Archaeologists Find Two 1,700-Year-Old Statues in Israel Winepress

Archaeologists uncovered two marble statues dating to roughly 1,700 years ago near Binyamina, Israel, GB News reported. The figures were found during preparatory excavations for a coastal high-speed railway and lay neatly placed face down inside the collection pit of a Roman-Byzantine winepress.

Excavation directors Eliran Oren and Avishag Reiss said the statues appeared to have been deliberately concealed when the winepress stopped operating.

They added that the reason for the hiding remains unknown, though preservation may have been a factor. One statue carries a Greek inscription reading "Lycurgus," according to the Israel Antiquities Authority. Peter Gendelman, an IAA expert on the Caesarea region, said the name could refer to either Lycurgus of Sparta or Lycurgus of Athens, though research into the figures' identities has only begun.

Gendelman noted that such sculptures in the Roman period commonly decorated public buildings or the homes of wealthy residents. He pointed to earlier finds of bathhouse remains nearby and suggested the statues may once have stood in a luxurious villa belonging to a resident of nearby Caesarea.

Michael Sorotskin, an IAA archaeologist on the project, said workers alerted him after an object protruded from the ground during digging.

The team first assumed the item was ordinary pottery before recognizing it as marble. The Israel Antiquities Authority is now conducting cleaning and conservation work on both statues. Oren and Reiss described the find as unexpected and noted that major discoveries frequently occur on the final day of an excavation.

Gendelman said the discovery marks the first of its kind in about thirty years.