A three-and-a-half-year-old girl made an extraordinary archaeological discovery during a family outing near Beit Shemesh last month, unearthing an ancient seal dating back approximately 3,800 years.

Ziv Nitzan from Moshav Ramot Meir stumbled upon the rare artifact while hiking with her family at Tel Azeka in early March. "We were walking along the path, and then Ziv bent down – and out of all the stones around her, she picked up this particular stone," recounts Omer Nitzan, Ziv's sister. "When she rubbed it and removed the sand from it, we saw something was different about it. I called my parents to come see the beautiful stone, and we realized we had discovered an archaeological find! We immediately reported this to the Israel Antiquities Authority."

The family promptly reported their finding to the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA). Semyon Gendler, district archaeologist for Judea, commended Ziv and her family for their quick reporting and presented her with a certificate of appreciation for good citizenship.

Dr. Daphna Ben-Tor, an expert in ancient amulets and seals, identified the object as a Canaanite scarab from the Middle Bronze Age. "Scarabs were used in this period as seals and as amulets. They were found in graves, in public buildings and in private homes. Sometimes they bear symbols and messages, that reflect religious beliefs or status."

The small, decorated scarab-shaped seals originated in ancient Egypt and were designed in the form of a dung beetle. This beetle was considered sacred by ancient Egyptians and symbolized new life, as it created a ball of dung in which it laid its eggs, from which new life emerged.

The artifact was discovered at the foot of Tel Azeka, an important archaeological site in the Shephelah region with evidence of numerous cultures throughout history. Excavations by Tel Aviv University researchers have revealed findings from the kingdom of Judah, including city walls and agricultural installations. Tel Azeka is also known as the biblical battlefield where David confronted Goliath.

"We have been excavating here for almost 15 years, and the excavation findings show that during the Middle Bronze and Late Bronze Ages, here in Tel Azekah, thrived one of the most important cities in the Judean Lowlands," said Professor Oded Lipschits, director of the archaeological excavation at the site for Tel Aviv University. "The scarab found by Ziv joins a long list of Egyptian and Canaanite finds discovered here, which attest to the close ties and cultural influences between Canaan and Egypt during that period."

The ancient seal will be displayed in a special Passover exhibition organized by the IAA at the National Campus for the Archaeology of Israel in Jerusalem, alongside other artifacts from Egyptian and Canaanite periods, most of which are being presented for the first time.

Heritage Minister Amichai Eliyahu praised the discovery, noting, "The seal that little Ziv found during a family trip to Tel Azekah connects us to a grand story, that of the ancient civilizations that lived in this land thousands of years ago. The scarab Ziv found also reminds us that in the Land of Israel, even children can be a part of discovering history."

"Ziv, and her family, deserve praise for handing over the find to the National Treasures of the state of Israel," says Eli Escusido, Director of the Israel Antiquities Authority. "Thanks to her, everyone will be able to see it and enjoy it."

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The recent revelation that the CIA once searched for the Ark of the Covenant raises an intriguing question: Why isn't Israel actively searching for Temple artifacts like the Menorah, the Table of Showbread, and especially the Ark of the Covenant?

According to recently published CIA documents from 2000, the agency conducted an experiment in 1988 where a medium was given coordinates of an undisclosed item. The medium claimed the location housed the Ark of the Covenant, protected by supernatural forces.

This revelation, published in the Daily Mail, resembles the plot of "Raiders of the Lost Ark" by Steven Spielberg and George Lucas. However, it raises serious questions about why these invaluable Jewish artifacts have never become targets for Israeli archaeological missions.

Why hasn't Israel conducted significant archaeological operations around Jerusalem to verify legends about these items being hidden before the destruction of the First Temple? Additionally, why hasn't Israel approached the Vatican to determine if some Second Temple artifacts brought to Rome by Titus might be stored in their vaults?

Several prominent rabbis offered their perspectives:

Rabbi Dr. Ronen Lubitch, rabbi of Nir Etzion and president of the Torah and Work Movement, believes Israel has "enough conflicts and fronts in the Middle East" without opening another with the Vatican, which represents over a billion believers worldwide.

