Granatapfel Punica Granatum Granatapfelkernöl Pomegranate

The item in question is a thumb-sized piece of ivory carved into the shape of a pomegranate. It was thought to have been the top of a sceptre carried by the high priest of the Temple. Proof of this belief came from an inscription on it in ancient Hebrew lettering, reading: ‘Belonging to the Temple of the Lord (Yahweh), holy to the priests.” However, a recent analysis by a team of experts had revealed that the inscription is a recent addition, and that the pomegranate is in fact a Bronze Age artifact, dating to 1,400 BC, long before the building of Solomon's Temple.

Until being denounced as a fake, the pomegranate was a vital piece of evidence for the existence of the so-called First Temple, which has yet to be archaeologically proved. The temple is said to have been built some time early in the 1st millennium BC, and to have been situated somewhere near, or under, the Muslim Dome of the Rock. This temple, called Solomon's Temple, was destroyed by the Babylonians in 587 BC – and no trace of it has ever been discovered.