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War on Children

Archaeology in Review

Ancient Seal Confirms Temple Practices

{image_1}Newspapers around the world reported in December the discovery of a tiny object of fired clay, about the size of a button, stamped with an inscription in Hebrew: deka leyah, meaning “pure for God.” The object was discovered in excavations organized by the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) beneath Robinson’s Arch on the Temple Mount’s western wall. According to the archaeologists in charge of the excavation, the object was used to mark things brought to the Temple as ritually pure.

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Second Temple Mikveh Found

{image_1}A plastered building, probably a ritual bath (mikveh), dating to the Second Temple Period (first century BC to first century AD) was exposed in an archaeological excavation the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) conducted prior to the installation of a water line near Kibbutz Tzora 20 km (12 mi) west of Jerusalem near Beit Shemesh.

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Rare Find: A Christian Prayer Box

{image_1}A tiny box made of bone was uncovered in the area of the City of David (south of the Temple Mount) in recent excavations. According to excavation directors, “The decorated sacred objects from the Byzantine Period [sixth-seventh centuries AD] that were discovered…are extraordinarily rare.”

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Who Really Built the Western Wall?

{image_2}Every tour guide and student grounded in the history of Jerusalem would claim that King Herod built the walls around the Temple Mount. However, in archaeological excavations alongside the Western Wall, where the ancient drainage channel of Jerusalem has been uncovered, a mikveh (ritual bath) was discovered that challenges that understanding.

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Conservation of Damascus Gate Completed

{image_1}After a year of extensive work, the Damascus Gate in the Old City walls of Jerusalem now has a fresh, clean look, including a restored “crown” in the center, built by Suleiman the Magnificent in 1538 and destroyed in the Six Day War of 1967.

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Rare Hercules Statue Exposed

{image_1}In the process of building a rail line from Haifa to Bet She’an across northern Israel, a dig was conducted by the Israel Antiquities Authority, which unearthed a rare statue of Hercules, hero of Greek and Roman mythology.

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3,000-year-old House Preserved

{image_1}Can you imagine the thrill of uncovering a house from the time of Israel’s Golden Age when King David and King Solomon reigned over Israel 3,000 years ago? That’s what Dr. Shay Bar and Dr. Michael Eisenberg of the Zinman Institute of Archaeology at the University of Haifa experienced when they headed an excavation team at Tel Shikmona near Haifa.

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Islamic-era Roman Bathhouse Found

{image_1}Perched atop a small promontory overlooking a Mediterranean beach, a local Don Juan appears to have built a Roman-era style bathhouse atop his fortress. Archaeologists from Tel Aviv University say that their dig at the Yavneh-Yam site, located between the current day cities of Tel Aviv–Jaffa and Ashdod, revealed a beautiful bathhouse with duplex floors, a water-heating system, and underground ducts, all in the classic Roman style.

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Caiaphas Family Ossuary Found Authentic

{image_1}Three years ago, the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) Unit for the Prevention of Antiquities Robbery acquired an ossuary with an Aramaic inscription on the top edge just below its lid: “Miriam daughter of Yeshua son of Caiaphas, priests [of] Ma'aziah from Beth ’Imri.” Dr. Boaz Zissu of Bar Ilan University and Professor Yuval Goren of the Tel Aviv University were commissioned to check its authenticity. At the end of June this year, they published the results of their examination—it is, indeed, genuine and ancient.

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Exciting Finds in First-century Water Channel

{image_1}The clearing of Jerusalem’s Second Temple Period water channel, a seven-year project, was reported in our April Dispatch. Now we’re receiving reports of what was found there. The channel runs south from Robinson’s Arch (just south of the Western Wall) along the western edge of the City of David to Siloam Pool (at the end of Hezekiah’s Tunnel). Soon it will open to the public; meanwhile, the exciting finds that were unearthed there breathe new life into the story of the destruction of the Second Temple.

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