Gunneweg, Jan and Yellin, J. 1990, The origin of Hellenistic and Roman Stamped handles from the City of David, in Excavations at the City of David 1978-1985, Volume II D.T. Ariel (Ed.) Jerusalem. Qedem series 30, 89-93 About 480 stamped handles were found in the excavations of the City of David, ancient Jerusalem. Thirty-eight of them were subjected to INAA in the Jerusalem laboratory. We found that 21 could be classified as of Rhodian origin, four came apparently from Kos, two from Knidos and the Zenon handle that stands alone. These handles are very important because many of the stamps represent certain reigning years of rulers we know and thus help the chronology of the levels in which they are found. When coins can be hoarded, loosing therewith their importance as earmarks for dating, the stamped handles are as good as coins, but were apparently not hoarded so that each one is dating the place where it was found. Comments? Please write: Jan Gunneweg To return, click Archaeometry abstracts of our work or click "BACK" or click the Homepage . Jan Gunneweg Ph.D., The Hebrew University, revised November 2005