The living room in Ein Kerem - and staircase hewn out of bedrock, leading to a Second-Temple era ritual bath. Photo by Assaf Peretz, courtesy of the IAA
Posted on 07/01/2015 4:11:41 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
A Jerusalem family ripping up its living room floor found a staircase lost for 2,000 years, leading to a large ritual bath carved out of bedrock.
It took the family some years to call in the authorities and show them the discovery beneath their house, in the Jerusalem neighborhood of Ein Kerem. Throughout the interim, the family blocked off the entrance to the mikveh with wooden doors, and simply continued to live over it.
When they did call in the Israel Antiquities Authority, beneath the doors, the archaeologists found the carved stone staircase leaving to a big mikveh, 3.5 meters in length and 2.4 meters wide, with a depth of 1.8 meters.
The rock-hewn bath was meticulously plastered according to the laws of purity appearing in halacha. The staircase leads to the bottom of the immersion pool.
Carved stone is hard to date, but pottery vessels discovered inside the ritual bath date to the time of the Second Temple (first century CE). The mikveh also shows traces of fire that might constitute evidence of the destruction following the Jewish Revolt of 66-70 CE.
Also attesting to the period were fragments of stone vessels. Those became common during the Second Temple period, because stone cannot be contaminated and remains pure.
In recent years, due to extensive and controversial development work in the area of Ein Karem, many secrets of the neighborhood's long history have been uncovered. A complex water system was discovered alongside the spring, which also dates from the Second Temple period...
"The discovery of the ritual bath reinforces the hypothesis there was a Jewish settlement from the time of the Second Temple located in the region of what is today 'Ein Kerem," Re'em said.
(Excerpt) Read more at haaretz.com ...
The living room in Ein Kerem - and staircase hewn out of bedrock, leading to a Second-Temple era ritual bath. Photo by Assaf Peretz, courtesy of the IAA
I’m guessing whoever built the house in the first place discovered it 20 to 50 years ago. But, as any wise developer would do, kept quiet and built over it.
“So what should we do Harvey?”
“Don’t do nothing Shem - those guys from the museum will be all over this - we’ll never sell ANY of these homes!”
Cool?
66-70 CE?? Christian Era?
Sometimes "CE" is meant that way, but more often it's "Common Era." I wouldn't be surprised to see this usage at Haaretz.
CE = “Common Era,” and BCE = “Before the Common Era”
It’s a weak attempt to conceal the fact that the dividing line is (a guess at) the date of the birth of Jesus.
66-70 means they got the thing built just in time for the Romans’ destruction of Jerusalem and mass deportations after the first Jewish Revolt.
CE is Common Era, as you probably well know.
I most likely would have reinforced the house floor or ceiling of it and used it for a bomb shelter.
So they can put that on MLS as having another full bath?
Wouldn’t the common era start at ~700AD?
Make that ~570 AD
Hmmm “CE is Common Era, as you probably well know.”
And CE starts at what point in history?
I guess that beats finding Richard II under a parking lot
I don’t think anything can beat the discovery of the mummified remains of Ramses I in a small museum of “curiosities” in Niagara back in 1999, where it had been for 140yrs.
That was Richard III.
....So Richard improved with age
They’re all dead, anyway.
0
“Weak attempt”
Nah, just the Jewish convention. We’re stubborn.
Hey— maybe the got the dates mixed up and it’s really a “Baptizing Pool” of sorts. Now, where the heck could those who baptize have gotten such an idea? Hmmmm.... Let me go dunk in my ritualistic, scripturally-ordained Jew pool and ponder the potential source...
CE is the PC replacement for AD.
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