1,900-Year-Old Ritual Bath Found Defaced by World War II Graffiti

By Kelly Dickerson

During World War Two, soldiers scrawled a message across the ceiling of an ancient water cistern. Credit: Assaf Peretz/IAA

Archaeologists recently unearthed an ancient Jewish ritual bath defaced with World War II-era graffiti.
The Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) discovered a 1,900-year-old ritual bath (called a "miqwe" or mikveh) and a 1,700-year-old water cistern at the Ha'Ela Junction of Highway 38 in Israel while a construction project to widen the major thoroughfare was underway.
But archaeologists were surprised to discover that the ancient artifacts had been defaced — Australian World War II soldiers had etched graffiti into the exposed ceiling of the water cistern. [The Holy Land: 7 Amazing Archaeological Finds]

"The finds from this excavation allow us to reconstruct a double story —about the Jewish settlement in the second century C.E. [Christian Era, or A.D.], probably against the background of the events of the Bar Kokhba revolt, and another story, no less fascinating, about a group of Australian soldiers who visited the site [about] 1,700 years later and left their mark there," Yoav Tsur, excavation director for the IAA,said in a statement.
Assaf Peretz, an archaeologist at the IAA, deciphered the graffiti scrawled across the ceiling of the cistern. The message was signed "Cpl Scarlett and Walsh," with the initials "RAE," two numbers and the date "30/05/1940."
Peretz and the other archaeologists then had to do a little detective work to figure out the identities of Scarlett and Walsh. "Cpl" stands for the military rank "corporal," and the initials "RAE" represent the Royal Australian Engineers, the researchers said. The two numbers were found to be soldier serial numbers, and they allowed the archaeologists to identify the two graffiti artists as Cpl. Philip William Scarlett and Patrick Raphael Walsh.
Scarlett and Walsh belonged to the Sixth Division of the Australian Army and were training in the area before their scheduled deployment to fight on the frontlines in France. However, France surrendered before the division's ship date, so Scarlett and Walsh were sent to Egypt instead in October 1940 to fight in the Western Desert, located west of the Nile Valley. Both men survived World War II; Scarlett died in 1970, at age 51, and Walsh died in 2005, at age 95.
"If the relatives of these people are acquainted with the story, we'll be happy if they contact us, and we'll share with them the warm greetings left behind by Scarlett and Walsh," Peretz said in a statement.
The ancient ritual bath has five steps, and the top step acted as a bench where people could sit at the edge of the pool, Tsur said. Archaeologists also found pots and jugs scattered around the bath. The IAA suspects the ritual bath stopped being used in the early second century A.D., after the Bar Kokhba revolt, which was the last battle that pitted the Jews against their persecutors in the Roman Empire.
The huge water cistern where the graffiti was found used to feed the nearby ritual bath. After the bath stopped being used, people likely enlarged the cistern's cavity and used it as a water vat, according to the archaeologists.
During construction projects in this region, it's fairly common to uncover ancient artifacts. Several archaeological sites already exist alongside Highway 38, which connects Judea to the city of Beit Shemesh. In November 2013, construction along the highway revealed a 10,000-year-old house. Other construction projects this year have uncovered a 6th-century monastery and a hoard of bronze coins that date back to the Great Revolt, a Jewish uprising against the Romans about 2,000 years ago.
The construction company working on widening the highway has agreed to preserve the site of the ancient ritual bath and will incorporate it as part of the natural landscape alongside the road, the archaeologists said.

Live Sciencel

Gas chambers unearthed at demolished Nazi concentration camp

Archaeologists uncover previously hidden ruins at Sobibor death camp in Poland, which was razed after a 1943 uprising

Archeologist Anna Zalewska works among the brick walls thought to be the ruins of gas chambers at the Sobibor camp. Photograph: Kacper Pempel/Reuters

