The 2,000-year-old road was discovered adjacent to the Shiloah pool during ongoing excavations at the site, said Israeli Antiquities Authority archaeologist Eli Shukrun.

The road was used by the tens of thousands of people who came to Jerusalem for the Jewish pilgrimage holidays during the Second Temple Period, who immersed themselves in the Shiloah pool before entering the Temple Mount, Shukrun said. He said the road showed the centrality of both the Temple and the pool for life in the city at the time.

Archaeologists had previously discovered the other end of the 600-meter [½ mile] road near the Temple Mount, he said. They have not learned when the road was built, but they have determined that it was in use between the first half of the first century BCE and the destruction of the second Jewish Temple by the Romans in 70 CE.

The archaeologists also found large stones and boulders from the destruction of the Second Temple, burnt ashes, and an assortment of coins from the failed Jewish rebellion against the Romans.

The latest finds in the City of David, located just outside the walls of the Old City, came two years after Israeli archeologists stumbled upon the 2,000-year-old pool while the city was carrying out infrastructure work for a new sewage line.

The waters of the Shiloah pool, which come from the nearby Gihon spring, were used in Jewish purification rituals carried out, among other times, before visits to the Temple.

ANCIENT JEWISH TOWN DISCOVERED IN GALILEE (3/13)
An ancient Jewish town from the time of King Solomon has been uncovered beneath the Arab village of Kafr Kana, north of Nazareth, in the Galilee.

The discovery, unearthed and reported by ISRAEL’S ANTIQUITIES AUTHORITY, also includes remnants of Jewish settlement during the Roman period. Among the findings are underground tunnels excavated by Jews who defended the city against Roman legions during the Great Revolt of the year 66CE.

During the course of the excavations, a section of the city wall and remains of buildings were exposed. Archaeologists date the remains to the period of the United Kingdom of King Solomon and the Kingdom of Israel (following the split between Israel and Judah, from the 10–9th centuries BCE). The director of the excavation on behalf of the Antiquities Authority, Yardena Alexandre, reported that evidence was found there indicating the place was ransacked during the 9th century BCE.

In addition, pottery vessels, large quantities of animal bones, a scarab depicting a man surrounded by two crocodiles, and a ceramic seal bearing the image of a lion were discovered at the site. 

Following the destruction, the excavation area was abandoned until its ruins were re-inhabited by Jewish settlers during the Early Roman period (1st century CE). The identity of these residents as Galilean Jews is already known from previous excavations that were carried out at the site and from historic information that identifies the settlement as "Kana of the Galilee"–referred to in the Christian Bible.

Some of the walls that were destroyed were reused in the new construction and new floors were laid down. The Jewish settlers built igloo-shaped pits on the ruins of the previous settlement, whereby the bedrock served as the floor of the pit and the walls were built. A rock-hewn pit was discovered in one of the tunnels and in it were 11 complete storage jars characteristic of the second half of the 1st century CE. Alexandre noted that "the pits are connected to each other by short tunnels and it seems that they were used as hiding refuges–a kind of concealed subterranean home–that were built prior to the Great Revolt against the Romans in the year 66CE."

6,000-YEAR-OLD BURIAL CAVES FOUND (2/7/06)
Israeli archaeologists have discovered dozens of burial caves dating back 6,000 years in northern Israel, Israel's Antiquities Authority announced late Monday [February 6].

THE JERUSALEM POST has reported that stone tombstones, pottery, and hundreds of burial items, such as jewelry and vessels were found inside the caves, which were discovered during an excavation near a major highway south of Moshav Sdeh Moshe.

Archaeologist David Mevorach told the TV station that one anchor dated back 2,500 years -- the oldest ever found. Another anchor was 2,000 years old, he said. They were built from acacia wood for Roman ships, he said.

The Dead Sea, with no outlet, has a high concentration of salt. "The salt and the lack of oxygen in the water preserved them in a special way, including the ropes that were tied to the boat," he said.

