[SunkenCiv]

What is a 9-ton slab of glass doing in the middle of a burial cave in Beit Shearim, Israel?

And why does such a small town needs a wall, what were they protecting?

Beit Shearim is an ancient Jewish necropolis where Yehuda Ha Nasi, the head of the Sanhedrin, was buried. This catacomb cave dates back to the second century AD and is one of the greatest archeological sites in Israel.

9-Ton Slab of Glass Found in the Cave of Beit Shearim | Sergio & Rhoda in Israel | Season 1, Episode 21 | Published on September 17, 2017

UPDATE MARCH 2019: In 1999, Ian Freestone and Yael Gorin-Rosen posited that the great glass slab at Beth She'arim dates to the 9th century A.D. Therefore, rather than being an example of typical Roman period glassmaking, the slab represents a transitional phase at the beginning of early Islamic glass production, when glassmakers began to replace mineral natron with plant ash as a fluxing agent. The early Islamic date proposed by Freestone and Gorin-Rosen has been generally accepted by other scholars.

The Mystery Slab of Beth She'arim | Katherine Larson, Assistant Curator of Ancient and Islamic Glass, Corning Museum of Glass, Published on December 8, 2011

[A strike]

AD 135 to 217, NOT 135 to 217 CE

[Pontiac]

Ian Freestone and Yael Gorin-Rosen posited that the great glass slab at Beth She'arim dates to the 9th century A.D.

Regardless of how old it is, the question remains: Why would you want a 9 ton slab of glass?

Then having produce this monstrosity, why put it in a cave?

[sauropod]

Should be AD, not CE.

I don’t buy into this PC Woke garbage rewriting of our language.

Simcha should buy a clue.

[moose07]

What's it doing there?

Or more to the point , is it older than they think...far older?
Nine tons is a lot of glass to pour in one go and then tempur , so it doesn't explode if anything hits it.

[Larry Lucido]

First of all, it was a secret recipe guarded for millennia with more care than the recipe for Coca Cola.

Didn't realize Coca Cola was that old. Wonder if the slab was some of their "New Glass" before they went back to their "Glass Classic" formula?

[Big Red Badger]

Interesting

[Adder]

who would ever have imagined that, at the beginning of the 5th century, glass technologists had the ability—

So not Islamic...

[jjotto]

Corning Glass doesn’t think it too big a mystery:

https://www.cmog.org/article/mystery-slab-beth-shearim

[RArtfulogerDodger]

Love EL Simcha. LOVE HIM!!