FINCHLEY MAN FINDS PROOF OF ANCIENT KING OF PERSIA

When two friends went for a walk through an Israeli national park and archaeological site late last year, a piece of broken ceramic they found stood out as being of immediate interest.

The shard in Tel Lachish, an area of ruins with a rich biblical history, bore an Aramaic inscription. In what was once an ancient Canaanite and Israelite city, the pair suspected that they had stumbled across a piece of history.

They sent it o to be studied by experts from the Israel Antiquities Authority, who soon reported that what they had found was evidence for the Persian royal administration at Lachish in the Archaemenid period around 2,500 years ago.

The inscription reads ‘Year 24 of Darius’, in reference to Persian king Darius the Great, father of Ahasuerus, also known as the biblical Achashverosh from the Book of Esther, read at Purim.

“When I picked it up and saw the inscription my hands shook,” said Eylon Levy, who found the shard while out with his friend Yakov Ashkenazi.

“I looked left and right for the cameras. I was sure someone was playing a prank on me.”

Levy, who grew up in Finchley, now lives in Israel and works as an international media adviser to President Herzog.