Sotheby's
The Ten Commandments related to the Biblical Book of Exodus make one of the world’s oldest, most famous sets of rules. They are the basis of major world religions, key tenets of moral codes, and even the inspiration for an epic film. Now, the oldest stone tablet inscribed with these rules will be up for auction at Sotheby’s. The marble tablet, about two feet tall, 115 pounds, and approximately 1,500 years old, will be displayed at Sotheby’s showroom in New York starting on Dec. 5 and is expected to sell for one to two million dollars in a single-lot sale on Dec. 18.
The tablet last sold for $850,000 at Heritage Auctions in 2016 in an auction of Properties of the Living Torah Museum. As the tablet had been designated a “National Treasure” of Israel by the Israel Antiquities Authority, the buyer was required to agree to publicly exhibit it.
In addition to the religious and cultural significance of its inscription, the tablet itself is linked to significant events in world history. Like many artifacts of its age, much of its own history is uncertain. It dates from the late Roman to early Byzantine periods. Archaeologists believe it may have been part of a synagogue or a private home, and the building may have been destroyed during the Roman Empire or the Crusades.
The tablet was unearthed during the construction of a railroad in 1913 in what is now the city of Yavneh, near the sites of historical synagogues, churches, and mosques. At the time, the area was part of the Ottoman Empire. The tablet was then used as a paving stone in a courtyard, likely by one of the construction workers. Foot traffic wore away at the inscriptions, but they were still clear enough to understand when a scholar acquired the tablet in 1943. This apparently unknown scholar wrote an article about the tablet with archaeologist Yitzhak Ben-Zvi, later the second president of Israel.
The script on the tablet is Samaritan, derived from Paleo-Hebrew, and still used by a small population today. Characteristic of the Samaritan Decalogues, as texts like this one are known, the tenth commandment directs worshippers to the holy site of Mount Gerizim.
Sotheby’s Global Head of Books and Manuscripts, Richard Austin, calls the tablet “not only a vastly important historic artifact, but a tangible link to the beliefs that helped shape Western civilization” and says that “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.”
Now, having survived the Roman, Byzantine, and Ottoman Empires, the Crusades, use as a stepping stone, and countless untold events, this tablet is heading for a new owner and the next chapter in its history.
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