Jackpot: 900-Year-Old Gold Coins, Dating Back to The Crusades, Found in Israel

Archaeologists in Israel have uncovered a trove of rare gold coins and a 900-year-old gold earring at the site of a Crusader massacre. Officials announced the discovery earlier this week, explaining that the artefacts were found at the ancient city of Caesarea on Israel’s coast.

A small bronze pot, which contained 24 gold coins and the earring, was found hidden between two stones in the side of a well located in the remains of a 900-year-old house.

“The coins in the cache dating to the end of the eleventh century, make it possible to link the treasure to the Crusader conquest of the city in the year 1101, one of the most dramatic events in the medieval history of the city,” explained excavation directors Dr. Peter Gendelman and Mohammed Hatar of the Israel Antiquities Authority, in a statement.

Citing contemporary sources, the experts noted that most of Caesarea’s inhabitants were massacred by a Crusader army led by King Baldwin I of Jerusalem.

“It is reasonable to assume that the treasure’s owner and his family perished in the massacre or were sold into slavery, and therefore were not able to retrieve their gold,” they said in the statement.

The stunning artefacts were found in the area of a sacred compound built by King Herod the Great more than two millennia ago. Other treasures have also been found nearby. In the 1960s, for example, a pot containing gold and silver jewellery was discovered at Caesarea, while a collection of bronze vessels was found in the 1990s.

The house where the latest treasures were found was built about 1,000 years after Herod’s reign.

The turbulent Crusader era in the Holy Land began in the 11th century and lasted until the 13th century.

The excavation project at Caesarea is sponsored by the Edmond de Rothschild Foundation and involves the Caesarea Development Corporation, the Israel Nature and Parks Authority, as well as the Israel Antiquities Authority.

The discovery also came just before the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah, when it is traditional to give children “Hanukkah gelt,” which are chocolate coins.

“It is symbolic that the gold coins were discovered on the eve of Hanukkah,” said Caesarea Development Corporation CEO Michael Karsenti, in a statement. “For us, this is certainly ‘Hanukah gelt,’ and a testament to how much more is still hidden within Caesarea.”

Israel’s Crusader sites continue to be a source of fascination. In a separate project, for example, archaeologists recently discovered a Gothic hall at a medieval Crusader fortress in northern Israel.

Last year, amazing medieval jewellery was found during the excavation of a Crusader castle on Tittora Hill in the town of Modi’in-Maccabim-Re’ut.

In 2016, a centuries-old hand grenade that may date back to the time of the Crusaders was among a host of treasures retrieved from the sea in Israel. The hand grenade was a common weapon in Israel during the Crusader era.

Over decades, archaeologists have also uncovered the ruins of the once-thriving Crusader city in the modern Israeli city of Acre.

Luxurious 1,200-year-old mansion found in southern Israel

Between two mosques in Rahat, archaeologists uncover an opulent home with a finished basement that likely belonged to a wealthy landowner in the early Islamic Period

Luxury can be found in unexpected places. Archaeologists announced Tuesday the discovery of a 1,200-year-old estate in Israel’s southern Negev desert, boasting unique underground structures that allowed its owners to overcome the searing summer heat.

In a statement on the discovery, the Israel Antiquities Authority said the sprawling property may have been the residence of a wealthy landowner overseeing farmsteads in the area.

It was discovered during excavations conducted ahead of the expansion of the Bedouin city of Rahat, just north of Beersheba.

Archaeologists said the mansion, dated to the early Islamic Period in the 8th or 9th century CE, had four wings and was erected around the main courtyard. Finely coloured frescoes adorned the walls and floor in one of the wings, they said, while other rooms featured very large ovens, likely used for cooking.

The most surprising discovery, however, was made under the courtyard – a three-meter-deep cistern dug into the rock that provided the residents with cool water throughout the year, and adjoining vaulted structures.

The archaeologists directing the IAA excavation, Oren Shmueli, Elena Kogan-Zehavi and Noé D. Michael, said that the subterranean vaulted structures were used to store foodstuffs, and enabled the residents to move around freely underground without having to emerge into the punishing sun.

