CATEGORY . Unprecedented finding from Hasmonean period unearthed in City of David

 

 "Despite over 100 years of exhaustive excavations throughout Jerusalem’s City of David, archeologists have been unable to find a single significant structure from the Hasmonean period, until now. On Tuesday, following months of delicate probing and analysis, the Antiquities Authority announced an unprecedented finding – a 4- meter-high building from the second century BCE, covering some 64 square meters, with dozens of ancient coins still lying on its floors....

 

“More than 100 years of archeological excavation has failed to find the buildings of the Hasmonean period,” Dr. Doron Ben-Ami, one of the excavation’s directors, said on Tuesday. “We have not had good evidence of Hasmonean buildings, until now.”

 

The Hasmonean dynasty, descendants of the Maccabee family, ruled Judea and surrounding areas from 141-37 BCE, during classical antiquity. In 37 BCE the Hasmoneans fell to Herod the Great, of Edomite descent, and the Herodian dynasty began....

 

While descriptions of the Hasmonean city were vividly articulated in the works of Flavius Josephus, Ben-Ami said that apart from remains of the city’s fortifications discovered in different parts of Jerusalem, none of the Hasmonean city’s buildings had been uncovered.

 

Calling the finding unprecedented, the archeologist said the structure bridges the gap in Jerusalem’s settlement sequence by adding “tangible expression.”