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3,000-Year-Old Gold Bead Discovered in Temple Mount Earth
(Times of Israel) Amanda Borschel-Dan - A First Temple-era gold bead was discovered in August during sifting of earth from the Temple Mount by Binyamin Milt, age 9, from Jerusalem. The bead was in such outstanding condition that it was initially dismissed as modern. But Temple Mount Sifting Project co-director Prof. Gabriel Barkay took a closer look and dated the bead to the First Temple period, based on almost-identical silver beads manufactured using the same "granulation" technique, which Barkay had excavated in Jerusalem in the 1970s. The handmade bead is fashioned from four layers, each made of tiny gold balls that adhere to each other. To produce it required the ability to melt the metal at high temperatures, and a high level of skill from the artisan. In the past 15 years, through the help of some 200,000 paying volunteers, the sifting project has recovered over 500,000 artifacts, including 5,000 coins.