“The luxurious estate and the unique impressive underground vaults are evidence of the owners’ means,” the archaeologists said in the statement.

“Their high status and wealth allowed them to build a luxurious mansion that served as a residence and for entertaining; we can study the construction methods and architectural styles, as well as learn about daily life in the Negev at the beginning of Islamic rule,” they said.

Eli Eskosido, the director of the IAA, touted the archaeologists’ cooperation with the local community in Rahat, among whom he said the discovery was generating “interest and excitement.”

The estate, he added, “was uncovered in an area located between two ancient mosques, perhaps among the earliest ever discovered.

The Israel Antiquities Authority and the Authority for the Development and Settlement of the Bedouin are planning together to conserve and exhibit the finds to the general public.”

The IAA said that on Thursday the site would be open to the public for free public tours, including family digging and sieving activities.

The cache of Ancient Knucklebones Discovered in Israel

In this vale of tears, any help peering into the future would be useful. Now, archaeologists report finding over 600 astragali – small bones from quadruped feet – in the ancient city of Maresha, central Israel. Dating to the city’s Hellenistic period some 2,300 years ago, what the bones were used for must remain in the realm of speculation. But there are clear indications that some were used to attempt to contact the gods and others were used to play games.

Ovine or caprine knuckle and ankle bones, or even artificial versions thereof – and sometimes small bones from cow feet or gazelle as well – were popular throughout the Levant and classical world, and even beyond. However, the amount found in recent excavations in Maresha was unusually large. Their discovery was reported recently in the British archaeological journal the Levant, by Dr. Lee Perry-Gal of the Israel Antiquities Authority, Prof. Adi Erlich of the Zinman Institute of Archaeology at the University of Haifa and Dr. Ian Stern of the Hebrew Union College, Jerusalem.

When one finds bones from the feet of herbivores in a cultural context, they’re usually remnants from meals, Perry-Gal points out. Sheep and goat have been staples in the Levantine diet since their domestication about 10,000 years ago in southeast Turkey. The hint to archaeologists that a bone is more than a bone is when it is found in disproportion, she explains.

Say you find a thigh bone; fine; with it you find a few toe bones, fine; if you find 500 toe bones per thigh bone, you have a phenomenon that begs interpretation, Perry-Gal says.

It bears adding that another vast collection of astragali had been discovered at Megiddo, about 680 of the things. Around the ancient world, sometimes astragali were found in the context of foundation deposits (built into the house foundations), likely because of their association with fortune (hopefully good).

Forecasting and fun in Maresha

Located in the Judean foothills, Maresha appears in the Bible in the context of the inheritance of the tribe of Judah, which included – among many other cited names – “Libnah, and Ether, and Ashan; and Iphtah, and Ashnah, and Nezib; and Keilah, and Achzib, and Mareshah; nine cities with their villages” (Joshua 15:42-44). It was one of the cities King Rehoboam fortified, according to the biblical account, which also cites it as the site of Asa of Judea’s fight against an invading army led by Zerah the Ethiopian.

In the Hellenistic period from the fourth to the second centuries B.C.E., Maresha was not Judahite. It was a multicultural city with as many as four or five different populations living together, Perry-Gal says.

The profession, or art, of divination using knucklebones, is called astragalomancy and, at least in the historic period, the practice was based on markings on the bones: names of gods and goddesses, other words, numbers. The underlying theory is that casting dice – or in this case, small bones – is a way to invoke or contact the superpowers. How the osteo-mediated message from the invoked deity is interpreted is another matter.

Some believe cleromancy using bones goes back to prehistory, in some form, though if it was used before writing, the bones presumably wouldn’t have alphabetic cues. In any case, by the classical period astragali were so prized that “bones” sculpted in glass have even been discovered at Tel Kedesh in Galilee and in ancient Greece, also from the Hellenistic period in the third and second centuries B.C.E. Examples also exist of ersatz astragali in ivory, stone and metal. Bone astragali have also been discovered in ancient Jerusalem.

