After a recent discovery of an unexplained cache of fossilized shark teeth in Jerusalem, scientists are now questioning why these fossils were unearthed on the site. The 2,900-year-old site where this was found is far from any other known place that holds such ancient artifacts and there has not been enough research done to explain how they got here. They believe it might have something to do with King Solomon because his death marks when their collection started but so far no one can say for sure what happened or who put them there.
Presenting the work at the Goldschmidt Conference, lead researcher, Dr. Thomas Tuetken (University of Mainz, Institute of Geosciences) said:
“These fossils are not in their original setting, so they have been moved. They were probably valuable to someone; we just don’t know why, or why similar items have been found in more than one place in Israel”.
A team of archaeologists excavated a large Iron-Age house in the City of David, an ancient village within Jerusalem. The group was excited to find not only fish bones and pottery but also hundreds of bullae! Bulla are items used for sealing letters or packages that date back about 2900 years ago; this discovery is quite intriguing because it implies some sort connection with the higher governing class at one point.
“We had at first assumed that the shark teeth were remains of the food dumped nearly 3000 years ago, but when we submitted a paper for publication, one of the reviewers pointed out that the one of the teeth could only have come from a Late Cretaceous shark that had been extinct for at least 66 million years,” Tuetken said. “That sent us back to the samples, where measuring organic matter, elemental composition, and the crystallinity of the teeth confirmed that indeed all shark teeth were fossils. Their strontium isotope composition indicates an age of about 80 million years. This confirmed that all 29 shark teeth found in the City of David were Late Cretaceous fossils—contemporary with dinosaurs. More than that, they were not simply weathered out of the bedrock beneath the site, but were probably transported from afar, possibly from the Negev, at least 80 km away, where similar fossils are found.”
The team is on a mission to find the origins of these teeth. They have already found some other shark teeth fossils at two sites in Israel, Maresha and Miqne. The original location of each tooth was likely uncovered by erosion or human interference before being moved from their locations after many years had gone past them untouched under the earth’s surface.
“Our working hypothesis is that the teeth were brought together by collectors, but we don’t have anything to confirm that,” Tuetken said. “There are no wear marks which might show that they were used as tools, and no drill holes to indicate that they may have been jewelry. We know that there is a market for shark’s teeth even today, so it may be that there was an Iron Age trend for collecting such items. This was a period of riches in the Judean Court. However, it’s too easy to put 2 and 2 together to make 5. We’ll probably never really be sure.”
The shark teeth identified come from several species, including the extinct Late Cretaceous group Squalicorax. The latter grew to between 2 and 5 meters long, lived only during the Late Cretaceous period (which was also when late dinosaurs were present), acting as a reference point in dating these fossils.