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The inscription carrying the financial record. The researchers believe that 'the everyday life of the inhabitants of Jerusalem who resided here 2,000 years ago is expressed in this simple object' A financial record dating back to the Second Temple period was discovered on the Pilgrimage Road in Jerusalem’s City of David, the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) revealed on Wednesday. The small stone tablet is engraved with letters and numbers. It was discovered in what used to be a bustling commercial area of the city. According to the IAA, the inscription was likely a receipt of a payment instruction. One of...

Archaeologists recently unearthed ivory plaques found in a luxurious Iron Age residence in Jerusalem, a first-of-its-kind discovery at the site, shedding light on the owner's wealth and social status.The ivory pieces were found in a building from around the eighth or seventh century B.C., the First Temple era, in the City of David...Sifting through the ruins in the building, likely burnt during the Babylonian destruction of Jerusalem in 586 B.C., diggers found around 1,500 ivory fragments, said Reli Avisar from Tel Aviv University, which excavated the site along with the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA)...The decorations consisted of frames with rosettes...

Just north of the City of David (ancient Jerusalem), archaeologists believe they have found the first of its kind engraving on a precious gem of a biblical plant known to many as the Balm of Gilead. Deep underground in a 2,000-year-old drainage ditch next to Jerusalem’s Western Wall, archaeologists say a rare artifact from Second Temple times was uncovered. “It is a stone seal made of semi-precious amethyst stone with an engraving of a dove and a branch of a tree with fruit on the branch,” said Eli Shukron, former archaeologist of the Israel Antiquities Authority. What was surprising was...

A rare toilet cubicle from the First Temple Period, which was part of an ancient royal estate that operated at the end of the Kings of Judean period (7th century BCE), was discovered on the Armon Hanatziv promenade in Jerusalem, where the Israel Antiquities Authority and the City of David, about two years ago, uncovered the remains of a magnificent building which overlooked the City of David and the Temple Mount, including the private toilet cubicle.

A "once in a lifetime" find is how the City of David described three immaculately preserved 2,700-year-old decorated column heads, or capitals, from the First Temple period that indicate a connection to the Davidic Dynasty. Archaeologists from the City of David did not expect to find anything this special when they began digging near what is now the Armon Hanatziv Promenade. "I'm still excited," said Yaakov Billig, an archaeologist with the City of David who began exploring the Armon Hanatziv area about 30 years ago. He was working at the site when the sound of a spade scraping a stone...

Excavators uncovered a seal and a bullae -- a seal impression use to sign documents or containers during ancient times -- in the Givati Parking Lot Excavation of the City of David in Jerusalem. These two artifacts were found next to the rubble of a structure that was destroyed during the 6th century BC by the Babylonians... The researchers said the finding was very rare and reveals just how badly Jerusalem was damaged during the Babylonian destruction. "The finding of the stamp and seal impression in the City of David indicates that despite the city's dire situation after the destruction,...

The structure in which shattered jugs were found during the summer 2017 Israel Antiquities Authority dig, attesting to the destruction. (Eliyahu Yanai, Courtesy of the City of David Archive) On the eve of the Hebrew commemoration of the destruction of the Temples, archaeologists discover remnants of a blaze indicating the city was grander than thought New finds in the City of David confirm the veracity of the biblical account of the Babylonian capture and conquest of First Temple period Jerusalem. The event is commemorated next Tuesday on the Hebrew date Tisha B’av (August 1) in a day of fasting and...

The European Union formally condemned the demolition of illegal Arab apartment buildings near Israel’s security barrier separating Jerusalem from Palestinian Authority-controlled areas, and demanded Israel halt its enforcement of demolition orders. In a statement issued Monday afternoon, the European Union’s foreign affairs department said the demolitions undermine the “viability of the two-state solution”. “Israeli authorities have proceeded with the demolition of 10 Palestinian buildings, containing some 70 apartments, in Wadi al Hummus, part of Sur Baher neighbourhood in occupied East Jerusalem. The majority of the buildings are located in Area A and B of the West Bank where, according to...

The seal was deciphered by Dr. Anat Mendel-Geberovich of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the Center for the Study of Ancient Jerusalem A 2,600-year-old seal from the Kingdom of Judah bearing the inscription “(belonging) to Nathan-Melech, Servant of the King” was recently discovered in the City of David, according to an announcement Sunday. The seal was deciphered by Dr. Anat Mendel-Geberovich of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the Center for the Study of Ancient Jerusalem. ADVERTISING Read More Related Articles Trump cuts foreign aid to three countries with strong relations with Israel One of France's most advanced warships...

A lost city dating to the rule of King David from the Old Testament has been uncovered in Jerusalem. King David is an ancestor of Jesus, according to biblical sources, which say he ruled around BC 1,000. Experts say that recently-found ruins date to the 10th century BC. This ties in with the timeframe for when the bible says King David existed, making the link between the two 'plausible', researchers claim. The finding is likely to fuel the debate surrounding whether Biblical figures such as King David actually existed, however.

