These days the preference for shoddy, cheap, use-and-discard products is all over the place. Here is an example:
This sorry street sign in Jerusalem has taken on a very “artistic” look – because it is made from a blue layer of stick-on plastic sheet over a metal plate. Over time the plastic started to shrink and curl, with this amusing result.
And it occurs to me that the ancients who lived in our city had a better method. Take this stone, which was part of the temple enclosure parapet in the second temple period (around the time of Christ). It too carries a Hebrew inscription, identifying the location of “the house of trumpeting” – the location where the priest stood who blew the ram horn to announce the entry of the Sabbath.
This stone took a big fall when the Romans destroyed the temple, but the lettering on it is crisp and legible after two millennia.
Sigh…
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