Rare 1,700-Year-Old Marble Busts Unearthed in Binyamina

Archaeologists in Binyamina have uncovered two marble busts, about 1,700 years old, hidden inside a wine-collection pit of a Roman-Byzantine wine press. The sculptures depict historical figures from the Greco-Roman world, and one preserves a Greek inscription with the name “Lycurgus.” The find was made during an excavation by the Israel Antiquities Authority as part of a major transport project led by the Transportation Ministry and Israel Railways to double the coastal railway line, known as National Outline Plan 65.

The wider project is intended to allow 250 km/h trains and cut travel time between Haifa and Tel Aviv to about half an hour. The excavation is part of the “Fast Lane” project within the Transportation Ministry’s “Connecting Israel” vision. According to excavation directors Eliran Oren and Avishag Reis, the busts were not found in place but were laid carefully face down in the pit after the press went out of use. They said it is still unknown why the pieces were concealed, although preservation is one possible explanation.

Archaeologist Michael Soroztkin said he noticed something sticking out of the soil, called the workers over, and realized it was marble, not pottery. “We felt we were about to discover something that should not be there,” he said, adding that once the second bust appeared, “I am still struggling to find the words. פשוט מדהים.” Oren and Reis called it “a once-in-a-lifetime discovery,” and said major finds often come on the final day of work.

Dr. Peter Gandelman of the Antiquities Authority said the busts join a series of historical portraits previously found in Caesarea, where the last such discovery was in the 1990s. He said Lycurgus could refer either to the Spartan founder or to the Athenian statesman and orator from the 4th century BCE, though the research is only beginning. Gandelman added that in Roman times such sculptures appeared in public buildings and elite homes, and that nearby remains of a bathhouse suggest they may have decorated a luxurious villa.

The busts will now be cleaned, conserved, and studied further to identify the figures and determine their original setting. They will be shown for the first time at the archaeological conference “In the Center VII” at the Eretz Israel Museum in Tel Aviv on Thursday, June 18, in cooperation with the museum, the Antiquities Authority, Tel Aviv University’s Sonia and Tony Levin Institute of Archaeology, and Bar-Ilan University’s Institute of Archaeology. The sculptures will then remain on display at the museum through the summer.