A 1,500 year old stamp bearing an image of the seven-branched Temple Menorah was discovered near the city of Akko.

The tiny stamp was used in the 6th century to identify baked products and it probably belonged to a bakery that supplied kosher bread to the Jews of Akko in the Byzantine period.

The excavations are being conducted at Horbat Uza east of Akko on behalf of the Israel Antiquities Authority. The find belongs to a group of stamps referred to as “bread stamps” because they were usually used to stamp baked goods.

According to Gilad Jaffe and Dr. Danny Syon, the directors of the excavation on behalf of the Israel Antiquities Authority, “A number of stamps bearing an image of a menorah are known from different collections. The Temple Menorah, being a Jewish symbol par excellence, indicates the stamps belonged to Jews, unlike Christian bread stamps with the cross pattern which were much more common in the Byzantine period.”