In fact, Perry-Gal observes, ethnographic studies find astragali used in games to this very day in Australia and the Near East, though just for games: presumably their users have gotten over the hope that deceased feet can serve in divination.

Back to Maresha, the site of the huge collection of astragali dates to the Hellenistic period. Bones for forecasting and fun, as well as some possibly employed in the hope of persuading the deity to torment other people, were found in artificial caves carved into the bedrock of the lower city. Many of the astragali were found, the archaeologists say, in large concentrations in specific caves.

Asked if none were found aboveground, Perry-Gal says Maresha consists of its upper part above ground, of which little remains following serial conquests (as is typical of this region). Beneath the homes, however, people carved caves in the soft limestone. There are hundreds of these caves, which served for sundry purposes, including storage for grains and water cisterns – and possibly worship.

In the context of the perennial unease and hostilities in the Middle East, “all the materials from the domestic areas above-ground were tossed into the underground areas. They became a time capsule,” Perry-Gal explains. So we cannot say whether the astragali of Maresha were used in the glare of sunshine or dank inner sanctums, only a small proportion of which have been excavated.

Cops and robbers, Maresha style

But there are clues. “In Area 89, underground, there is a small altar with wall etchings, and there we found a huge collection of astragali and ostracons [pottery with writing on it],” Perry-Gal says. “This cave may have served as a place of worship. So the astragali there may not have fallen from above-ground.”

In worshipful contexts one finds astragali bearing the names of Aphrodite and Eros, the great Hera herself, Hermes, and others. Meanwhile, in the domestic neighbourhood of Maresha, the team found astragali bearing the name of Nike, the goddess of fortune, and speculate that those found in that context served to play games. “It’s a peek into their lives,” Perry-Gal says.

It bears noting that astragali around the ancient world usually weren’t marked at all; some bore names of divinities, which are associated with attempts at divination or worship; some bore numbers, which are associated with games; and some apparently served for that age-old hobby of cursing one’s enemies.

“During the Roman and Hellenistic period, astragali were used a lot in divination, at Maresha as well. This amount is extraordinary – especially ones with writing, names of gods and goddesses, found in the context of ostracons of prophecy,” Perry-Gal stresses.

Or parlor games. She suspects that astragali with words like “thief” on them were used in play. Some astragali were weighted with lead (much more than other metals) and likely served in gaming: they would roll better than mere bone, she observes.

Who might have used the astragali for play, prophecy or to (fruitlessly) implement a foul intention? No idea. “Maresha had Phoenicians and Idumaeans and Nabataeans and Jews, though it wasn’t Judahic,” she says. “We couldn’t associate the find with a specific ethos.”

It bears noting that all the ostracons, which are being studied by Dr. Stern, are in Aramaic and include curses and prophecies, but those astragali that bear writing do so in Greek.

Curses? More like formulae: “If you do x, y will happen,” Perry-Gal explains. Sort of an attempt to cajole the gods into doing evil to somebody. Okay, Maresha wasn’t the only Hellenistic city in town. What was so special about it to warrant massive use of astragali – or, at least, such a vast collection of them, relatively speaking?

Possibly, the critical mass was achieved under special conditions of extreme multiculturalism (all those peoples): other places could also be mixed, but the extent here may have been unusual, Perry-Gal suggests. Under the pax Hellenistica, conditions were open, global, tolerant and maybe all that came together at Maresha, which really was a special place – this is the first place in the west that chickens seem to have been cultivated, she adds, back in the third millennium B.C.E.

Apparently the magic in the animal feet did not help the city folk foresee the future. Maresha underwent more upheavals and finally met its maker in the year 40 B.C.E., by the Parthians roaring out of ancient Iran, and activity would move next door to the city of Beit Guvrin.

Archaeologists Discover Missing Link in Human Evolution, in Israel

Researchers working in Israel have identified a previously unknown type of ancient human that lived alongside our species more than 100,000 years ago.

They believe the remains uncovered near the city of Ramla represent one of the “last survivors” of a very ancient human group.

The finds consist of a partial skull and jaw from an individual who lived between 140,000 and 120,000 years ago.

Details have been published in the journal Science.

