A Ten Commandments tablet, created during the Roman-Byzantine era 1,500 years ago, is going up for auction.
According to CNN, auction house Sotheby’s announced that it will hold an auction for the tablet, weighing approximately 52 kilograms and measuring about 61 centimeters in height, on December 18 in New York. The tablet was discovered in 1913 at a railroad construction site in what is now southern Israel.
The auction house estimates the tablet could fetch up to $2 million.
The discovery site is in close proximity to ruins of an early Jewish synagogue, mosque, and church. Remarkably, the tablet’s historical significance went unrecognized for decades and was reportedly used as a common building material. It wasn’t until 1943 that a scholar recognized its true value.
The tablet preserves nine of the Ten Commandments written in Hebrew from the Book of Exodus. Sotheby’s described the commandments as the cornerstone of law and morality, as well as a foundational document of Western civilization.
Sotheby’s emphasized the tablet’s immense historical importance, calling it a tangible link to the beliefs that shaped Western civilization. Experts speculate that the tablet’s original location may have been destroyed during Roman invasions between 400 and 600 CE or during the Crusades in the late 11th century.
The tablet will be on display at Sotheby’s New York gallery starting December 5, ahead of the auction.
Meanwhile, in a Sotheby’s auction last year, a Hebrew Bible over 1,000 years old sold for $38.1 million.