Rabbi David Stav, rabbi of Shoham and chairman of Tzohar, noted that throughout Jewish history, many have attempted to find Temple artifacts, but "there was never such a halachic obligation" to push the state toward such an initiative.

Rabbi Chaim Navon points out that while these publications are dubious, if there were genuine information suggesting the location of these artifacts, "it would obviously be incumbent on the state to lead these searches."

The article concludes that these ancient Temple artifacts will reappear when the Jewish people advance spiritually, rather than through archaeological expeditions.

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A fascinating archaeological excavation is currently underway north of Nahal Zohar in the Judean Desert, revealing a large pyramid-shaped structure and a waystation that operated around 2,200 years ago during the Ptolemaic and Seleucid eras. This dig, led by the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) in collaboration with the Ministry of Heritage, is unearthing secrets that promise to reshape our understanding of the region's past.

Among the discoveries are fragments of written papyrus documents, bronze coins from the reigns of Antiochus IV and Ptolemaic kings, weapons, wooden tools, fabric scraps, and more. These artifacts, preserved remarkably well due to the desert climate, offer a glimpse into life during the Hellenistic period.

The site, known as Masad Zohar, is being excavated with the help of volunteers who have flocked to the desert to assist. Matan Toledano, Dr. Eitan Klein, and Amir Ganor, the excavation directors from the Israel Antiquities Authority, describe it as "one of the richest and most intriguing archaeological excavations ever found in the Judean Desert." They note the structure's enormous size, with hand-hewn stones weighing hundreds of kilograms each. "Already in the first excavation week, the volunteers found written historical documents, exceptional bronze vessels and remains of ancient furniture, which thanks to the desert climate were preserved in amazing condition," they said.

The finds include a piece of Greek-written papyrus, colorful beads, and an ancient button, showcasing the diversity of artifacts uncovered. "This is a very promising site – every moment new findings are discovered, and we are filled with anticipation for what else the next three weeks might produce!" the directors added. The excavation is part of a broader initiative by the IAA to protect archaeological treasures from looters, a mission that has been ongoing for eight years with funding from the Ministry of Heritage, the Civil Administration's Archaeology Officer, and the IAA itself.

This national project began with a systematic survey of the Judean Desert, covering 180 kilometers of cliffs and identifying around 900 caves. Using advanced rappelling equipment, cutting-edge technology, and unique documentation methods, the team has recovered thousands of rare items, including hidden scrolls, papyrus fragments, wooden tools, weapons, fabrics, leather goods, woven straw items, and coin hoards. The current dig at Nahal Zohar builds on these efforts, aiming to rescue history before it falls into the hands of thieves.

"This excavation changes the site's historical record," said Toledano, Klein, and Ganor. Previously thought to date back to the First Temple period, the structure now appears to have been built later, during the Hellenistic period under Ptolemaic rule in the land of Israel. Its purpose remains a mystery. "Is this a guard tower, guarding an important commercial route through which the Dead Sea resources of salt and bitumen were transported to the coastal ports? Or at some point was this enormous structure on the mountaintop marking a grave, or serving as a monument in ancient history? It is an enthralling historical mystery – and to our delight, the public coming to volunteer in the excavation are our partners in uncovering the answers," they noted.

Heritage Minister Amihai Eliyahu praised the discovery, saying, "This is yet another testament to the historical and cultural wealth buried in our land's soil. The pyramid structure and rare finds illuminate an important chapter in the history of the land of Israel and strengthen our deep connection to our heritage. I'm proud of the dedicated work by the Israel Antiquities Authority staff, who, alongside hundreds of enthusiastic volunteers, are saving these treasures from antiquity looters." He added, "The Judean Desert survey project is an excellent example of how the State of Israel preserves its cultural assets for future generations."

Eli Escusido, director of the Israel Antiquities Authority, echoed this sentiment. "The Judean Desert survey is one of the most important archaeological operations ever undertaken in the State of Israel's history. The discoveries are exciting and even emotional, and their significance for archaeological and historical research is enormous," he said. "Right now, just before Passover and with the onset of Spring, I invite the people of Israel to come and participate! In such a challenging time as we are in, a few days of staying in and experiencing discovery in the Judean Desert offer a connective and uplifting experience for everyone."