Archaeologists discover First Temple-era seals, one with a woman's name. Rare find that sheds significant light on owner's life. Archaeologists have found two ancient seals with Hebrew names, dating back to the time of the First Temple, in Jerusalem's City of David. The objects belonged to a woman and a man, Elihana bat Gael and Sa'aryahu ben Shabenyahu. "Finding seals that bear names from the time of the First Temple is hardly a commonplace occurrence, and finding a seal that belonged to a woman is an even rarer phenomenon," said a researcher with the project. The artifacts were discovered in...

(IsraelNN.com) Archaeologists have discovered an 1,800-year-old marble figurine of what is believed to be the head of a Roman boxer. The bust was found during excavations in the area of the Givati car park in the City of David, across the street from the Dung Gate leading to the Western Wall (Kotel). The figurine, which depicts the head of a man with a short, curly beard, is carved from pale yellow marble and might indicate the raw material came from Asia Minor, according to excavation directors Dr. Doron Ben-Ami and Yana Tchekhanovets. "The high level of finish on the figurine...

BEIT SHEMESH, Israel — The carved stone block is about the size of an occasional table. It has held its secrets for two millenniums. Whoever engraved its enigmatic symbols was apparently depicting the ancient Jewish temples. But what makes the stone such a rare find in biblical archaeology, according to scholars, is that when it was carved, the Second Temple still stood in Jerusalem for the carver to see. The stone is a kind of ancient snapshot. And it is upending some long-held scholarly assumptions about ancient synagogues and their relationship with the Temple, a center of Jewish pilgrimage and...

The discovery of the Acra last week is "a dream come true" for archaeologists, who have been speculating on the citadel's location for 100 years, the IAA said. The discovery of Acra comes at a delicate time, for it reveals the story of the Maccabees, Antiochus and the coming Antichrist. All this is understood once we connect the dots and see the parallels between the Grecian Empire at the time of the Maccabees harassing God's people and the Antichrist who is also from the same empire (Asia Minor) harassing God's people today.

"Josephus described it [the fortress] as being "erected upon a rock of fifty cubits in height" on a "great precipice," Sams quotes Josephus... With 60-foot walls, four towers (the southeast being 105 feet high), and smooth stones covering the slope on its east side, it dominated the temple to its south, ready to fend off the most formidable attacks." Given this description, according to Sams, tucking Fortress Antonia north of the temple location in the Temple Mount area subscribed to by most scholars would have been impossible. It simply wouldn't fit. Moreover, Sams cites the insufficiency or paucity of archaeological...

On Monday afternoon, the Israeli Antiquities Authority (IAA) sent a newsbrief to reporters in Jerusalem, calling for a press conference the following day to announce the “solution to one of the greatest questions in the history of Jerusalem.” Tuesday’s announcement did not disappoint: On site, in Jerusalem’s City of David, archaeologist Doron Ben-Ami announced that the famed Akra (citadel) of Antiochus Epiphanes had been discovered. Up until that announcement, little had been found testifying to the massive Hellenistic intrusion into the city early in the second century B.C. Yet here, at the northwestern portion of the City of David, a...

A recent discovery by the Israel Antiquities Authority in Jerusalem’s City of David may reveal the answer to one of archaeology's most enduring mysteries: the location of the Greek Acra citadel. The exact location of the famous stronghold built by Antiochus IV, to control Jerusalem and monitor activity on the Temple Mount, has long been unknown due to the paucity of architectural remains that can be traced to the Greek presence in Jerusalem. Over the past 100 years of archaeological research in Jerusalem, numerous theories have been put forth identifying the location of the Acra, which was eventually overtaken by...

A 10-year-old Russian boy, Matvei Tcepliaev, recently made an extraordinary discovery in Jerusalem. Working as a volunteer in the Temple Mount Sifting Project, he found a 3,000-year-old seal—engraved limestone about the size of a thimble, with a hole at one end so it could be hung from a string—from the time of King David. The artifact was nestled in the hundreds of tons of earth and rock that had been illegally excavated from below the Temple Mount in the late 1990s by the Muslim Waqf, a trust that retains authority over the contested site. The Temple Mount is sacred ground...

Buraq was a flying horse with a woman's head. October 15, 2015 Daniel Greenfield      So the New York Times lapsed into what has been called Temple Trutherism by trying to deny the existence of the Jewish temples on the Temple Mount. Their work was taken down by Liel Leibowitz at The Tablet and others. The Times offered a limited correction. But let's have some equal time here. The Temple Mount is holy to Jews because of the Temples. So the New York Times chose to discuss whether the Temples really existed. It's holy to Muslims because Mohammed...

A rare 3,000-year-old seal, from the time of King David in the 10th century BCE, was recently discovered by a 10-year-old Russian volunteer at Jerusalem’s Temple Mount Sifting Project. Dr. Gabriel Barkay, co-founder and director of the project – which sifts through thousands of tons of illegally removed earth from the contested holy site in 1999 by the Wakf religious trust to build a mosque – said that the finding is unprecedented. “The seal is the first of its kind to be found in Jerusalem,” said Barkay, a world-renowned archaeologist and Israel Prize laureate, who has led the project for...