A ring from the Herodium reading "Pilatus"
A cheap sealing ring from a Herodian site carries the name Pilatus.
DisputedObject1st century AD
A simple copper-alloy sealing ring excavated fifty years before anyone could read it. Modern imaging showed a wine vessel and the Greek letters PILATO. Rings of this type were everyday objects, used by officials and their staff.
ΠΙΛΑΤΟ — Pilato.
- Found
- Herodium, West Bank, 1969 — Gideon Foerster's excavation; the inscription read in 2018
- Now held at
- Israel Antiquities Authority
- Language
- Greek
- How it reached us
- Dug up, or still standing where it was built.
What it shows
The name is rare in the region, but the ring is an ordinary type and would be unusual for a prefect's own use. It may have belonged to someone working for him, or to another Pilatus. The excavators themselves say so.
How historians use it
Reported in the Israel Exploration Journal with the caveats intact; treated as suggestive rather than conclusive.
In Scripture
Connects to
Sources
- Amorai-Stark et al., "An Inscribed Copper-Alloy Finger Ring from Herodium", IEJ 68 (2018)
These summaries are written in English for now. Translations follow.