The dig has also drawn attention for its community aspect. The IAA has set up an organized camp for volunteers, providing food, water, and nightly enrichment lectures on archaeology. The excavation is slated to continue for another three weeks, with more details available on the IAA's website.

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A groundbreaking archaeological study has upended the long-held belief that the Roman siege of Masada lasted three years. Using advanced technology and a fresh analytical approach, Tel Aviv University researchers now conclude that the famous standoff likely lasted only a few weeks, challenging a cornerstone of Israeli national mythology.

The study, published in the esteemed Journal of Roman Archaeology, employed cutting-edge tools, including 3D software, remote-sensing drones, and other advanced technologies. This innovative approach allowed the research team, led by Dr. Guy Stiebel, to gain fresh insights into the Roman army's tactics and the siege's duration.

"While Masada has been extensively studied since the early 19th century, modern technology allows us to ask new questions and gain novel perspectives on three key areas: water systems, access routes, and the Roman siege apparatus," Dr. Stiebel explained.

The research has shed new light on the Roman military's siege tactics and timeframe. "For decades, it was widely accepted that the Masada siege was a prolonged, three-year ordeal," Dr. Stiebel noted. "Recent scholarship has begun to question this assertion, and our study is the first to apply objective, data-driven methods to this question."

Dr. Hai Ashkenazi, now heading the Geoinformatics Department at the Israel Antiquities Authority and a collaborator on the study, detailed their methodology: "We have reliable data on the daily earth-moving capacity of Roman soldiers. With an estimated 6,000 to 8,000 troops involved in the Masada siege, we calculated that constructing the entire siege system – eight camps and a surrounding stone wall – would have taken less than two weeks. Historical sources suggest that an assault, lasting a few weeks at most, would have followed immediately."

In an interview with Israel Hayom, Dr. Stiebel emphasized the importance of examining the evidence through a Roman, rather than Israeli, lens. "The Roman army's modus operandi favored swift, decisive action. All on-site evidence points to a short-lived siege," he stated.

Addressing why the Romans targeted Masada in 73 CE, three years after Jerusalem's fall, Dr. Stiebel explained its strategic importance: "While Masada might seem isolated, it was actually close to a vital Roman resource – the balsam groves of Ein Gedi. The perfume produced from these trees was the empire's most valuable commodity, filling Rome's coffers. Masada's rebels were raiding Ein Gedi, destroying these precious trees. This prompted Rome's complex logistical operation to neutralize the threat."

Dr. Stiebel concluded: "The Masada narrative – the rebellion, siege, and tragic end – is deeply ingrained in Israeli identity and Zionist history. While our findings suggest a much shorter siege, they do not diminish the event's historical significance."

The research was conducted by the Neustatler Masada Expedition under the auspices of Tel Aviv University's Institute of Archaeology. Dr. Stiebel led the team, collaborating with Dr. Ashkenazi, doctoral candidates Boaz Gross from Tel Aviv University and the Israel Institute of Archaeology, and Omer Zeevi, now affiliated with the University of Bonn.

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An illegal Palestinian quarry in Gush Etzion is causing gradual damage to a major archaeological site – an ancient aqueduct that runs between Gush Etzion and Jerusalem.

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The aqueduct, which dates back some 2,000 years to the time of the Second Temple, is considered a marvel of engineering, as it twists and turns for a distance of some 40 km (25 miles) along rocky, hilly terrain that has virtually no incline.

The aqueducts was one of two that brought water to Solomon's Pools, a large reservoir from which three other aqueducts funneled water to Jerusalem and Herodian. However, it is now being damaged by ongoing work at a Palestinian quarry at Beit Fajar.

Video: Shomrim al HaNetzach

The Beit Fajar quarry, one of the largest in Judea and Samaria, was originally established in Area B, but over the years encroached on Area C, which is under Israeli control under the terms of the Oslo Accords. Currently, the quarry occupies some 1,500 dunams (370 acres).