Archaeologists working at the site of the Nazi concentration camp at Sobibor, in eastern Poland, say they have uncovered previously hidden gas chambers in which an estimated quarter of a million Jews were killed.
German forces tried to erase all traces of the camp when they closed it down after an uprising there on 14 October 1943. The Nazis demolished the gas chambers and an asphalt road was later built over the top.
Archaeologists excavated beneath the road and found lines of bricks, laid four deep, where they believe the walls of the gas chambers used to stand.
They have been able to establish how big the chambers were, information they said would help build up a more precise picture of how many people were murdered at the camp.
"Finally, we have reached our goal – the discovery of the gas chambers. We were amazed at the size of the building and the well-preserved condition of the chamber walls," said Yoram Haimi, one of the archaeologists.
Haimi said two of his own uncles, who had been living in Paris during the war and were rounded up by the Germans, were among those killed at Sobibor.
The archaeologists said that among the personal items they had found buried near the gas chambers was a wedding ring which carried the inscription, in Hebrew: "Behold, you are consecrated unto me."
A golden ring inscribed in Hebrew which was unearthed by archaeologists at Sobibor. Photograph: Kacper Pempel/Reuters Historians say that because the Germans razed the camp, and because so few of those detained there came out alive to give testimony, there is less information about how Sobibor operated and the scale of the killing than there is for some other concentration camps.
The Polish archaeologist Wojciech Mazurek, who has also been involved in uncovering the site, said the excavations revealed there were eight gas chambers.
"The extermination of people took place there; murder by smoke from an engine that killed everyone within 15 minutes in these gas chambers, in torment, shouting," he told Reuters Television.
"It is said that … the Nazis even bred geese in order to drown out these shouts so that prisoners could not have heard these shouts, these torments."
According to Israel's Yad Vashem International Institute for Holocaust Research, the 1943 uprising was organised by Jewish civilians at the camp and Jewish officers in the Soviet army who had been taken prisoner and sent to Sobibor.
About 300 people escaped, but most were caught and killed. Those who did not take part in the breakout were also killed. At the end of the second world war, about 50 escapees were left alive.
The research project at Sobibor is being carried out in coordination with the Yad Vashem institute, the German-Polish Foundation, and the Majdanek State Museum, near the Polish city of Lublin.

theguardian

Ancient Synagogue Mosaic Depicts Bloody Jewish Legend

By Kelly Dickerson

The new mosaic discovered in an ancient synagogue in Israel depicts a story from Jewish legend. Alexander is one of the characters from the legend. Credit: UNC

A gruesome and bloody battle scene once decorated the floors of a 5th century synagogue in a Jewish village in northern Israel.
The mosaic is divided into three horizontal panels and measures about 10 feet (3 meters) by 6.5 feet (2 meters). The lowest section shows a dying soldier carrying a shield, and a bull stuck by several spears, with blood oozing out of the wounds. The gory scene found glittering on the synagogue's tiles surprised the dig team.
"This is the first time that a non-biblical story has been found decorating an ancient synagogue," Jodi Magness, excavation leader from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, told Live Science in an email.

The middle panel of the mosaic depicts a seated old man holding a scroll, surrounded by younger men. Arches frame the whole scene, each one crowned with glowing oil lamps. The top panel shows a man leading a bull by its horns, and a group of soldiers and elephants clad in armor. The elephants were the first clue that the story depicted in the mosaic was not a biblical one, the researchers said.
"Battle elephants were associated with Greek armies beginning with Alexander the Great, so this might be a depiction of a Jewish legend about the meeting between Alexander and the Jewish high priest," Magness said in a statement. "Different versions of this story appear in the writings of Flavius Josephus and in rabbinic literature."
The first excavation of the site, in 2012, unearthed a mosaic depicting the biblical character Samson, shown with foxes. The scene reflects the Bible story in the book Judges, where Samson ties torches to the tails of foxes to burn the Philistine's crops.
During the next summer, Magness discovered a second mosaic that depicts another story about Samson. The scene comes from a story (also in the book of Judges) in which the biblical hero pulls the gate of Gaza out of the wall, shoulders it and carries it up a hill.
Magness and the team said they hope the excavation of the synagogue will reveal more about the relationship between ancient Christians and Jews. In the 2nd and 3rd centuries, the Roman rulers in Israel were pagans, and likely would have allowed Jews to build large synagogues. But in the 5th century, when Christians seized power, Jews likely did not enjoy the same level of tolerance, historians and archaeologists believe. However, Magness thinks the synagogue she discovered dates back to this oppressive era. If it's confirmed, the discovery could change what some scientists believe about the relationship between ancient Christians and Jews.
The dig team removed all three mosaics from the site for preservation. Excavation of the synagogue will continue next summer.
http://www.livescience.com/46771-ancient-synagogue-mosaic-battle-scene.html