A late Byzantine period tablet inscribed with the Ten Commandments and discovered as a stepping stone in a private residence is going up for auction next month.
The tablet is estimated to sell between $1 and $2 million, according to a press release from Sotheby’s, an international broker of fine art, artifacts, and collectibles.
The stone, which weighs 115 pounds and stands at two feet tall, is believed to be the oldest known tablet featuring the entire Ten Commandments. The estimated age of the tablet somewhere around 1,500 years old.
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“This is really one-of-a-kind. It’s one of the most important historic artifacts that I’ve ever handled,” Sharon Liberman Mintz, Sotheby’s international senior specialist of Judaica, books and manuscripts, said to ARTnews.
The tablet was first discovered in 1913 near Israel’s southern coast during railway construction. For years, it went unnoticed and was used as a paving stone in front of a house, with its inscription facing regular foot traffic.
In 1943, a scholar bought the stone and identified it as a Samaritan Decalogue, an important piece of religious history possibly displayed in a synagogue or private home. The original site of the tablet may have been destroyed during Roman invasions between 400-600 CE or during the Crusades in the 11th century.
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The inscription on the stone includes 20 lines closely related to Biblical texts familiar to both Christians and Jews.
The tablet notably contains only nine of the Ten Commandments, leaving out “Do not take the Lord’s name in vain” and instead adds a command to worship on Mount Gerizim, a sacred place for Samaritans.
“This remarkable tablet is not only a vastly important historic artifact, but a tangible link to the beliefs that helped shape Western civilization,” said Richard Austin, Sotheby’s Global Head of Books & Manuscripts, in a release.
“To encounter this shared piece of cultural heritage is to journey through millennia and connect with cultures and faiths told through one of humanity’s earliest and most enduring moral codes,” added Austin.
The tablet will be on exhibition at Sotheby’s in New York from Dec. 5 through Dec. 17 and goes up for auction on Dec. 18.
Sotheby’s did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
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