The damage was first identified in 2013. But because much of the quarry is located in Area B, it is difficult to track its development. A few months ago, the extent of the damage thus far was revealed when Azriel Yechezkel of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem's Institute of Archaeology and Yoav Negev of the Israel Cave Explorers Club surveyed the ancient aqueducts.

Yechezkel and Negev said that years of quarry work has caused "irreversible" damage to the aqueducts, with some 100 meters (328 feet) of tunnel and approximately 2,000 meters (6,561 feet) of the aqueduct on either side of the tunnel reduced to rubble.

For over 15 years, the Regavim movement has been fighting a legal battle against the illicit quarry over the environmental damage it is causing as well as the harm it is doing to the land around it.

Adi Shragai, manager of operations at the organization Shomrim al HaNetzach, said, "It's time for the government to understand that national heritage sites in Area B are simply being destroyed and abandoned. We need to stop the quarry's criminal activity."

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An ancient lead talisman has been discovered in the rubble left over from an archaeological excavation conducted in the 1980s at Mount Ebal in Samaria, which researchers believe is the location of Joshua's Altar.

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The talisman was first identified a year ago during the process of sifting the rubble from the site.

This marks the first time an artifact bearing ancient Hebrew inscriptions has been located at Joshua's Altar, and researchers have dated it to 1,200 BCE. The inscription includes the early Hebrew version of the letter "aleph" and a symbol that resembles a lotus flower, but researchers have not yet completely determined its origin.

Head of the Samaria Regional Council Yossi Dagan said that the talisman was proof of the Jewish people's deep connection to Samaria.

"The new findings unearthed at Mount Ebal prove again and again the deep and inviolable connection the Jewish people have to Samaria and the entire Land of Israel. The discovery of Joshua's Altar by the late archaeologist Professor Adam Zertal is one of the most important in the history of Land of Israel archaeology," Dagan said.

Zvi Koenigsberg, who helped Zertal with the excavations at the site in the 1980s, said, "After the excavation, we left mounds of rubble we had dug up. A group of Professor Zertal's friends moved them to a save place, where it was possible to investigate them. Years later, the appropriate tools with which to sift rubble were developed."

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Israeli mentalist intends to reveal the location of the Ark of the Covenant, Britain's Daily Star tabloid reports.

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The Star ran the latest Geller intrigue as its Sunday cover story under the headline "Uri Geller and the Temple of Spoons."

According to the Star, Geller posted on Twitter that he knew where the Ark was and when he released the information, it would be "an earth shattering historical tsunami and an archeological and a theological earthquake."

Hey guys and girls go and get this Sunday paper tomorrow this cover will become a classic and will probably sell on EBay for a small fortune! this is my 9th front page in the past 1 and half year but by far the best! pic.twitter.com/1Ab2WnQ5Vp

— UriGeller.eth (@theurigeller) January 8, 2022

Geller posted a picture of the tabloid cover, urging followers to snatch copies before they were gone, as they would "probably sell on eBay for a small fortune!"

The mentalist noted that the Star cover was his ninth front page in the past year and a half.

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The story you are about to read begins one morning, about a year and a half ago, when Yosef Speizer went out for a morning run in the Tabachnik National Garden on Mount Scopus in Jerusalem. Speizer, a member of the Jerusalem City Council and a doctoral student in the Land of Israel Studies and Archaeology Department at Bar-Ilan University, has spent two years working on his thesis in the library of the Institute of Archaeology on the campus of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, also located on Mount Scopus. But his morning runs through the park have become a dubious experience. 

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That morning, he came across a burial cave – the park is rich in Jewish burial caves that date back to the time of the Second Temple – that bore signs of fresh ash and a recent fire. When he looked inside, Speizer noticed signs that antiquities thieves had been digging there. Nearby, a few human bones were lying exposed, and food and drink wrappers testified to the long hours the unwelcome guests were spending there. A few days later, on another morning run, he found another burial cave in a similar state, and then two more. All around, light fixtures, trash cans, and water faucets had been sabotaged and pulled out of place. And robbers weren't the only ones who wanted to plunder the park – so did drug addicts, alcoholics, and vandals from a nearby Arab village, who made the park a haven after dark. 