Also, the small sea has been receding in recent years, as the evaporation rate exceeds the replenishment of water from the Jordan River, diverted for irrigation. Archaeological artifacts have been found along the newly exposed coastline.

The 2,600-year-old artifact, with three lines in ancient Hebrew, is said to be the first of its kind from the time of King David. Barkay has not yet determined what the writing is on the seal, although three Hebrew letters – thought to be the name of its owner – are visible on one of its line.

The seal was found amidst thousands of tons of rubble discarded by Wakf officials at city garbage dumps six years ago, following the Islamic Trust’s unilateral construction of a mosque at an underground compound of the Temple Mount known as the Solomon’s Stables.

SECOND TEMPLE MIKVEH FOUND ON TEMPLE MOUNT (9/27)
A Jewish ritual bath, or mikveh, dating back to the Second Temple period, and a First Temple Wall have been found in an underground chamber adjacent to the Western Wall tunnels, the Antiquities Authority’s Jerusalem regional archaeologist Jon Seligman said during a tour.

The site is part of a new state-of-the-art tourist center at the Western Wall tunnels, which will be open to the public in two months’ time.

A first-century marble floor was also found, indicating that the area belonged to an extremely wealthy person, since there is no natural marble in Israel. Excavators believe these remains were part of the palace of Herod Antipas, the son of the founder of Tiberius, Herod the Great. The excavations focused on the city's basilica complex, believed to be the seat of the Sanhedrin, the ancient Jewish religious authority.

The team, led by Professor Qizhar Hirschfeld of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, is composed of archaeologists from all over the world, as well as Israelis from the Hebrew University.

Other remains found in the complex include oil lamps, glass and stone vessels and bronze coins (some of which, dating from the 11th century, bear an image of Jesus). "The area of Tiberius and the Sea of Galilee is the area where Judaism and Christianity meet," said Hirschfeld. "So the connection between archaeology and history is special and significant for many people all over the world."

The team also discovered a 50-meter (164-feet) section of a street paved with basalt stones. "In modern Tiberius, there is a street named 'Galilee Street' and the street we uncovered almost seems to be continuing this street, so we called it 'Galilee Street' as a nickname," said Hirschfeld.

Sarah Sallon, of the Louis Borick Natural Medicine Research Center in Jerusalem, said she and her colleagues used seeds found in archeological excavations at Masada, the desert mountain fortress where ancient Jewish rebels chose suicide over capture by Roman legions in AD 73. Carbon dating of a fragment from the Masada seeds put their age at between 1,940 and 2,040 years. She said they were the oldest seeds ever brought back to life.

The palm plant is now about a foot (30 centimeters) tall. Sallon and her colleagues have sent one of its leaves for DNA analysis in the hope that it may reveal medicinal qualities that have disappeared from modern cultivated varieties.

"Dates were highly medicinal. They had an enormous amount of use in ancient times for infections, for tumors," she said. "We're researching medicinal plants for all we're worth. We think that ancient medicines of the past can be the medicines of the future."

The Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) announced in ARUTZ 7, Israel’s National News Service, that the dig took place under the Jaffa Flea Market in preparation for construction work in today's Tel Aviv-Jaffa. The coin was found well over a year ago, but was only recently identified by IAA specialists.

The find, a rare Frankish silver half drachma, is the first specimen to come from a controlled excavation. It was minted only during a very brief period in Frankish Acre, between 1251 and 1257, and was discovered in a domestic structure dating to the 13th century with ceramics dating to the same period.

The coin imitates the half dirhem struck in Damascus by the Ayyubids during the first half of the 13th century. In 1250, the papal legate, the bishop Eudes de Chateauroux, learned that the Franks were minting imitation coins with Muslim themes and ordered an end to the practice, requesting the pope in Rome to intervene personally. Pope Innocent IV threatened to impose a ban and excommunicate anyone striking gold and silver coins mentioning the name of Muhammad and his birth date. To circumvent the papal prohibition, minters in Crusader Acre added Christian legends and symbols to their coins—as were found on the recent find.

Other finds at the site that today houses a modern flea market include a large Crusader-era town, a Crusader-era skeleton, and a Byzantine-period furnace used for forging metals.

