Posted on 02/01/2018 4:22:59 PM PST by SJackson
Archaeologists in Israel have announced the discovery of a large 1,500-year-old pool and elaborate fountain at the site of an ancient church near Jerusalem.
The pool is part of a system of pools unearthed at Ein Hanniya Park between 2012 and 2016, officials said Wednesday. Built during the Byzantine era, the pools date back to between the 4th and 6th centuries A.D., according to the Israel Antiquities Authority. Other artifacts found at the site include a rare silver coin from the 4th century B.C. and an ancient capital, or part of a pillar. Experts say that the capital is typical of royal structures found the First Temple period between 960 B.C. and 586 B.C.
The site’s large pool, in particular, is generating plenty of buzz. “The most significant finding in the excavation is a large and impressive pool from the Byzantine period,” explained Irina Zilberbod, the excavation director for the Israel Antiquities Authority. “This pool was built in the center of a spacious complex at the foot of a church that once stood here. Roofed colonnades were built around the pool that gave access to residential wings.”
There are still, however, plenty of unanswered questions about the mysterious pool. “It’s difficult to know what the pool was used for – whether for irrigation, washing, landscaping or perhaps as part of baptismal ceremonies at the site,” said Zilberbod. The pool’s water, she noted, drained through a network of channels to a fountain.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
If you'd like to be on or off, please FR mail me.
..................
ping
I’m guessing it used for baptisms.
Man, your killin it with Granny, Jethro & the “C”EMENT Pond
Post of the Day!
LOL
5.56mm
Proof Hillbillies were Jews, nice catch Eleutheria5!
Looks like a nice mikva.
Not sure what the mystery is, given Nazarines largely copied the Jewish practice with baptism.
Flowing (natural) water was the ideal.
Thanks SJackson. It was the hot tub, for their toga parties. It was donated by Harvius Weinteinus.
LOL
I can’t exactly remember what ancient site I visited in Turkey [Asia Minor]....but it had remnants from of Roman occupation; there were many pools; a docent said, they were all of different temperatures of water, from very hot to cool, for the bathers.
Wiki:
The process involved in taking a Turkish bath is similar to that of a sauna, but is more closely related to ancient Greek and ancient Roman bathing practices[why?]. It starts with relaxation in a room heated by a continuous flow of hot, dry air, allowing the bather to perspire freely. Bathers may then move to an even hotter room before they wash in cold water. After performing a full body wash and receiving a massage, bathers finally retire to the cooling-room for a period of relaxation.[1]
The difference between the Islamic hammam and the Victorian Turkish bath is the air. The hot air in the Victorian Turkish bath is dry; in the Islamic hammam the air is often steamy. The bather in a Victorian Turkish bath will often take a plunge in a cold pool after the hot rooms; the Islamic hammam usually does not have a pool unless the water is flowing from a spring. In the Islamic hammams the bathers splash themselves with cold water.
The Victorian Turkish bath was described by Johann Ludwig Wilhelm Thudichum[2] in a lecture to the Royal Society of Medicine given in 1861, one year after the first such bath was opened in London:
The discovery that was lost and has been found again, is this, in the fewest possible words: The application of hot air to the human body. It is not wet air, nor moist air, nor vapoury air; it is not vapour in any shape or form whatever. It is an immersion of the whole body in hot common air.
Hugh Heffner is old!
:’) Pamukkale?
They really had **** figured out, those Romans. :^)
This must fall in to the category of *there's nothing new under the sun*. :)
Site of Ein Hanniya exposed by Israel Antiquities Authority Conservation Administration. / Photo credit: Assaf Peretz, Israel Antiquities Authority.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
