You should not overlook this upcoming Sotheby’s sale.

Next month, the auction house will offer the oldest engraved stone tablet of the Ten Commandments, dating from 300 to 800 CE. The 1,500-year-old artifact is expected to fetch up to $2 million in the Dec. 18 single-lot sale.

The tablet is the only complete and surviving example of the Ten Commandments from the late Byzantine period. He weighs 115 pounds and is about two feet tall. Written in Paleo-Hebrew script, the 20 lines of text are closely related to Bible verses people may be familiar with, but only nine of the commandments found in the Book of Exodus are present. Instead of including “Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord in vain,” the tablet contains a directive to worship on Mount Gerizim, a Samaritan holy site.

Discovered in 1913, the artifact also has a rather interesting history. It was discovered during railway excavations along the southern coast of Israel, near where the first synagogues, mosques and churches stood. Those who found it, however, were unaware of its importance: for 30 years it remained as a paving stone in front of someone’s house, with the inscription facing upwards, allowing walking on it. In 1943 it was sold to a scholar who understood its importance.

“This remarkable tablet is not only an extremely important historical artifact, but also a tangible link to the beliefs that helped shape Western civilization,” Richard Austin, Sotheby’s global head of books and manuscripts, said in a statement. . “To encounter this common element of cultural heritage is to travel across millennia and connect with cultures and beliefs told through one of humanity’s oldest and most enduring moral codes. »

Before being auctioned, the tablet will be on public display at Sotheby’s New York starting December 5. And while the $2 million high estimate is pretty impressive, it’s nowhere near what Sotheby’s has commanded in the past for similarly ancient artifacts. In May 2023, the auction house sold the Sassoon Codexa 1,100-year-old Hebrew Bible, for a staggering $38.1 million.

The Ten Commandments Tablet may not fetch that sum, but it’s a piece of history that collectors might jump at the chance to own.