A RING WITH A SAMARITAN INSCRIPTION FROM YAVNE, ISRAEL

During archaeological excavations carried out in south-east of Tel Yavne, Israel, some graves dug in natural sand and containing a large amount of Byzantine pottery and coins were found. In one of them an octagonal ring made on bronze and bearing Samaritan letters was deposited. The ring belongs to a welldefined and known type of Samaritan amuletic rings dating to the Late Roman- Byzantine Periods. Commonly, these rings bear two rows of Samaritan writing in each facet with quotations from the Samaritan Pentateuch, and they make up a particular cultural phenomenon of the Samaritan community in the period. The vast majority of the hitherto found Samaritan rings are unprovenanced. The engraver of the present ring was not proficient with the Samaritan script. It appears that he copied the letters from some source, most likely without understanding them. He performed the same letters in different manners, often defectively, sometimes in the wrong position and sometimes in the wrong direction.