The world’s oldest-known stone tablet inscribed with the Ten Commandments surpassed expectations at a Sotheby’s auction on Wednesday. Expected to sell for an estimated $1 to $2 million, the tablet fetched a whopping $5 million.
“The result reflects the unparalleled importance of this artifact,” Richard Austin, Sotheby’s global head of books and manuscripts, told the New York Times. “To stand before this tablet is an experience unlike any other — it offers a direct connection to the shared roots of faith and culture that continue to shape our world today.”
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The two-foot-long marble slab is inscribed with the commandments, which were written in Paleo-Hebrew script, and it dates back between 300 and 800 CE. Weighing in at 155-pounds, it is the only complete example of its kind from antiquity.
It was initially discovered during railroad excavations along the southern coast of what was then Palestine in 1913 and, according to Jacob Kaplan who discovered the tablet in 1943, it was used as a paving stone with the inscription facing upwards.
In 1947, Kaplan had published his findings in the Bulletin of the Jewish Palestine Exploration Society. The tablet came into the possession of an Israeli antiquities dealer in 1995 and then became part of the Living Torah Museum in Brooklyn. In 2016, it was purchased by collector Mitchell S. Cappell for $850,000, who just now put it up for auction. The authenticity of the work, however, not uncommon for such objects, has been widely contested.
The text is similar to known Biblical verses referenced in Judeo-Christian religions, but it does not include the third commandment against taking the name of God in vain. It also details the need to worship on Mount Gerizim (near the present-day Palestinian city Nablus and also known as the biblical city Shechem), which was considered a holy site among Samaritans.
“A tangible link to ancient beliefs that have profoundly shaped global religious and cultural traditions, it serves as a rare testament to history,” the auction house said in a statement.
After more than 10 minutes of intense bidding from interested parties around the world, the tablet was acquired by an anonymous buyer with intentions to donate it to an Israeli institution.
