Israeli Archaeology: Ancient Treasures Uncovered from Land and Sea | Jersusalem Dateline

This week on Jerusalem Dateline From a new tunnel under the Western Wall to restoration work on an ancient site Spectacular treasures found off the coast from early Christianity And so this is a ring of a Christian who lived in a period that Christians were still persecuted And bringing trees back to life bearing fruit from Bible times We bring you a special show on some of the latest archaeological finds in Israel All this and more this week on Jerusalem Dateline Hello and welcome to this special archaeological edition of Jerusalem Dateline I'm Chris Mitchell Israeli archaeologists have uncovered two chambers in the tunnels near Jerusalem's Western Wall The magnificent structure is part of a new route that takes visitors back to ancient days The discoveries are the highlight of a new route through the Western Wall tunnels that sheds light on Jewish life in Jerusalem during the time of Jesus So it's unbelievable to see this new excavation here maybe 15 years ago when I started guiding here I was standing above us and saying you know underneath the arch there's something So now we are inside that something Johanna Bisroer from the Western Wall Heritage Foundation said the new route will open in a few months VIPs were invited this day for a preview We have a beautiful complex on the Second Temple Period maybe one of the most beautiful next to the Western Wall You can see ritual baths, beautiful columns The discovery began here more than 100 years ago when British archaeologist Charles Warren climbed through a hole into this room Now archaeologists have uncovered two more chambers And when we saw this room which was the first thing to be revealed in the new excavations we were excited because we realized what was not known then that we are actually in the parallel room of the Hasmonean or Herodian Hall that was already known since Warren's time since the 19th century This is one big building The discovery of these rooms less than 100 feet away from the Temple Mount adds another layer of understanding to Second Temple times 2000 years ago It was a building for the elite of the city for the city councilors, for the rulers a meeting place of them a place where they could host their important guests just before climbing with them up to the Temple Mount It's unlikely that Jesus would have been a guest here If Jesus was a guest of the city councilors of Jerusalem at that time, he could And the building was a place to host the elite So who knows? I'm not so sure he was considered to be such an honor But who knows? Who knows? Everything is possible IAA excavation director Shlomit Wechsler-Bodralak said the only other building decorated like this one in Jerusalem at the time was the Temple Mount itself And there's more an indoor fountain and reservoir connecting the two chambers Here you see the capitals They are still preserved In the center of each capital, there is a hole In this hole, there is a lead pipe that is inserted where the water would come out This is a fountain that was within a very magnificent building So possibly they could control the flow of water When there were guests and they wanted to impress them they opened and the water would have flowed When there was no guests, they closed At some point, this room was repurposed as a huge mikveh or ritual bath maybe the largest in Jerusalem Archaeologists say that could have been done shortly before the Temple was destroyed and the Jewish people scattered in 70 A.D. Two weeks before the ninth of Ahab, the Hebrew months of Ahab which is the day of the destruction of the Second Temple for us to reveal that today and maybe let's say, let's learn from the past and just learn something for the future That's something very moving for us The Tower of David Museum here in Jerusalem boasts 4,000 years of biblical history This popular attraction is getting a major facelift thanks to an ongoing restoration project The goal is to welcome visitors from around the world to see sights like a tower built by King Herod during the time of Jesus The Tower of David Museum stands as a citadel guarding the entrance to Jerusalem's Old City Some see it as one of the crown jewels of the city The only museum in the world that tells the full story of Jerusalem 4,000 years of rich history Inside this magnificent citadel of the city represent all the layers from the history of Jerusalem This week the museum held a groundbreaking for a new pavilion and welcome center next to the Jaffa Gate The Jaffa Gate serves as the main gateway into the Old City of Jerusalem With this new entrance and welcome center the Tower of David Museum wants to increase the experience for millions of visitors to the most unique city in the world Visitors will be able to enter the citadel from the west enjoy the archeology and history and exit through the original Ottoman gate of the citadel straight to the streets of the Old City with the knowledge and experience from the Tower of David as the perfect introduction to Jerusalem The groundbreaking marked the halfway point of a multi-million dollar restoration and conservation project CBN News has chronicled this effort to modernize the museum, excavate ancient artifacts and conserve treasures like this tower built by King Herod during the time of Jesus Now the focus is the new welcome center What is coming is a piece of modern architecture that respects and blends in this very, very sensitive landscape of archeology and stones in the citadel The idea is that this will function as the entry pavilion for a citadel that was never meant to be a museum It was meant to hold people out The construction presented a daunting engineering challenge How do you dig down more than 50 feet next to a 500-year-old wall without making it collapse? The engineering challenges were unbelievable in its sensitivity and problematic because we are building a building next to a very, very important wall of the citadel which is 10 meters high and we need to go seven, eight meters deep and we need to make sure that nothing happens to this wall Kimmel shows how they met the challenge What you see now is a stage where we can sleep at night because there is already a concrete wall There are the metal beams that support and know that we are safe Alongside the engineering comes the archeology where many finds were examined in the laboratory It is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to dig the citadel the last