Israeli President Isaac Herzog's Media Advisor, Eylon Levy, and his friend, Yakov Ashkenazi, some months ago,
stumbled onto a 2,500 years old small pottery shard that provided evidence of the government of Persian King Darius the Great at Lachish at the turn of the 5th century BC.
They found the broken pottery material during a walk in Tel Lachish National Park, southern Israel, a cbn news report said.
The shard has, "Year 24 of Darius" inscribed on it in Aramaic, situating the date at 498 B.C.
A news release by the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA), which was notified of the find said, "This is the first discovery of an inscription bearing Darius the Great's name anywhere in the Land of Israel."
The IAA release further noted that "It appears that the inscribed ostracon, discovered in the area of the Persian building, may have been an administrative note, akin to a receipt of goods or for their dispatching."
Levy said when he first found the shard, he thought it might be a joke. "When I picked up the ostracon (shard) and saw the inscription, my hands shook," he said. "I looked left and right for the cameras because I was sure someone was playing an elaborate prank on me."
Israel Antiquities Authority Director Eli Escuzido said the rare find revived the memory of the Persian King Darius, who was the father of Ahasuerus, "It's amazing that visitors to the site come across such a rare inscription 'reviving' the Persian King Darius known to us from the sources!
"His son, King Ahasuerus, who ruled 'from India to Cush', could never have imagined that we would find evidence of his father in Israel 2,500 years after the dramatic events in his royal court," Eli Escuzido said.
IAA Researchers Saar Ganor and Dr. Haggai Misgav of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem stated that excavations done by the British at Tel Lachish nearly 90 years ago discovered evidence of a luxurious building from the time of Persian rule, "built on top of the podium of the destroyed palace-fort of the Judean kings.
This King Darius is not the one mentioned in the book of Daniel.
He was mentioned in the book of Ezra as a king who was friendly to the Jews, under whose reign the building of the 2nd Temple began.
His name is recorded in the text as the father of Ahasuerus, the king written about in the Book of Esther.
Ahasuerus was persuaded by Haman to issue a decree to kill the Jews in Persia.
His Jewish wife, Hadassah or Esther, risked her life to uncover Haman's plan, causing King Ahasuerus to reverse his decree and hang Haman instead on the gallows he had built to hang Mordechai, Esther's cousin.
Jews around the world celebrate this biblical story each year, as a directive of the Lord, during the Feast of Purim.
The discovery will be published in the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA journal Atiqot, Vol. 110:
History. Religion.
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