A 1,500-Year-Old Inscribed Tablet of the Ten Commandments Is Headed to Auction

Thou shalt not overlook this upcoming Sotheby’s sale. Next month, the auction house will offer the oldest inscribed stone tablet of the Ten Commandments, dating back to 300 to 800 C.E.

The 1,500-year-old artifact is expected to fetch up to $2 million during the single-lot sale on December 18. The tablet is the only complete, surviving example of the Ten Commandments from the Late Byzantine period. It weighs in at a hefty 115 pounds and measures about two feet tall.



Inscribed in Paleo-Hebrew script, the 20 lines of text hew closely to the biblical verses people may be familiar with, but just 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 has a directive to worship on Mount Gerizim, a Samaritan holy site. Discovered in 1913, the artifact has a rather interesting history, too.

It was uncovered during railway excavations along the southern coast of Israel, close to where early synagogues, mosques, and churches would have been. Those who found it, though, weren’t aware of its importance: For 30 years, it sat as a paving stone outside someone’s home, with the inscription facing upwards, allowing it to be stepped on. In 1943, it was sold to a scholar who realized its significance.

“This remarkable tablet is not only a vastly important historic artifact, but 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 shared piece of cultural heritage is to journey through millennia and connect with cultures and faiths told through one of humanity’s earliest and most enduring moral codes.” Before hitting the auction block, the tablet will go on public display at Sotheby’s New York starting on December 5.

And while the $2 million high estimate is quite 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 Codex Sassoon , a 1,100-year-old Hebrew Bible, for an eye-popping $38.1 million.

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