ACRE CRUSADER CITY UNCOVERED (2/25)
In a major historical find, sections of an 800-year-old Crusader city have been uncovered beneath the Old City of Acre. They will be opened to the public this June according to the JERUSALEM POST.

The 12th-13th century quarter, which housed the compound of the Knights of St. John, was discovered virtually intact underneath an Ottoman citadel, which was later used by the British as a prison.

The area includes a large chapel, streets, and shops from the Crusader period, and further on, a dining hall and an immense courtyard, which had been previously uncovered.

Some of the original plaster on the wall in the quarter still has the engravings that the Crusaders made when they came to the Holy Land, including drawings of the boats they sailed on from Europe.

Only 5% of the total Crusader city has been uncovered so far, with excavations still ongoing. Tens of thousands of people lived in the Crusader city for nearly 200 years before it was conquered by the Mamelukes in 1291, who left it forlorn for a couple of centuries.

The rural Jewish town uncovered at the site existed from about 100 BCE to 135 CE, until the Bar Kochba revolt, said archeologist Dr. David Amit. Excavations at the ancient village have uncovered a 2,000-year-old street, Jewish coins from the time of the rebellion, wine presses, as well as a mikve (Jewish spiritual bath).

Prof. Oren Gutfield of Hebrew University, who participated in the excavations, is attempting to ascertain the relationship between the scrolls and their place of discovery. "What we will do now are DNA tests to these bones in order to compare DNA results from these animals with DNA of the Dead Sea Scrolls parchment," he explained. "If the bone deposits, which are unique to the plateau, match with the scrolls, we will be able to resolve one of the greatest debates of the archeological world today - do the scrolls originate from within the Qumran community or were they transported to the caves from outside before the siege of the Romans in 66 CE?"

CAVE POSSIBLY USED BY JOHN THE BAPTIST FOUND (8/17)
Archaeologists announced on Monday that they had found a cave in the Judean Hills leading to the oldest baptismal site discovered to date - a huge water cistern decorated with evocative wall carvings where they believe John the Baptist anointed many disciples, HA'ARETZ reported. During a tour of the cave at Kibbutz Tzuba, south of Jerusalem, archaeologists presented the ancient wall decorations, as well as a stone they believe was used for ceremonial foot washing. They also reported sifting about 250,000 pottery shards from the cave, the apparent remnants of small water jugs used in baptismal ritual. The oldest shards are from the mid-second century BCE.

The Pool of Siloam was uncovered by chance at the southern end of the City of David – in what today is Silwan – while the city was carrying out infrastructure work for a new sewage pipe. After lying untouched for 2,000 years, archeologists first uncovered one step, and then several more leading down to the pool, whose water came from the nearby Gihon spring.

Archeologist Eli Shukrun said that two millennia ago, Jewish residents would use the pool to gather water for their homes, as a meeting place, and possibly also as a mikve.

Nadel and his team have been exploring Ohalo II, a 23,000-year-old fishermen-hunters-gatherers camp on the shores of the Sea of Galilee (Lake Kinneret). The site was uncovered several years ago after the lake had receded drastically because of years of little rainfall in the region.

The oval-shaped "mat" that was found is made of grass. Found in the largest of the six brush huts uncovered, the most ancient in the world, the floor covering measures 4.5 meters long. It was located close to the hut wall, around a central hearth. The mat was meticulously crafted from bundles of grass. The charred stems and leaves were covered with a thin, closely pressed layer of clay. According to Nadel, this was apparently intended to preserve the structure and order of the sheaves.

The Haifa University-led excavation at the site has also revealed the vegetarian diet of the camp inhabitants. Well-preserved seeds and even fruit have been discovered. Almost no other site dating to this period anywhere in the world has produced such finds.

According to Nadel, these finds are important for understanding the economic basis and types of seasonal food of humans at the height of the last Ice Age. Large quantities of charred material were found in the huts and near campfires at the site. Some 90,000 seeds and fruit from more than 100 species of trees and plants have been identified so far. Among the grains, wild wheat and barley stand out. These were among the first that humans cultivated at a much later period.

