This handle bears a common type of stamped inscription in Greek, with the name of a specific priest of Rhodes and the month that the wine inside the jar was bottled. Separate epigraphic sources have provided lists of these high priests and enable us to determine when they served as head of the priesthood. The jar handle shown here bears the name of Ainesidamos; another example with the same name was excavated in the Tyropoeon Valley of Jerusalem, and can be dated to the end of the 3rd century to the mid-2nd century B.C.E.

Rhodian wine would have been considered by Jews as "libation wine," (i.e., consecrated for ritual use by non-Jews) and consequently not kosher. This may explain why so few Rhodian jar handles were found in the Upper City of Jerusalem, which was adjacent to the Temple and may have been occupied by at least one priestly family.