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Archaeologists make startling discovery at ancient Sussita: A beer bottlecap
Haaretz ^ | September 24, 2013 | Ran Shapira

Posted on 09/28/2013 7:15:24 AM PDT by SunkenCiv

An unexpected discovery awaited a team of Israeli archaeologists in a drainage canal dating from roughly 2,000 years ago: an aluminum bottlecap. From a beer bottle.

No, the good people of ancient Sussita weren't producing aluminum metal. The meaning of the startling discovery is that millennia after its construction, the drainage canal was still working, centuries after the city's final destruction by earthquake.

Made of aluminum and feather-light, the bottle-cap floated on rainwater that washed into the canal, says Dr. Michael Eisenberg, head of an Israeli archaeological team digging the site.

This canal, or less romantically -- a sewer, passed beneath the floor of the public bathhouse being excavated in the city, which the Greeks called Antiochia Hippos. Its end was discovered several hundred meters away by Eisenberg and his team.

The archaeologists believe this remarkably robust sewage system drained effluent from a postulated public toilet near the bathhouse. If the sewer's upper opening is found, the public toilet will be found as well, Aizenberg postulates.

Happily for historians, the Sussita sewer system contained not only a beer bottlecap but much more. For instance several hundred bronze coins, swollen and rusted from eons of exposure to urine, were also found inside.

Ten dice made of bone found near the coins provided further evidence of the sewer's function: Eisenberg believes that the city's inhabitants gambled with dice as they sat in the bathroom. Just as latter-day man accidently drops his phone into the john, thus the people of yore apparently let coins and dice fall into the sewer.

(Excerpt) Read more at haaretz.com ...


TOPICS: History; Science; Travel
KEYWORDS: agriculture; animalhusbandry; antiochiahippos; beer; godsgravesglyphs; hippos; letshavejerusalem; michaeleisenberg; sussita; tuborg; zymurgy
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The view of and from Sussita. Photo by Dr. Michael Eisenberg

The view of and from Sussita. Photo by Dr. Michael Eisenberg

1 posted on 09/28/2013 7:15:24 AM PDT by SunkenCiv
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http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/Flash.aspx/275338

Beer Cap Found Embedded in Archeological Excavation

8/28/2013 / Elul 22, 5773

Arutz Sheva

The cap for a bottle of Tuborg beer was discovered in a archeological excavation conducted by Haifa University. On Wednesday archaeologists from the Institute of Archaeology at the University of Haifa announcement they found the contemporary item discarded inside ancient stone architecture. It was discovered in Hippos, a Roman city that once existed near the Sea of Galilee. It was known in Aramaic and Hebrew as Sussita. Archeologists are not sure how the beer cap ended up in what ostensibly was a sealed location for the past 2,000 years. They believe the beer cap possibly floated into the ruins of a drainage canal during a period when water still flowed. Tuborg is a common brand of beer distributed in Israel.


2 posted on 09/28/2013 7:16:31 AM PDT by SunkenCiv (It's no coincidence that some "conservatives" echo the hard left.)
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To: StayAt HomeMother; Ernest_at_the_Beach; decimon; 1010RD; 21twelve; 24Karet; 2ndDivisionVet; ...

3 posted on 09/28/2013 7:16:50 AM PDT by SunkenCiv (It's no coincidence that some "conservatives" echo the hard left.)
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To: SunkenCiv

So everyone discounts someone having a beer nearby?? I’m sure they’re all over the earth.


4 posted on 09/28/2013 7:17:22 AM PDT by Sacajaweau
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To: SunkenCiv

Had to be Tuborg. LOL Just had to be.


5 posted on 09/28/2013 7:21:00 AM PDT by patton (“Really? Have you tried chewing cloves?”)
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To: SunkenCiv

6 posted on 09/28/2013 7:22:34 AM PDT by BenLurkin (This is not a statement of fact. It is either opinion or satire; or both.)
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To: SunkenCiv
I've always loved beer...old beer, new beer, my beer!

FMCDH(BITS)

7 posted on 09/28/2013 7:40:01 AM PDT by nothingnew (I fear for my Republic due to marxist influence in our government. Open eyes/see)
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To: SunkenCiv

Who would have thought - urine makes bronze SWELL!!!


8 posted on 09/28/2013 7:47:34 AM PDT by Ken522
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To: SunkenCiv

Damn time travelers leaving their trash all over the place. At least it wasn’t Heineken.


9 posted on 09/28/2013 7:48:05 AM PDT by Noumenon (What would Michael Collins do?)
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To: SunkenCiv

Next thing you know they’ll find a Kosher pizza box.


10 posted on 09/28/2013 7:51:56 AM PDT by shove_it (long ago Orwell and Rand warned us of 0bamaÂ’s America)
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To: SunkenCiv

How long before we see on TV, it must have been ancient aliens?”


11 posted on 09/28/2013 7:53:17 AM PDT by LoneRangerMassachusetts (The meek shall not inherit the Earth)
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To: LoneRangerMassachusetts
How long before we see on TV, it must have been ancient aliens?”

Well, the beer bottle cap may explain why UFO's crash.

12 posted on 09/28/2013 7:56:15 AM PDT by UCANSEE2 (The monsters are due on Maple Street)
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To: SunkenCiv

It’s hard to find a postulated public toilet, when you really need to go. Sometimes they’re just not there.


13 posted on 09/28/2013 8:03:26 AM PDT by 1010RD (First, Do No Harm)
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To: Noumenon

One point twenty one gigawatts!


14 posted on 09/28/2013 8:16:36 AM PDT by SunkenCiv (It's no coincidence that some "conservatives" echo the hard left.)
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To: LoneRangerMassachusetts; UCANSEE2

Oh, yeah, like it *wasn’t*. ;’)


15 posted on 09/28/2013 8:17:10 AM PDT by SunkenCiv (It's no coincidence that some "conservatives" echo the hard left.)
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To: BenLurkin

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EvAtWuYUIQw


16 posted on 09/28/2013 8:18:14 AM PDT by SunkenCiv (It's no coincidence that some "conservatives" echo the hard left.)
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To: patton
What? No Maccabee?...
 photo maccabee-beer-online-1370231315_zpsf5b09e37.jpg
17 posted on 09/28/2013 8:18:41 AM PDT by PowderMonkey (WILL WORK FOR AMMO)
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To: SunkenCiv

They’re digging in an ancient sewer. I’ll bet they find some interesting s**t there.


18 posted on 09/28/2013 8:27:58 AM PDT by blueunicorn6 ("A crack shot and a good dancer")
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To: blueunicorn6

And a few buckskin condoms maybe.


19 posted on 09/28/2013 8:34:40 AM PDT by MaxMax (If you're not pissed off, you're not paying attention)
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To: SunkenCiv

20 posted on 09/28/2013 8:41:56 AM PDT by UCANSEE2 (The monsters are due on Maple Street)
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