Israel: Archaeologists unearth 2,000 Judean villa with ‘mikvah’
by Karen Faulkner, Worthy News Correspondent
(Worthy News) – Archaeologists in Jerusalem’s Old City have unearthed a 2,000-year-old Judean villa with its own Jewish ritual bath (‘mikveh’), overlooking the site of the Biblical temples, the Associated Press reports.
The researchers from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem were first called in to excavate the site in 2017 after the Jewish Quarter Reconstruction and Development Company began work on constructing two elevators that would help disabled visitors to access the Western Wall.
“This plot of land where the elevator is going to be built remained undisturbed, giving us the great opportunity of digging through all the strata, all the layers of ancient Jerusalem,” Hebrew University archaeologist Michal Haber said in a statement.
Over the last five years, the extensive excavations at the site have also revealed a 2,000-year-old aqueduct that supplied Jerusalem with water from springs near Bethlehem, early Islamic oil lamps, bricks stamped with the name of the 10th Legion Roman army, AP reports.
The remains of the Judean villa that were uncovered date back to just before the destruction of the Jewish Temple by the Romans in 70 AD, AP said. The villa’s ritual bath was carved into the limestone mountainside and vaulted with dressed stones.
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