JERUSALEM, Jan. 15 (Xinhua) -- Israeli and American archaeologists have uncovered a rare late-Roman-era boundary stone with a Greek inscription, dating back approximately 1,720 years, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HU) said in a statement on Wednesday.

The basalt stone, detailed in the Palestine Exploration Quarterly, was discovered at the Tel Abel Beth Maacah archaeological site near the town of Metula in the Upper Galilee region of northern Israel.

HU noted that the stone was used to demarcate agricultural land boundaries between villages as part of Roman Emperor Diocletian's tax reforms. It provides valuable insights into land ownership, local settlement patterns, and the administrative framework of the Roman Empire.

The stone dates to the Tetrarchy period, a short-lived government system established by Diocletian in 293 AD, in which power was divided among four rulers.

The Greek inscription on the stone reveals the names of two previously unknown villages, Tirthas and Golgol, and mentions an unidentified imperial surveyor referred to as a censitor. It is believed he may have been a colleague of Aelius Statutus, the censitor recorded on boundary stones from the province of Syria-Phoenice.

Archaeologists said the discovery offers a deeper understanding of the socio-economic and geographical dynamics of the region. Enditem

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