Strata: Strata Answers

Answer: C. Chalcolithic scepter

This copper scepter with Ibex heads was part of a large cache discovered in 1961 in a small cave above Nahal Mishmar in the Judean Desert. Now known as the Nahal Mishmar hoard, the collection dates to the Chalcolithic period (4000–3300 B.C.E.) and is made up mostly of copper objects—240 mace heads, 80 scepters and 10 crowns—created using the “lost-wax technique.” Scholars suggest that the hoard, which was found wrapped in a straw mat, may have been sacred artifacts from the treasury of the shrine at Ein Gedi, just 6 miles north of the cave. The treasure was probably hidden in the cave for safe-keeping when the shrine was mysteriously abandoned.

Answer: 415 years

The traditional date for King David’s ascendancy to the throne is 1000 B.C.E. At that time he brought all the tribes of Israel together under his rule in the United Monarchy, which lasted through the end of the reign of his son Solomon around 920 B.C.E. The 10 northern tribes of Israel rejected Solomon’s successor, Rehoboam, and installed Jeroboam I as their own king, thus breaking from the Davidic line. The dynasty continued, however, with the kings of the southern kingdom of Judah. In order to become king, it was necessary to prove one’s descent from David himself. David’s dynasty lasted in Judah until the Babylonian conquest of 586 B.C.E., when Jerusalem and the Temple were destroyed during the reign of King Zedekiah. Though many generations of rabbis traced themselves back to the Davidic line, no descendant of David has sat on the throne of Israel since the sixth century B.C.E.