The team members think the individual descended from an earlier species that may have spread out of the region hundreds of thousands of years ago and given rise to Neanderthals in Europe and their equivalents in Asia.

The scientists have named the newly discovered lineage the “Nesher Ramla Homo type”.

Dr Hila May of Tel Aviv University said the discovery reshaped the story of human evolution, particularly our picture of how the Neanderthals emerged. The general picture of Neanderthal evolution had in the past been linked closely with Europe.

“It all started in Israel. We suggest that a local group was the source population,” she told BBC News. “During interglacial periods, waves of humans, the Nesher Ramla people, migrated from the Middle East to Europe.”

The team thinks that early members of the Nesher Ramla Homo group were already present in the Near East some 400,000 years ago. The researchers have noticed resemblances between the new finds and ancient “pre-Neanderthal” groups in Europe.

“This is the first time we could connect the dots between different specimens found in the Levant,” said Dr Rachel Sarig, also from Tel Aviv University.

“There are several human fossils from the caves of Qesem, Zuttiyeh and Tabun that date back to that time that we could not attribute to any specific known group of humans. But comparing their shapes to those of the newly uncovered specimen from Nesher Ramla justify their inclusion within the [new human] group.”

Dr May suggests that these humans were the ancestors of Neanderthals.

“The European Neanderthal actually began here in the Levant and migrated to Europe, while interbreeding with other groups of humans.”

Others travelled east to India and China, said Prof Israel Hershkovitz, suggesting a connection between East Asian archaic humans and Neanderthals in Europe.

“Some fossils found in East Asia manifest Neanderthal-like features as the Nesher Ramla do,” he said.

The researchers base their claims on similarities in features between the Israeli fossils and those found in Europe and Asia, though their assertion is controversial. Prof Chris Stringer, from the Natural History Museum in London, UK, has recently been assessing Chinese human remains.

“Nesher Ramla is important in confirming yet further that different species co-existed alongside each other in the region at the time and now we have the same story in western Asia,” he said.

“However, I think it’s a jump too far at the moment to link some of the older Israeli fossils to Neanderthals. I’m also puzzled at suggestions of any special link between the Nesher Ramla material and fossils in China.”

The Nesher Ramla remains themselves were found in what used to be a sinkhole, located in an area frequented by prehistoric humans. This may have been an area where they hunted for wild cattle, horses and deer, as indicated by thousands of stone tools and bones of hunted animals.

According to an analysis by Dr Yossi Zaidner at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, these tools were constructed in the same manner that modern humans of the time also made their implements.

“It was a surprise that archaic humans were using tools normally associated with Homo sapiens. This suggests that there were interactions between the two groups,” Dr Zaidner said.

“We think that it is only possible to learn how to make the tools through visual or oral learning. Our findings suggest that human evolution is far from simple and involved many dispersals, contacts and interactions between different species of human.”

9,000-Year-Old Underground Settlement With Megalithic Stone Circle, Discovered Beneath The Mediterranean Sea

Not far off the coast of the village of Atlit in the Mediterranean Sea, near Haifa in Israel, lies the submerged ruins of the ancient Neolithic site of Atlit Yam.

The prehistoric settlement, which dates back to the 7th millennium BC, has been so well preserved by the sandy seabed that a mysterious stone circle still stands as it was first erected, and dozens of human skeletons lay undisturbed in their graves. 

Atlit Yam is one of the oldest and largest sunken settlements ever found and sheds new light on the daily lives of its ancient inhabitants.

Today, Atlit Yam lies between 8 – 12 metres beneath sea level and covered an area of 40,000 square metres.

The site was first discovered in 1984 by marine archaeologist Ehud Galili, and since then underwater excavations have unearthed numerous houses, stone-built water wells, a series of long unconnected walls, ritual installations, stone-paved areas, a megalithic structure, thousands of flora and faunal remains, dozens of human remains, and numerous artefacts made of stone, bone, wood and flint.

At the centre of the settlement, seven megaliths (1.0 to 2.1 metres high) weighing up to 600 kilograms are arranged in a stone semicircle. The stones have cup marks carved into them and were once arranged around a freshwater spring, which suggests that they may have been used for a water ritual.

