A 115-pound marble slab is going up for auction at Sotheby’s today, and experts expect it to fetch millions.
The two-foot-tall piece is inscribed with Paleo-Hebrew script and is believed to be the world’s oldest version of the Ten Commandments, dating to C.E. 300-800.
Jacob Kaplan, who took possession of the stone in 1943, explained that it was first unearthed in 1913 while a railway was being constructed in southern Israel and then somehow found its way to the front entrance of a home. “For thirty years it served as a paving stone at the entrance to a local home, with the inscription facing upwards and exposed to foot traffic,” according to the Sotheby’s description. Kaplan recognized its significance and wrote about it in the scholarly journal The Bulletin of the Jewish Palestine Exploration Society.
It moved to a museum in Brooklyn and was bought by collector Mitchell S. Cappell for $850,000 in 2016.
Experts are debating its authenticity, as there are known to be many fakes from this region, notes The New York Times. They also point out that the tablet has a pretty big typo: “At least according to this tablet, murdering and stealing is still bad, and you had sure better honor your father and mother. But taking the Lord’s name in vain seems not to be as big a problem: The third commandment isn’t there.”
Richard Austin, Sotheby’s Global Head of Books & Manuscripts, brushes off doubts, stating, “This remarkable tablet is not only a vastly important historic artifact, but a tangible link to the beliefs that helped shape Western civilization.”
Sotheby’s is opening bidding at $1 million and predicts that bidders could double that price. Holy moley indeed.