The finds, he continued, also testify to the fact that both food and incendiary material were brought to the camp from the Mediterranean groves, the lakeshore, and the large salt flats that spread over the region.

EASTERN WALL OF TEMPLE MOUNT IN TROUBLE (5/21)
The troubles on the Temple Mount are far from over. Archaeologist Dr. Eilat Mazar now says that the eastern wall of the mount, which faces the Mount of Olives, is in danger of collapse.

Israel’s Knesset held a session on the topic at the request of Knesset Member Uri Ariel (National Union party). Dr. Mazar explained to ARUTZ 7 afterward that the construction work carried out by the Waqf (the Muslim religious body that supervises the Temple Mount) is a contributing factor to the weakening of the ancient structure. "There are cumulative factors," Dr. Mazar added, "such as earthquakes, winter, and the lack of maintenance on the ancient structure - all of which together indicate a grave and immediate danger of collapse." An earthquake hit Israel just last February.

Dr. Mazar noted that construction on the Temple Mount is governed by the Antiquities Law, and that the person responsible for its enforcement is Prime Minister Ariel Sharon: "He shunts aside these matters, however, and therefore the responsible authorities can't take the necessary actions. This is the most important site in Israel, and yet we don't see the authorities there. We have to wake up and realize that if we don't take care of it, the vandalism and illegal construction will continue."

2,500-YEAR-OLD JEWELRY DISCOVERED IN ISRAEL (2/20)
Tsvika Tsuk, chief archaeologist for the Israel Nature and Parks Authority has announced that Israeli archaeologists excavating caves near the Dead Sea discovered jewelry, a makeup kit and a small mirror - 2,500-year-old fashion accessories for women. Tsuk said the find shows that there was a wealthy and flourishing community of returnees living in the area. "These are not the belongings of a simple person," he said.

The find included a necklace made of 130 beads of semiprecious stones and gold; a scarab; an agate medallion of Babylonian origin; and a silver pendant with an engraved crescent moon and pomegranates. What appears to be a makeup kit contained an alabaster bowl for powders, a stick to apply the cosmetics and a bronze mirror. They also found a pagan stamp showing a Babylonian priest bowing to the moon.

A portion of the 12th century BC Crusader fortress north wall, containing a gate three meters (10 feet) wide, was found in excellent condition. The wall's façade of large ashlars was excavated to a depth of four meters (13 feet). Parts of a large lintel-decorated with floral patterns and a Hercules wreath similar to that found at the Kefar Nahum synagogue-a basalt ashlar with a roughly drawn relief of a five-branched candelabra (menorah), stone capitals, and cornices were also found.

Archaeologist Yossi Stepansky, the excavation's director, believes that the source of these items was in an earlier period, "possibly a synagogue from the period of the Mishnah and Talmud" the location of which has not thus far been found.

They may have belonged to "Knesset [congregation] Yehoshua Bin Nun/Caleb ben Yefuneh mentioned in medieval Jewish sources and appear in a description by Benjamin Metudela. According to Stepansky, it is difficult, at this stage to say definitely without further comprehensive research."

The Second Temple period finds include remnants of a ritual bath (mikve), a vaulted construction, pottery, bronze coins, and stone vessels. According to Jewish tradition, stone vessels cannot be ritually unpure and were, therefore, in common use by Jews of the Second Temple period. A most unique stone object, decorated with ram's horns and probably used with oil in religious ceremonies, was also found.

The Hasmonean finds include pottery, oil lamps, stamped jar handles originating in Greece, and bronze coins.Archaeologist Eli Shukrun and Prof. Ronni Reich directed the excavation on behalf of the Israel Antiquities Authority. With continuing deeper excavation, they hope to find the continuation of the Herodian street that runs alongside the Western Wall.

ANCIENT SPA FOUND IN BEERSHEBA (11/20)
A spokesperson for Israel’s Antiquities Authority announced today that excavations, ordered by the Beersheba Municipality, have uncovered a luxurious Roman-Byzantine period (third to sixth centuries) public bathhouse at excavations near Wadi Beersheba.