Another installation consists of three oval stones (1.6 – 1.8 metres), two of which are circumscribed by grooves forming schematic anthropomorphic figures.

Another significant structural feature of the site is the stone-built well, which was excavated down to a depth of 5.5. metres. At the base of the well, archaeologists found sediment fill containing animal bones, stone, flint, wood, and bone artefacts. This suggests that in its final stage, it ceased to function as a water-well and was used instead as a disposal pit.

The change in function was probably related to the salinization of the water due to a rise in sea level. The wells from Atlit-Yam had probably been dug and constructed in the earliest stages of occupation (the end of the 9th millennium BC) and were essential for the maintenance of a permanent settlement in the area.

The ancient artefacts unearthed at Atlit Yam offer clues into how the prehistoric inhabitants once lived. Researchers have found traces of more than 100 species of plants that grew at the site or were collected from the wild, and animal remains consisted of bones of both wild and domesticated animals, including sheep, goats, pigs, dogs, and cattle, suggesting that the residents raised and hunted animals for subsistence.

In addition, more than 6,000 fish bones were found. Combined with other clues, such as an ear condition found in some of the human remains caused by regular exposure to cold water, it seems that fishing also played a big role in their society.

The archaeological material indicates that Atlit-Yam provides the earliest known evidence for an agro-pastoral-marine subsistence system on the Levantine coast. The inhabitants were some of the first to make the transition from being hunter-gatherers to being more settled farmers, and the settlement is one of the earliest with evidence of domesticated cattle.

Human remains reveal the oldest known case of Tuberculosis

Ten flexed burials encased in clay and covered by thick layers of sand were discovered, both inside the houses and in the vicinity of Atlit Yam, and in total archaeologists have uncovered 65 sets of human remains. One of the most significant discoveries of this ancient site is the presence of tuberculosis (TB) within the village. 

The skeletons of a woman and child, found in 2008, have revealed the earliest known cases of tuberculosis in the world. The size of the infant’s bones, and the extent of TB damage, suggest the mother passed the disease to her baby shortly after birth.

What caused Atlit Yam to sink?

One of the greatest archaeological mysteries of Atlit Yam is how it came to be submerged, a question that has led to heated debate in academic circles.

An Italian study led by Maria Pareschi of the Italian National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology in Pisa indicates that a volcanic collapse of the Eastern flank of Mount Etna 8,500 years ago would likely have caused a 40-metre-high tsunami to engulf some Mediterranean coastal cities within hours.

Some scientists point to the apparent abandonment of Atlit Yam around the same time, and the thousands of fish remains, as further evidence that such a tsunami did indeed occur.

However, other researchers have suggested that there is no solid evidence to suggest a tsunami wiped out the settlement. After all, the megalithic stone circle still remained standing in the place in which it had been constructed.

One alternative is that climate change caused glaciers to melt and sea levels to rise and the settlement became flooded by a slow rise in the level of the Mediterranean that led to a gradual abandonment of the village.

Whatever the cause of the submerging of the settlement, it was the unique conditions of clay and sandy sediment under salty water that enabled this ancient village to remain so well preserved over thousands of years.

Rare Roman coin bearing Cancer zodiac sign found off Israeli Coast

A nearly 2,000-year-old Roman coin, etched with a symbol of the zodiac, was fished from the waters around Haifa in northern Israel, reports the Agence France-Presse (AFP).

Archaeologists with the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) made the discovery while conducting an underwater archaeological survey.

The bronze coin was minted in Alexandria, Egypt, during the reign of the Roman emperor Antoninus Pius, and it was found in “an exceptional state of preservation,” according to a statement from the Israeli prime minister’s office, per Google Translate.

One side of the coin features an image of Luna, the Roman goddess of the moon, and an image of the zodiac sign for Cancer; the other side depicts Antoninus Pius.

The coin also bears the inscription “Year Eight,” indicating that it was produced during the eighth year of Pius’ rule, which spanned from 138 to 161 C.E.

