A 2,000-year-old ritual bath unearthed in southern Israel constitutes the first unprecedented evidence of a Jewish settlement in the area during that era, according to antiquities experts.
Archaeologists have successfully excavated the huge mikveh in Kiryat Gat dating back to the Second Temple period in a delicate operation lasting two weeks.
The extraction of the bath, which is four metres wide and weighs some 25 metric tonnes (nearly 4,000 stone), required a 300-tonne lifting crane.
The discovery was made during an excavation conducted by the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA).
“The Jewish settlement we discovered here is the first and the only known one in this area,” said excavation directors Elena Kogan-Zahavi, Maayan Margulis and Shira Lifshitz.
“In the Judean Lowlands, many Jewish settlements from the Roman period are known, but in the seam between the Judean Lowlands and the northern Negev, no Jewish settlement was known until now.”
During the operation at the site, located in the Carmei Gat neighbourhood of the city, excavators dug around the bath to expose it on all sides before drilling underneath it and inserting steel beams in the gaps, allowing for the removal.
Before the excavation, the team covered the ancient plaster on the mikveh’s walls with gauze and adhesives, anticipating that vibrations during lifting and subsequent transit could cause it to peel off.
“Once you lift up a structure like this, there is no going back,” said Eyal Kaho, senior conservator at the IAA.
“If it falls apart, we’ve lost the mikveh,” he continued.
“Therefore, every detail must be considered in advance. The day before an operation like this, you don’t sleep. You’re under pressure, because the responsibility is yours and there’s simply no price that can compensate for mistakes.
“Even after 36 years at the Israel Antiquities Authority, every time, the adrenaline rises anew.”
The mikveh was removed from the ground fully intact and was taken away from the area in a wide-load transport vehicle, to be transferred to the National Treasures Department for safekeeping.
The complex engineering-conservation operation was financed by the Israel Lands Authority, and carried out in order to protect the ancient structure from damage during development work in Carmei Gat.
When construction is completed, the mikveh will be returned to the site and integrated into an open public space at the heart of the new neighbourhood.
In addition to the mikveh, archaeologists uncovered stone-measuring vessels that were widely used by Jews during the Second Temple period, which lasted from approximately 517BCE until 70CE.
They believe that their findings indicate the settlement was abandoned during the Bar Kokhba Revolt in the 2nd century CE.
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