Mildenhall treasure

Mildenhall Hexagram

Picture by

© Sheepdog Rex from Flickr

The Mildenhall treasure of Roman silver objects is exhibited in the British Museum. The treasure was discovered in 1943 in the small town Mildenhall, Suffolk, England. It was buried in the 4th century. On the center of a fluted silver bowl (Diameter: 40.8 cm) there is a Star of David. Researchers presume that the bowl was intended to hold water for washing hands at table.

Researchers say that it has no connection to Judaism.

My late mentor, Dr. Ze'ev Goldmann taught me to look at all the elements in each artifact, and here we see a six petaled flower inside the hexagon, and many more flowers between the points.

The six petaled flower inside the hexagon is a very common (floral) motif in Roman mosaics, but the flowers between the points seem unique.

M. Costa ["Hatakh ha-zahav, hotam Shelomoh u-magen-David", Poalim, 1990, Hebrew, pp. 160] wrote that identical Stars of David were found on four out of ten similar silver bowls in the Anglo-Saxon 7th century ship burial at Sutton Hoo, near Woodbridge, Suffolk , England. It was discovered 

in 1939 and contained a wealth of artifacts.

Sutton Hoo Bowl with a Christian star of David 

Photo Courtesy of © Sheepdog Rex from Flickr

In the central hexagon there's an 8 petaled flower

inside each triangle- a Fleur de Lys

Between the triangles - birds (Christian doves?)

and the star of David is in the center of a large Cross

made from 16 rhombs each of which is  surrounded by a circle