This ancient relic belonged to a series of 13 coins, portraying the 12 signs of the zodiac and the complete zodiac wheel, per a statement from IAA. It is the first such coin that has been discovered off the coast of Israel.

Astrology, which originated in Mesopotamia circa the third millennium B.C.E., was deeply entrenched in Roman culture.

Though sometimes viewed with suspicion and hostility by emperors, who understood that astrological predictions could be used to subvert their authority, astrology was a popular practice among all classes of Roman society.

“Astrology was only one of a wider number of divinatory practices in the empire,” writes Matthew Bunson in the Encyclopedia of the Roman Empire. “But for capturing the public interest and imagination, all paled alongside astrology.”

Pius led the empire through one of its most peaceful eras. Before this period, hostilities abounded in what is now Israel—particularly in the years after 70 C.E., when Roman forces destroyed the Second Temple in Jerusalem.

In 130 C.E., the emperor Hadrian initiated plans to build a Roman metropolis in Jerusalem. He also outlawed circumcision, a core practice in Judaism.

Shortly afterwards, Jews launched a rebellion against Roman rulers known as the Bar Kochba Revolt. Roman forces ultimately quashed the rebellion after three years of fighting and “enormous losses” on both sides.

Conversely, Pius, who succeeded Hadrian, was “not a military man,” writes the Washington Post’s Rachel Pannett. He helped cool relations with the empire’s Jews by allowing them to resume the practice of circumcision.

The bronze coin depicting Pius was found near a “small hoard” of other coins, indicating that it fell into the sea during a shipwreck, Jacob Sharvit, head of the IAA’s marine archaeology unit, tells the AFP.

“Along the shores of the Mediterranean Sea in the State of Israel, and in its maritime space, there are many archaeological sites and findings, which tell of connections that existed here in ancient times between the ports of the Mediterranean Sea and the countries along it,” Sharvit says in the statement from the prime minister’s office.

These ancient sites must be safeguarded “in the light of diverse development interests” along Israel’s coasts, says Eli Eskosido, the IAA’s general director, in the IAA statement.

“Rather than simply defining the country’s border,” he adds, “the sea is now recognized as an integral part of our cultural heritage.”

Quarry Discovered Under Ancient Church in Jerusalem

Remains of construction dating back to the period of Roman Emperor Constantine at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher are among the discoveries uncovered during on-going excavations at the Christian holy site since March 2022 as part of a complex two-year project to repair and restore pavement stones of the ancient church.

The finds were presented to leaders of the Christian community of the church during a visit to the excavations on July 11 by Drs. Beatrice Brancazi and Stefano De Togni, members of the archaeological team from the Department of Antiquities of the Sapienza University of Rome who are carrying out the work under the direction of Professor Francesca Romana Stasolla, assisted by Professors Giorgia Maria Annoscia and Massimiliano David.

The researchers said the rock layers of the stone quarry used during the construction of the church during Constantine’s period had been uncovered.

“The rock layers of the quarry have been found,” Romana Stasolla said in a press release issued by the Franciscan Custody of the Holy Land following the visit of the Christian leaders.

According to tradition, up until the first century BCE the area on which the church stands was a stone quarry and traces of these activities are still clearly visible in the chapels below the current church.

The excavations

The excavations take place according to where restoration work is being done on the pavement stones and in May the archaeologists began excavation in the north nave of the basilica, also known as the Arches of the Virgin, and part of the north-western rotunda. The work is carried out round the clock and in a way not to disturb the daily movement within the church. It is the first time such a systematic excavation of the church has been carried out.

The archaeologists said they also found evidence of trenches dug by Italian Franciscan Friar and Studium Biblicum Franciscanum professor of archaeology Virginio Corbo in the 1960s.

The press report noted that the quarry rock layers are of made up of different heights from “deep and uneven cuts.”

“The operations of the Constantinian construction site had as their primary requirement that of bridging such unevenness of elevation to create a unitary and homogeneous plan to build the structures of the church and its annexes,” Romana Stasolla said in the release.

Progressive layers of soil rich in ceramic material allowing for water drainage were used to level the area, she said.