The bathhouse finds consist of two hot rooms (caldarium), a lukewarm room (tepidarium) and pools, as well as an under-the-floor installation for heating water (hypocaust). The floors were paved with impressive marble slabs. Ovens for heating the baths were found outside the structure.

For the first time in Beersheba, structures from the First Temple period (8th century BC) were found below and adjoining the Byzantine structure. Among the finds, are a residential building with courtyards and cooking installations. The excavation director, on behalf of the Antiquities Authority Peter Favian, reports that these remnants have been identified as belonging to the ancient settlement of Beersheba cited in the Bible ("from Dan to Beersheba").

ANCIENT JEWISH VILLAGE UNCOVERED IN JERUSALEM (11/18)
According to the JERUSALEM POST, the remains of a previously unknown ancient Jewish village, dating back nearly two thousand years, has been uncovered on the northern rim of Jerusalem, the Antiquities Authority announced on November 18. Workers stumbled upon the first century Jewish community this past May, in the wake of infrastructure work that the city has been carrying out at the site for Jerusalem's light rail-system. The ancient village is located near the entrance to the present day Shuafat refugee camp.

A three-month long archaeological excavation at the site, which archaeologists date back to the second temple period and was abandoned during the days of the Bar Kochba revolt against the Romans, uncovered the remains of homes made of ashlar stone, courtyards and three bathhouses in the village. Some of the walls of the well-constructed homes were found intact a meter and a half high (5 feet). Excavations director Debbie Sklar-Parnes said Tuesday that an assemblage of vessels, glass bottles, and "extremely expensive" stone-basins were also uncovered at the site, indicating that the community was fairly affluent. Fragments of a red green and black fresco, which were used to decorate the houses were also found at the site.

The archaeologist estimates that the entire well-planned village was built around 60-70 AD and abandoned about seventy years later in 130-135 AD, due to the Jewish revolt.

The results of the tests, conducted by researchers from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, the Israel Geological survey, and Reading University in England will be published in the scientific journal Nature.

The Siloam Tunnel, a half-kilometer shaft that runs under the walls of Jerusalem to the Gihon springs in the City of David, is one of the capital's major archaeological tourist attractions. Its construction has long been credited to Hezekiah, due to a passage in II Kings 20:20 that describes how the biblical ruler "made a pool and a conduit and brought water into the city" when Jerusalem was under siege by the Assyrians. Hezekiah, according to II Chronicles 32:30, "also stopped the upper water-course of Gihon and brought it straight down to the west side of the city of David."

This account was strengthened by the discovery in 1880 of an inscription inside the tunnel describing its building in a manner that matches the biblical account. But the "Siloam inscription" (today held by a Turkish museum) does not give a specific date or name Hezekiah as its builder, and in recent years some scholars have questioned whether the biblical account was accurate.

"The inscriptions, possibly inscribed in two separate stages, are not authentic," the Antiquities Authority said in a statement. The officials reached their conclusions after intensive exams by several committees of experts.

Oded Golan, the Israeli owner of the James ossuary who is also connected to the Yoash inscription, dismissed the officials' findings. "I am certain the ossuary is real, I am certain that the committee is wrong regarding its conclusions," Golan said today. Golan also insisted that the Yoash inscription was authentic.

The Israel Antiquities Authority and the Jerusalem police launched separate investigations into the two items after Golan offered one for sale. Golan had previously accused the committee of having "preconceived notions."

Upon its disclosure two years ago, the Yoash inscription caused a stir in the archaeological world, with some experts dating the stone to the 9th century BCE and calling it a rare confirmation of biblical narrative. Similarly, the revelation of the James ossuary in November of 2002 was widely followed among archeologists. The limestone ossuary's inscription led some scholars to believe it contained the remains of James, the brother of Jesus of Nazareth. Other experts have said the item might be a forgery, or that it might have been the burial box of a different James, unrelated to Jesus.

