Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
The Schmooze

What is this Mysterious Object Found at Jerusalem Gravesite?

An ancient rolling pin?

An unusable bowling pin?

An impractical paperweight?

Six months ago, a 19-pound object was brought to the attention of the Israeli Antiquities Authorities after it was found at a burial site in Jerusalem.

So this week, the Authorities put out one heck of audience engagement project.

Fearing it might be an explosive, they brought in a bomb squad. After the object survived a controlled blast, they posted a picture of it their Facebook page, hoping the answer would come from there.

Sure enough, it did. Mere hours after posting the picture, and dozens of funny and ridiculous suggestions later (a Tito Puente percussion instrument is the best one), they were contacted by Micah Barak from Italy, who had the answer they were looking for.

The strange looking object is in fact an “Isis Beamer” or as others call it, a harmonizer. A kind of new-agey bringer of positive vibes, if you will.

Barak told the Daily Dot he remembered seeing one before, and googled the object’s attributes until he found it on this German website.

The Antiquities Authority was elated, and posted a thank you on Facebook, inviting Barak to come by whenever he was back in Israel.

So, the mystery of the object has been solved. But one mystery still remain: who put it there to begin with?

“We hope that those responsible for hiding the object in the cemetery will contact us, tell us why it was buried in the ancient structure and to whom amongst the dead and buried they wanted to give positive energy.” the Antiquities Authority wrote on their Facebook page.

We hope they update us once they find it!

[H/T Daily Dot]

A message from our Publisher & CEO Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

With your support, we’ll be ready for whatever 2025 brings.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.