Ever since then, Speizer has been documenting dozens of similar antiquities sites all over Jerusalem that suffer from neglect, vandalism, and even ethno-religious sabotage – including some important ones. This is how he began his "120" list, which was recently delivered to Jerusalem Mayor Moshe Leon. Earlier this month, the Jerusalem City Council also discussed it. Leon, unlike his predecessors, takes the matter seriously and intends to handle it. 

Iמ many aspects, Speizer's list mirrors the National Heritage Survey prepared by the Shiloh Forum and the Shomrim al Hanetzach heritage preservation NGO about the miserable state of heritage sites in Judea, Samaria, and the Jordan Valley. But his addresses Jerusalem, the country's capital, and some of the sites are in the heart of the city. It's hard to understand how they could have been ignored for so long. 

Two weeks ago, Speizer went into the field. The neglect is terrible in almost every part of the city. In Valley of Hinnom, which surrounds Mount Zion and was first mentioned in the Book of Joshua, there are dozens of Jewish burial caves that date back to the Second Temple era. The burial niches in these caves, which face the Second Temple-era wall of Jerusalem recently excavated by Dr. Yehiel Zelinger, were where the elite of the Jewish community, including priests and high priests, were laid to rest starting from the Hasmonean era and through the days of the Second Temple. 

The Akeldama and Yochanan caves are two of the burial caves in the valley. In any other city in the world, they would be tourist attractions for Jewish and Christian visitors. In Christian tradition, Akeldama ("Field of Blood" in Hebrew) is where converts were buried, and was supposedly purchased by the priests with money donated by Judas Iscariot. Instead, the place is marred by remnants of campfires, rusty barbed wire, old metal furniture, and bags emptied of their contents by gangs of thieves, who stay here, too, mostly at night. 

Worse and even more disgraceful is the situation of the Yochanan cave, where according to Christian tradition the High Priest Yochanan, who held the role in the first century CE, is buried. The cave and the ones next to it were excavated by many researchers, including Robert Macalister (prior to the establishment of the state) and major Israeli researchers such as Professor Amos Kloner and Professors Boaz Zissu, Shimon Gibson, and others. At the end of the 19th century, the cave still held ossuaries containing the bones of the dead. Most of them have been stolen. 

A few were researched, and yielded Hebrew names such as Miriam, Esther, and Shimon. Today, a local Arab resident has set up a barred door at the entrance to the Yochanan Cave and turned it into a coop for geese. The area around the cave was illegally fenced, and serves as a grazing area for goats. Not long ago, a camel was also spotted. 

Another neglected Jewish burial cave in the area is adorned with a rectangular relief, similar to one believed to have been part of the Temple. Another cave is decorated with a relief depicting a shell. Another cave has lost most of its front to a power shovel, and human bones lie exposed in it. Not far from there, pottery bottles have been found that used to contain oils and perfumes, which were used during burials to stave off bad smells. 

The burial method employed in the Valley of Hinnom caves was to lay the remains in burial niches, generally in family caves. Once the places of burial had been closed a year, they would be reopened, and the bones of the person would be collected and stored in an ossuary that remained in the cave. The ossuaries, which were sometimes carved with the names of the deceased, would eventually become targets for antiquities thieves. 

Ossuaries are of immense value on the illegal antiquities market, and almost none remain in the caves themselves. Both the Valley of Hinnom and Mount Scopus burial complexes have been consistently robbed over the years, as well as other sites around Jerusalem. 

Zissu, from the Land of Israel Studies and Archaeology Department at Bar-Ilan University, who along with the late Kloner wrote the book The Necropolis of Jerusalem in the Second Temple Period, tells Israel Hayom that current research is familiar with about 70 Jewish familial burial caves in and around Jerusalem that date from the second century BCE to 70 CE. Most of them, he says, are covered by residential neighborhoods.

"Only a few caves are still accessible to the public, so it's doubly horrifying that most of them are in such pitiful state," Zissu says. "Apart from them being a major national and scientific asset that the government has an obligation to protect for future generations, it's also an asset for research and tourism. Research tries to study the graves to learn about the city, its homes, its decorations, and to learn from the dead about how they lived." 