The tablet bears a ten-line inscription referring to King Joash Ben Ahaziya, who ruled Judea from 836-798 B.C.E. According to experts from Israel's Geological Institute, including Dr. Shimon Iloni and Dr. Amnon Rosenfeld who examined and tested the tablet, the stone is not a forgery. Microscopic flecks of gold were found embedded into the surface of the tablet, which may have been burned on to the tablet, if it was present during the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem. The greatest obstacle to determining the authenticity of the tablet is the lack of information available regarding its origins. The Jerusalem collector, who owns the stone, has not identified himself, and his lawyer would not say where the tablet was found or give any further details. According to some reports, the stone was found near Jerusalem's Muslim cemetery, outside the eastern wall of the Temple Mount, not far from the Golden Gate.

The artifacts were found in the Ein Gedi Nature Reserve, near the Dead Sea, by a team of archeologists headed by Professor Hanan Eshel from Bar Ilan University and Amos Frumkin of Jerusalem's Hebrew University. Rappelling into a cave, the archaeologists found papyrus scrolls as well as coins bearing the name "Shimon," a reference to Bar Kochba, the leader of a 132-135 C.E. rebellion. Historians believe the rebels fled to the desert after the Romans crushed the revolt, hiding out in hillside caves dotted throughout the rugged terrain. The scrolls, as yet unopened, have been given to the Israel Museum, where they will be researched.

Located on a hill that overlooks Bethlehem, the site was largely desolate for the last 35 years. Then in 1996, a joint NIS 1.3 million project (approximately $325,000), funded primarily by the Tourism Ministry and in association with the Antiquities Authority, the Jewish National Fund, and the kibbutz, began to convert the area into an archeological garden, complete with billboards offering visitors explanations. The garden was conceived and planned by Jerusalem sculptor Ran Morin.

The inauguration was attended by President Moshe Katsav and Antiquities Authority director Shuka Dorfman who noted that the ceremony was the closing of a circle; it was the first ceremony to take place at the edge of the kibbutz since a 1956 conference of archeologists from the Israel Exploration Society was marred by an attack by a Jordanian soldier, positioned just across the hill at the Mar Elias Monastery. He opened fire at the crowd, killing four people and wounding scores. The site, which is easily accessible by car, is open to the public free of charge.

A NEWLY DISCOVERED GEORGIAN MONASTERY IN JERUSALEM (11/12)
The ISRAEL ANTIQUITIES AUTHORITY has announced that building work in the southeast Jerusalem neighborhood of Um Lisan has uncovered the remains of an ancient burial crypt has been uncovered. The crypt forms part of a monastic complex originally excavated in 1996 during which a chapel containing colorful geometric mosaics was uncovered.

The crypt, which had originally formed the burial hall of the monastery, was a vaulted structure accessed from the monastery by a staircase. Within the crypt were twelve burial troughs containing the remains of around thirty adult males who were probably the monks of the monastery. At the far end of the crypt was a single burial trough containing the remains of a single elderly monk. Covering the trough was a carefully carved inscription in ancient Georgian characters stating that the tomb was that of Bishop Ioane the Georgian. Epigraphic analysis shows the inscription to be dated to the 5th to 6th centuries CE.

This rare inscription is one of the earliest known Georgian inscriptions in Jerusalem and provides vital physical evidence of the existence of a Georgian ecclesiastical community in Jerusalem during the Byzantine period.

The ancient mountaintop fortress and palace was placed on the list at the World Heritage Committee convention in Helsinki at the end of last year, together with the old city of Acre. Inclusion on the list brings international recognition of a historical site's importance and ensures protection, preservation, and conservation.

Masada was placed on the list based on three criteria: its place as a symbol of the ancient Jewish kingdom of Israel; the remains of the palace of Herod the Great; and the history of the Jewish rebels who sought refuge at the site during the Roman conquest in 70 A.D.

