissa. These items, found in the excavations of the Israel
Antiquities Authority, included altars, votive vessels, oil lamps, clay
figurines of Aphrodite and Persephone and dozens or even hundreds of
bone pins. The heads of many pins were shaped as a hand, an altar and
the figure of Aphrodite and/or Persephone.

These pins can be seen now in a new exhibition in the Hecht Museum at
Haifa University (to all those who plan to participate in the conference
next month!). The attached photo was published in a Hebrew (only) paper
in the exhibition catalogue: 

Mazor, G. and Atrash, V. 2013. Nysa-Scythopolis - The buried treasure of
Demeter and Kore-Persephone. In: Rimon, O. (ed.). Hoards and Genizot as
Chapters in History (exhibition catalogue No. 33, Hecht Museum). Haifa,
pp. 51-57 (Hebrew).

Etan   

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