Archaeologists digging beneath a Jerusalem courtyard have uncovered a set of tiny Hellenistic gold rings that date back more than 2,000 years. Researchers believe the rings were deliberately buried beneath the floors of an ancient building as part of a ‘coming-of-age’ ritual performed by young girls.
The rings were found with two other gold ornaments and three bronze earrings at the Givʽati Parking Lot excavation site in Jerusalem’s City of David. The pieces were buried beneath the floors of a large structure called Building 110, which dates to the late third and early second centuries BC.
Jerusalem was under Seleucid rule at the time, a period when the city engaged closely with wider Hellenistic culture and its artistic traditions.
Small Rings, garnet stones, and a golden earring from Building 110
The study reports that the small size of the Hellenistic gold rings was the clearest sign of who had once worn them. One ring measured just 1.2 centimeters (0.47 inches) across, while the other measured 1.6 centimeters (0.63 inches), both sizes far too small to fit an adult’s finger.
Each ring held a deep red stone, most likely a garnet, set in gold using techniques that were common across the Hellenistic world. Researchers also recovered a gold earring shaped like a horned animal’s head, a small gold bead decorated with filigree wire, and three plain bronze earrings.
The items showed little wear or damage, which led researchers to rule out the idea that they had simply been lost or thrown away. The jewelry was also found in separate spots beneath different floors of the building, rather than gathered together in a single hidden location.
That pattern suggested to researchers that the pieces were placed there on different occasions, not hidden all at once purely for safekeeping.
Hellenistic gold rings and an ancient ‘coming-of-age’ ritual for girls
Researchers linked the discovery to a well-documented Greek custom in which young women dedicated jewelry, toys and other childhood belongings to goddesses before marriage.
Such offerings were typically made to deities such as Artemis and Aphrodite, and ancient inscriptions and poems describe the practice at temples across Greece. One surviving poem tells of a bride named Timareta, who offered her childhood toys and a lock of hair to Artemis before her wedding.
Jerusalem had no known temple built for this kind of dedication, so researchers suggested that local families may have carried out the ritual at home. A similar case was reported at Tel Qedesh, an administrative building in the Upper Galilee, where a hoard of childhood-related items received the same interpretation.
Building 110 is described as a large, finely built residential complex with administrative ties, among the biggest structures uncovered from this era in Jerusalem. Its entrances were deliberately sealed, and after a fire later damaged parts of the structure, the ruins were buried beneath a layer of fill.
That burial was part of a larger citywide construction project carried out under the early Hasmonean rulers, who reshaped much of Jerusalem’s urban landscape. The findings were published in the journal ‘Atiqot by researchers from the Israel Antiquities Authority, Tel Aviv University, and the Ancient Jerusalem Research Center.
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