The Aramaic words etched on the box's side show a cursive form of writing used only from about 10 to 70 C.E., according to noted paleographer André Lemaire of the École Pratique des Hautes Études (popularly known as the Sorbonne University) in Paris. Lemaire verified the inscription's authenticity. The ossuary has been dated to approximately 63 C.E. Lemaire details his full investigation in the November/December 2002 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review, the leading popular publication in its field.

In the first century C.E., Jews followed the custom of transferring the bones of their deceased from burial caves to ossuaries. The practice was largely abandoned after the destruction of the Jewish Temple in 70 C.E. No one knows for certain why the practice started or stopped, but it provides a rare period of self-documentation in which commoners as well as leaders left their names carved in stone.

The new find is also significant in that it corroborates the existence of Joseph, Jesus' father, and James, Jesus' brother and a leader of the early Christian church in Jerusalem. The family relationships contained on the new find helped experts ascertain that the inscription very likely refers to the Biblical James, brother of Jesus (see, for example, Matthew 13:55-56 and Galatians 1:18-19). Although all three names were common in ancient times, the statistical probability of their appearing in that combination is extremely slim. In addition, the mention of a brother is unusual--indicating that this Jesus must have been a well-known figure.

The jar was found recently near the ancient city of Zippori (Sephoris), in a dig conducted this summer under the auspices of the Hebrew University Institute of Archaeology. The excavations, under the direction of Dr. Zeev Weiss, have uncovered far five rooms of what appears to have been a two-story, stone farmhouse built around a courtyard, in use during the third and fourth centuries CE.

The large, decorated, limestone container is of a type, which was used for storing ritually pure water, since stone vessels, in contrast to clay jars, were considered incapable of acquiring impurity, according to Jewish law. The stone vessels were used widely by cohanim, members of the Jewish priestly caste, in Jerusalem until the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE.

This is the first time that such a vessel has been found in the Galilee. Its presence indicates that Jews in the Galilee may well have been using these vessels during the third and fourth centuries CE. This contradicts previous thinking that the vessels were characteristic of Jewish life in and around Jerusalem and ceased to be used shortly after the Temple's destruction. The discovery may also show that contrary to earlier assessments, Jews in Galilee engaged in farming well into the Roman period. Among the items found in the excavations were storage vessels and household and farm utensils.

The farm appears to have been in use from the third century CE and destroyed during the fourth century. Its discovery opens a new perspective on the life of Zippori, which was a mixed, prosperous, Jewish-Roman city of great importance during the period of Roman rule.

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon will convene a restricted forum of ministers to discuss the danger of the southern wall of the Temple Mount compound collapsing.

Mayor of Jerusalem Ehud Olmert called on the government Tuesday to take immediate action to prevent a potential "historical and human disaster" should the wall collapse. "In my opinion, we have reached the moment of truth," Olmert said. "The government of Israel has no alternative but to decide to exercise our natural authority with regard to the Temple Mount. We made all kinds of efforts to reach understandings on the issue, both here in Israel and abroad, to pinpoint the reasons for the movement of the Wall, so we can properly address the matter," he said.

The form of the building, its hewn stone construction, and round southern end date it from the Roman period, when it served an important public function. Moshe Hartal, an archeologist with the Antiquities Authority, said it is possible the building is the stadium mentioned in the writings of Josephus.

"The stadium was used for athletic competitions, for horse races, and as a place to assemble the populace on special occasions," he said. "After the sea battle between the Jews and the Romans off Migdal, thousands of Roman captives were taken to the stadium. Some of them were killed and the others sold into slavery."

Hartal said in ancient times, the building - the remains so far uncovered occupy a diameter of 39 meters - occupied an area of hundreds of square meters. It was uncovered when a 10-meter-long, three-meter deep trench was dug.

He said remains of mud found in the building's interior indicate it may have been used for water sports at a later date.

Other buildings from various periods, including the Byzantine, early Arab, and Fatimid, have also been uncovered.

The dig also provides evidence of two geological events that caused the collapse of the western side of the structure. As a result of the disturbances, walls collapsed or were uprooted. The events were probably the earthquake of 749 CE that caused the destruction of many settlements in the country, among them Beit She'an and Susita.