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Zissu praises the city's care for the Sanhedria Park, and criticizes what is taking place in Hinnom Valley. He says that the excavation and research potential of the burial system there has not been fully realized. 

"Even the antiquities robbers know it, and there is a real risk that they will bring an electric shovel to Hinnom Valley and start using it there, like we've already experienced," he says, urging the city to allocate funds to protect and maintain the antiquities sites.  

The neglect, the theft, the vandalism, and the ethno-religious attacks do not distinguish between Jewish and Christian sites. The remains of a Byzantine-era monastery from the fifth century CE located on the slopes of Mount Scopus, on the road to Maaleh Adumim, were studied 20 years ago by the Israel Antiquities Authority. The discovery was widely publicized, both in Israel and abroad. 

Now place is abandoned. Not much remains of its mosaic floor, and a visit to one of the large water cisterns showed that it was being used largely as a dump. Speizer, who first visited the site of the monastery a few months ago, saw how local residents were using another nearby cistern as a "graveyard" for the corpses of sheep, cats, and dogs. 

Many of the sites Speizer mapped have already been reviewed as part of a local planning initiative. Even then, most were in poor shape, but about half of the sites were refurbished in the early 2000s. Since then, time has passed and things have gotten worse. Speizer defines these sites as "an educational resources and physical background to understand history. A way of anchoring our roots here. Preservation will allow continued research into the past and will also hand the discoveries over to the generations to come, in acknowledgement of all the generations' shared ownership of the assets of the past." 

The first stage of his proposal calls for the city of Jerusalem, in conjunction with the IAA, to put up signage to make city residents aware of the value of these sites, some of which lie next to or within residential neighborhoods. The second stage calls for personnel to be assigned to oversee the sites and keep them clean. Speizer mentions that in 2010, the city employed a team of preservation and maintenance workers, and thinks it should be reformed. 

He does cite a few bright points: a section of an aqueduct that carried water to Jerusalem in the time of the Second Temple that was discovered on the grounds of a nursery school in the Tsur Baher neighborhood and preserved; a Temple-era mikveh that was recently excavated in the Kidron ravine near a church in Gethsemane, which is under careful supervision; a grave complex dating to the First Temple Era near the Menachem Begin Heritage Center, which is well-maintained; or Hirbt Tel-Arza below Gilo, where the IAA initiated an excavation together with community authorities that revealed a wine press, agricultural facilities, and a mikveh, all from the Second Temple period. 

Some of the sites on Speizer's list are located on the grounds of the national park that surrounds Jerusalem, which is run by the Israel Nature and Parks Authority, but most of them are within the Jerusalem municipal boundaries and are the city's responsibility. But the city has lifted a finger for decades. The IAA excavates and studies sites, and decides whether to recover them or leave them exposed, but for the most part does not maintain archaeological sites on its own. 

Jerusalem Mayor Moshe Leon tells Israel Hayom that the neglect of heritage sites is something that has been ignored for decades, but he intends to meet with head of the IAA Eli Escosido, who reached out to him on the matter, suggesting that they work together to address the issues at the sites Speizer mapped. 

However, Leon says, the city obviously doesn't have the funds to maintain all the antiquities sites within its borders. "But if, for example, we're talking about reforming the preservation team run jointly by the city and the IAA, at reasonable costs that will allow these important antiquities sites to be addressed, I believe we'll manage to come up with a budget, municipal or from the national government, to fund this national mission.

"A people that does not honor its past – as my predecessors have said – has a drab present and future. This is an issued that united coalition and opposition in Jerusalem, and I intend to take care of it," Leon says. 

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Did the events that gave us the Hanukkah holiday 2,000 years ago shape Jewish religious culture as we know it today? Lessons about the history of the Jewish people in general and the Hanukkah events in particular tend to focus on the Hasmonean leadership and other notable figures of that era. But a new book based on archaeological findings attempts to portray the day-to-day lives of the regular people who lived at the time of the Second Temple and how the Maccabees' victory and the Hanukkah miracle influenced the Jewish population in the Land of Israel at that time.

