Israeli archaeologists recently discovered 2,600-year-old artifacts they say offer further concrete evidence of the Babylonian destruction of Jerusalem around 586 BC.
The Israel Antiquities Authority announced the discovery just days before Tisha B’Av, a Jewish fast day commemorating the anniversary of the destruction of both the First Temple by the Babylonians and the Second Temple by the Romans in the year 70.
The fast begins at sundown on 31st July.
The announcement comes at a time of great turmoil in and around the Temple Mount (the Haram al-Sharif in Arabic), the holiest site in Judaism and the third holiest in Islam after Mecca and Medina.
During the four-month excavation, carried out in the Jerusalem Walls National Park near Jerusalem’s Old City, archaeologists found charred wood, pottery, fish scales and bones, grape seeds and “rare artifacts” covered by burned charcoal and layers of building debris.
Read the full article by Michelle Chabin at Sight Magazine.