excavations conducted in the late 1980s Notes and pictures from a British archeologist more than 100 years ago helped guide Israeli archeologists to find artifacts from Jerusalem's 3,000-year-old history from Ottoman-era smoking pipes to the time of the First Temple And I will go earlier to the time of the King Hezekiah 2,700 years ago This is very typically Judean bowl from the Iron Age, from the First Temple period Those involved in the project feel a sense of history It's really one of the most exciting projects an architect can hope for, to work inside history and give a new, let's say, a new life to this history and make it accessible for everybody When completed, the museum hopes to welcome millions of visitors and expects the project to be completed by November 2022 Coming up, uncovering the ancient wall of Jerusalem from almost 3,000 years ago You touch something or you walk on something or you're leaning on something that you know somebody did the same thing 2,600 years ago So it's emotional Archeologists excavating in Jerusalem have uncovered part of the ancient city wall from almost 3,000 years ago The timing came just before the Jewish fast marking the destruction of the First and Second Temples CBN News Middle East correspondent Julie Stahl shows us why that's a key part of the discovery Finding this part of the wall in the City of David archaeological site provides a key to understanding the First Temple era of ancient Jerusalem In the 60s, famous British archaeologist Kathleen Kenyon, just a few meters north of here uncovered a 30-meter section of the same wall Then she claimed already this is the wall of Jerusalem during the time period Then, according to Dr. Vukosavovic, about a decade later, Israeli archaeologists Yigal Shilo found another section further south but a piece of the puzzle remained missing For a number of years, we attempted to find additional sections of this wall and we couldn't So much so that we started doubting the existence of this wall That brings us to this discovery of two more sections which clears up the mystery So now we can conclusively say that, yes, the City of David, at least, had one massive wall that surrounded the City of David The wall behind me would have protected the ancient city of Jerusalem for about 200 years from the 8th century B.C. until about 587 B.C. In 600 B.C., the Babylonians besieged the city which is described in the Book of Second Kings The Bible says Nebuchadnezzar came to Jerusalem He set fire to the Temple of the Lord, the Royal Palace, and all the houses of Jerusalem Every important building he burned down The whole Babylonian army under the commander of the Imperial Guard broke down the walls around Jerusalem Archaeologists found evidence of that burning just inside the wall This part apparently wasn't destroyed possibly because of the steep hill below it In addition to the wall, archaeologists found artifacts indicating what life was like in the Kingdom of Judah in those days And we found right here where I stand a bulla of a person called Tzafan which is an abbreviation of Tzfania which we find in the Bible as well Just a few centimeters away and we found a Babylonian stamp seal The jar handles were stamped with rosettes and circles and with lamelech belonging to the king You find a really beautiful wall in so many ways You touch something or you walk on something or you're leaning on something that you know Somebody did the same thing 2600 years ago So it's emotional For now, the excavation continues as archaeologists try to understand how the nearby Gihon Spring and other sites fit together Julie Stahl, CBN News, the City of David, Jerusalem Up next, ancient treasures that open a window into what life was like in the early Christian church And so this is a ring of a Christian who lived in a period where Christians were still persecuted and killed even in Caesarea Israeli archaeological discoveries aren't limited to land They can also be at sea Recently, Israeli archaeologists discovered spectacular treasures off the coast of Israel The ancient finds open a window into what life was like in the early Christian church At the entrance of the harbor of Caesarea divers from the Israel Antiquities Authority made a rare discovery To find two different shipwrecks mixed together on the same site in a difference of more than 1,000 years To try to imagine that the ship was wrecked in the Roman period at the site and then 1,000 years later another ship was wrecked maybe on the top of it or in the air of it It was really interesting In one area, Charvit and his partner found both bronze coins from the 3rd century and silver coins from the 14th century They are amazing, actually, from our point of view because they are telling a story It's not only the artifacts It's the whole story of all the shipwrecks What is the ship doing there? The period, what was the position or the situation of what was happening with the ship The treasures also included a bronze eagle figurine a symbol of Roman rule and a red gemstone with the carving of a lyre or what's known as David's harp In the book of 1 Samuel from the Bible it says David played his harp for King Saul They also found a gold ring with a reference from the New Testament This is the Good Shepherd ring found in the shipwrecks in the Mediterranean and it helps tell the story of early Christians in the city of Caesarea during the Roman Empire As we know, the symbol of the Good Shepherd is one of the first symbols of Jesus and actually the idea of the Good Shepherd was adopted by the most of the local population who actually were looking forward into the new religion because in the Old Testament we actually have the reference to the Good Shepherd and his herd The ring also tells a story about Christians from Caesarea nearly 1,700 years ago To find a ring from the 3rd century when Christianity basically was still underground Christians were persecuted during the 3rd century It's only 100 years later under Constantine that Christianity becomes a state religion So this is a ring of a Christian who lived in a period that Christians were still persecuted and killed even in Caesarea I think we have a pretty dramatic find here Very simple, very laconic Just a male figure bearing the lamb on his shoulders Almost exactly the same image we can see on the walls of the catacombs in Rome in the area where actually the services took place The artifacts, coins and ring help reconstruct the puzzle of Caesarea's past The ring is fantastic, of