Archaeologists uncover 'exciting' inscription at Biblical Mount Zion
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An ancient inscription found on the Biblical Mount Zion in Jerusalem has revealed a previously unknown relationship between two nations. Archaeologists uncovered a 500-year-old porcelain shard of a bowl painted with Chinese lettering that reads: 'Forever we will guard the eternal spring.'.
![[The roughly 500-year-old porcelain shard, believed to be the remains of bowl dating to the Ming Dynasty, was discovered in that shadow of the 'Church of the Dormition' (above) - built to honor the place the Virgin Mary is believed to have died - atop Jerusalem's highest point]](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/12/11/16/93043057-14182165-image-a-68_1733934450750.jpg)
They called it the 'first archeological testimony of economical and political connections between the early Ottoman Empire, the Holy Land of Israel and Imperial China' — but the text's meaning remains unclear. 'All of us, we were very excited [by] this rare find because it was so unexpected,' said the archeologist who made the find, Michael Chernin with the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA).
![[The dig site at Mount Zion is steeped in many tricky and overlapping layers, all rich with history. Above, a different team lead by British-born archeologist Professor Shimon Gibson works their way through a confusion of Byzantine-era structures also buried within Mount Zion]](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/12/11/16/93043047-14182165-image-a-70_1733934515745.jpg)
While the authority have worked on the Mount Zion dig site for the past three years with Germany's Protestant Institute of Archaeology, neither team could speak with certainty as to the meaning behind the ornate bowl's centuries-old message. Researchers suggested that the 'evocative inscription' might indicate 'the awe in which the Ottomans held Chinese porcelain renowned the world wide for the fine quality of the clay.'.
![[Above, Director General of the German Protestant Institute of Archeology, Dr Dieter Vieweger, holds the new fragment alongside IAA archeologist Michael Chernin (left) and his colleague from the Protestant Institute, postdoctoral researcher Dr Jennifer Zimmi (right)]](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/12/11/19/93043045-14182165-Above_Director_General_of_the_German_Protestant_Institute_of_Arc-m-36_1733945798089.jpg)
But the archeologists behind the find are focused on more concrete analysis of the artifact, which they have dated to between the years 1520 and 1570, saying it likely arrived via Chinese merchant colonies then existing in Beirut, Tripoli and Jerusalem.
![[Above, Prof Gibson observes another excavation at Mount Zion from a crane - not too far from where the IAA and Germany's Protestant Institute of Archaeology found the Chinese porcelain]](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/12/11/16/93043055-14182165-image-a-72_1733934534489.jpg)