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"I'm not a historian or a researcher of Jewish history. I examine [archaeological] finds and in this case, Jewish culture according to archaeological discoveries," says Professor Ronny Reich, a former lecturer at the University of Haifa and author of the new book Everyday Life: The daily life of the Jewish community in the Eretz Israel in the Late Second Temple Period in Light of Archaeological Finds (published by Pardes, Hebrew only).

According to Reich, the success of the Hasmonean revolt against the Seleucid rule – which happened mostly as guerilla warfare – poses a challenge for modern archaeologists. After the Maccabees wrested control of the land from the hands of the Greeks, many of the buildings that had been destroyed were rebuilt and it has been difficult to find evidence of them in archaeological excavations. However, Reich says that discoveries made in recent years have been more helpful in revealing how the priest Mattathias and his sons influenced Jews' lives in the period following the events that inspired Hanukkah. 

The revolt against the Greeks began in 168 BCE and 16 years later resulted in the founding of the Hasmonean dynasty, which would go on to rule the land for close to 80 years. According to Reich, "When the Hasmonean dynasty rose to power, we see much stricter religious observance. In my opinion, this was the start of Jewish culture as we know it and had many expressions." 

One example Reich cites is the mikveh, which he researched for his doctoral dissertation. "Maintaining purity as a religious rite, linked to entering the Temple and the Mount of Olives, starts in the time of the Hasmoneans. Jews, who needed places to purify themselves, built these sites. There are no archaeological remains that show that purification facilities, mikvehs, existed in earlier times." 

Another possible indication of more stringent Jewish religious observance after the events of Hanukkah is the matter of pictures and sculpture, which could be a backlash to the Greeks' decrees about idolatry. 

"In Jewish communities, there is almost no depiction of people or animals because of the Second Commandment, 'Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image.' We don't see this in excavations of Jewish communities, in contrast to the non-Jewish communities discovered in the region," Reich says. 

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Reich says that pilgrimage to the Temple also gained in popularity under the Hasmoneans. "The story of the defiling of the Temple and its rededication strengthened the subject of pilgrimage and the Temple as the Jewish people's only place of worship. This is unique to the Jewish religion. The Romans, when one temple got too crowded, simply built another one." 

In his new book, Reich explains that increased emphasis on pilgrimage to the Temple can be seen in the large number of cooking vessels used by pilgrims found discarded on the outskirts of the city, as well as the large number of animal bones they threw away. "Not pig bones, of course," Reich stresses. 

In another development under the Hasmoneans, import of wine produced by non-Jews was stopped, another indication of increasingly stringent adherence to Jewish law about the production and consumption of wine. "[Wine] imports ended. The drastic drop in appropriate jugs [found] is proof of this," Reich says.

History tells us that many Jews, prior to the events of Hanukkah, adopted Greek religious practices, and that the Hellenistic culture left its marks on the Jewish people. But when it comes to how, or if, that was expressed in the period following the Maccabees' victory, Reich says in his book, the question remains unanswered. 

"In my opinion, the question of buildings that were used for leisure in the spirit of the Hellenistic culture remains unsolved. Activities that took place there in the Hellenistic world were far from the religious character of the Jewish population, and even opposed to it. It should be noted that currently, we know about them only from the letters of Joseph Ben Mattityahu [Josephus Flavius], and have not unearthed any real archaeological remnants of them," Reich says. 

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Archaeological finds in Israel have shed light on life in ancient Yavne, a town in central modern-day Israel that served as the retreat for Jewish authorities after the Romans sacked Jerusalem in 70 CE.

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The excavation has unearthed ruins of a building with cups made of chalkstone, a material deemed appropriate for Jewish religious rites, pointing to the presence of the exiled Sanhedrin legislative assembly, the Israel Antiquities Authority said.

Cited by the Roman historian Josephus Flavius, Yavne served as focal point of Jewish activity. According to Jewish scripture, the Sanhedrin was reconstituted there with Roman consent.

"This is a direct voice from the past, from the period when the Jewish leadership salvaged the remaining fragments from the fall of the [Jerusalem] Temple," the IAA said in a statement.

Also discovered near the site was a cemetery with dozens of graves, including sarcophagi, and more than 150 glass phials placed on top of the tombs, which the IAA said were probably used to store fragrant oils.

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