A 19th – century lead spinning top (dreidel) was found in archeological excavations in Moscow near the Kremlin

The Observatorial

The capital’s restorers managed to clear a lead toy (top of the 19th century), which was found on Sretenka last summer. Hebrew letters are applied on its edge. The toy is a dreidel (sevivon) – one of the traditional attributes of the Hanukkah celebration.

Moscow archaeologists managed to clear and read the letters printed on a lead toy top of the 19th century. This item was found among other artifacts during excavations at Sretenka. The letters of the Hebrew alphabet “nun”, “gimel”, “hey”, “shin” are applied to each of the four faces of the top. The phrase is encrypted in them: “A Great Miracle Happened There.”

The artifact is associated with a story that took place in the Jerusalem temple in the first century BC. The temple was desecrated, and in order to cleanse it of the filth, it was required to burn a special oil lamp for eight days. But the believers had very little suitable oil. And there was no time to make a new one. The miracle was that the lamp did not go out within the required period.

The archaeologists were faced with a dreidel, or sevivon. A traditional toy and one of the attributes of the Hanukkah celebration.