They were also able to analyze the construction methods of the foundation of the north perimeter wall of the Constantinian complex, she said, and uncovered mosaic tiles believed to be from floor pavements.

Constantine began construction on a church at the site in 326 CE, building on top of Roman Emperor Hadrian’s temple of Capitoline Jupiter built between 135 and 136 CE as he repressed an anti-Roman revolt by founding the city of Aelia Capitolina.

“The operations of the Constantinian construction site had as their primary requirement that of bridging such unevenness of elevation to create a unitary and homogeneous plan to build the structures of the church and its annexes.”

Romana Stasolla

In the north-western area of the rotunda, the archaeologists continued with the excavation of a tunnel near the aedicule, traditionally held to be the tomb of Jesus by Christians, which had been uncovered during the first phase of restoration work at the church. The tunnel descends vertically 2.8 m. next to the aedicule and then continues horizontally to the north, said the report.

“Its discovery in relation to the excavation stratigraphy and its connection with the entire water outflow system is an important aspect in the study of the architectural elements and will be analyzed within the project,” said the report.

Processing of the materials uncovered at the dig is carried out in real-time between Jerusalem and Rome, noted in the report, and data processed during the excavation is entered into a database created for the project which is linked to different historical and archive sources with remote support from team members in Rome.

This second phase of restoration work at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre is being conducted under the direction of the Franciscan Custody of the Holy Land in cooperation with the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate and the Armenian Patriarchate, the three historical guardians of the Church according to the 1852 Status Quo agreement that solidified the territorial division among the Christian communities in the church and other holy Christian sites.

At the start of the recent restoration and excavation work in March, Prof. Giorgio Piras, director of the Department of Ancient Sciences at the Sapienza University of Rome, told The Jerusalem Post that most of the remains found would likely be covered up in accordance with the status quo.

70 Metallic Books That Could Change The Biblical Story

This incredible discovery could prove to be the most important thing since the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls. The ancient collection of 70 tiny books bound with wire, could reveal some of the biggest secrets of the early days of Christianity.

As everything that challenged conventional thinking and science, the discovery of these artefacts has caused experts to have divided opinions and to question their authenticity.

Located on these miniature pages are images, symbols and words that seem to refer to the Messiah and, possibly, to the crucifixion and resurrection.

But most importantly, some of the books are sealed, arousing doubts among academics if these could actually be the lost collection of codices mentioned in the Book of Revelations in the Bible.

Dr. Margaret Barker, former president of the Society for the Study of the Old Testament, said:

“The Book of Revelations speaks of sealed books that were only open for the Messiah. There are other texts of the same period of history that speak of great wisdom that has been locked away in sealed books. These contain a secret tradition passed by Jesus to his closest disciples.”

The books were found in a cave situated in a remote part of Jordan known to be a location where Christian refugees fled after the fall of Jerusalem. Other important and authentic documents of the same period have previously been discovered in the area.

Jordanian government officials are in talks at the highest levels to repatriate and safeguard the historical collection. After the discovery by Jordanian Bedouin, this potentially “priceless treasure” was acquired by an Israeli who said he smuggled the books outside the border into Israel, where they remain.

After initial studies, metallurgical testing indicates that some of the books would go back to sometime near the first century after Christ.

Some researchers believe this discovery to be one of the most important findings in history, crucial evidence from the beginning of the Christian era, prior to the writings of St. Paul.

These writings could contain, within their inscriptions, contemporary stories of the final days of Jesus’ life.

David Elkington, a British scholar of ancient religious history and archaeology, and one of the few to examine the books said that might well be:

“the greatest discovery in the history of Christianity.” “It’s exciting to think that we are in the hand’s objects that may have been held by the early saints of the Church,” he added.

Philip Davies, emeritus professor of biblical studies at the University of Sheffield, believes that this is an authentic historical finding.

According to Davies, there is strong evidence that the books have a Christian origin because there are plaques showing a map of the holy city of Jerusalem.

According to Professor Davies, there is a cross in the foreground, and behind it is something which could be interpreted as a grave. The books seem to describe the crucifixion that takes place outside the walls of the city.