Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Byzantine-era site at Beer Sheva bus terminal

A BYZANTINE-ERA SITE is being excavated at the Beer Sheva bus terminal (Arutz Sheva):
“We've found a few large rooms at floor level preservation, with a lot of fallen walls, and a few floors,” [archaeology student Tamar] Gresser said in an exclusive interview with Arutz Sheva. “The interesting part are underground rooms which were dug into the natural earth, underneath the houses. The rooms are easy to detect because they are filled with very soft dirt, very different from the rock-hard natural earth. Most of these rooms will have a wall or two to strengthen the sides or the opening.”

So far, the archaeologists have found broken jars and numerous coins – so many, in fact, that in one of the rooms, “we found 52 coins in one day," Gresser said. "We think they may have been in a cloth or leather bag that decayed over the years, resulting in them being found scattered. That was exciting!”