course I mean, we often find coins from the Roman period You know, archaeology is like a puzzle You take different elements and the wonderful thing in archaeology is that you can piece things together You know, we have the site, we have the coins, we have the ship and then this beautiful ring and everything suddenly comes together The ring also makes a personal connection This ring connects you to the people, right? Like, especially when you find something I'm talking about just myself when I see something like that It's something which is very personal in a way, right? You try to imagine the particular person who was wearing this ring What were his thoughts or beliefs? It's really touching I'm not a religious person by myself but when I see something like that I feel this connection to someone who lived hundreds and hundreds of years ago The discoveries also reveal the port of Caesarea had a longer history than previously thought Because some of the people, some of the archaeologists were thinking that the harbor was collapsed in the first century A.D. Now we realize that the commerce and the ship were coming from all over the Mediterranean also to Caesarea in a later period especially in the late Roman and early Byzantine periods Caesarea played a prominent role in the early church The Book of Acts documents the first Christian baptism of a non-Jew happened there and from Caesarea, the Apostle Paul helped take the Gospel to the world Coming up, bringing trees back to life bearing fruit from Bible times We're talking about the resurrection of 2,000 year old plus ancient date seeds Thank you for watching Jerusalem Dayline We're committed to providing you with unbiased reporting from the Holy Land through weekly broadcasts, podcasts and online media Our vision is to reach millions around the globe with the true story of what's happening in Israel and the Middle East all from a biblical and prophetic perspective This is a big vision and is only made possible by the generous support of people like you Call us toll free at 1-800-700-7000 or go to cbn.com slash Jerusalem Dateline and make a donation that will help spread the light of truth about Israel throughout the world In the middle of Israel's Arava Desert a farming community is bringing trees back to life that are bearing fruit from the time of the Bible CBN Middle East correspondent Julie Stahl has that story This little young looking palm tree named Judith carries an ancient heritage We're talking about the resurrection of 2,000 year old plus ancient date seeds that come from the Judean desert and from Masada and which are part of a scientific experiment Growing in a greenhouse for the last nine years Judith was recently transplanted in what Kibbutz Ketora calls the ancient Judean date orchard Journalists even pitched in to help She's the fifth such tree to be planted there after Methuselah, Adam, Jonah and Hannah We are planting our second female date tree who was sprouted from an ancient seed Actually this one came from Qumran was found in the caves and much to our astonishment she also sprouted This is Hannah behind me the first female tree She was planted in 2019 pollinated by Methuselah Last year she had around 100 dates This year she had 621 dates and this is part of one of them Dr. Sarah Salone, a medical doctor started this project more than 15 years ago after becoming interested in natural medicine I wanted to see how medicinal the flora of Israel was and what it had been used for and so on and then I realized that many of these species had actually disappeared and we know what there was because it's mentioned in the Bible The Bible is our guidebook of ancient species One that disappeared centuries ago was the Judean date The date is mentioned in the Bible as one of the seven species found in the ancient land of Israel Now we see dates all the way along here palm trees and all the Kibbutzim are growing plants and look at the plantations on Keturah Those date palms of modern day Israel are modern and they were imported after the founding of the state in the 1950s but they're not the original date tree that grew here Years ago at Masada archaeologists found a jar of those ancient date seeds In ancient times the classical writers described in detail the dates of ancient Judea Why? Because they were famous They were big, they were sweet, they were very dry that allowed them to be exported all over the Roman Empire and they had medicinal qualities Ceylon obtained five of those original seeds and gave them to botanist Dr. Elaine Soloway After devising a method to sprout them Soloway has succeeded in sprouting seeds found in other places such as the Qumran caves where the Dead Sea Scrolls were found I think the biggest problem is hydrating them because if you hydrate them too quickly you kill them and you only get one crack at each seed So far we have five males and two females, seven all together and I've tried lots of seeds and most of them are deader than doornails Fifteen years ago the first tree Soloway sprouted was a male They called him Methuselah after the oldest person in the Bible CBN News got its first look ten years ago when Methuselah was still in the lab There are currently around 856,000 date palms growing in Israel Soloway planted some 3,000 of them on Kibbutz Keturah where each tree produces around 350 pounds of dates a year And Soloway and Ceylon are hoping eventually to add the revived Judean dates to the harvest We're going to be testing those dates in the future to see actually what they do and whether they differ from other commercial varieties of modern dates So for the kibbutz it's a big venture Dr. Tarek Abu Hamed, director of the Aravah Institute sees this as planting seeds from the past to bear a special kind of needed fruit for the future If you don't look back to the history you will not see the future And here we're actually planting history at the Aravah Institute We hope one day that these trees that came from 2,000 years ago will be the hope of peace in our region Julie Stahl, CBN News Kibbutz Keturah in the Aravah desert in southern Israel Well that's all for this special edition of Jerusalem Dateline Thanks for joining us Remember you can follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube You can also access CBN content through our CBN News and other CBN apps Don't forget to sign up for our email blast so you can continue to receive all of our exciting CBN content I'm Chris Mitchell We'll see you next time on Jerusalem Dateline