When Eytan Stibbe heads off to the International Space Station at the end of the year, becoming only the second Israeli ever to go into space, he’ll take with him a 1,900-year-old coin recently unearthed in the Judean Desert.
Stibbe recently visited the Israel Antiquities Authority’s Dead Sea Scrolls laboratory in Jerusalem, where he was shown ancient scroll fragments from the Book of Enoch discovered together with other biblical texts in the Judean Desert caves.
Both sides of the coin bear Jewish symbols typical of the Second Temple period: a palm tree with the inscription “Shimon,” of which only two letters are discernable, and a vine leaf with the inscription “Year Two of the liberty of Israel.”
“As part of the ‘Rakia’ mission to the International Space Station, I will be taking with me a bag filled with items that have a special meaning to me. It was clear to me that one of these items will be a symbol of Jewish history,” said Stibbe.
“I saw the coin, minted with the palm tree and vine leaf, that for me represent the connection to the land, the love of the country, and the desire of the population of Israel in those years for independence,” he added.
This article was first published by Israel21c.