(Worthy Insights) – A huge quarry – one of the largest ever found in Jerusalem, dating from the end of the Second Temple period, in recent weeks is being uncovered by an Israel Antiquities Authority excavation in the Har Hotzvim industrial area in Jerusalem, funded by the Vitania real estate development company on its grounds. The excavated area extends about 3,500 square meters and is just one section of a massive quarry. A stone tool was found here which, according to the Jewish Halacha/Law, does not become impure, and was widely used by the Jewish population in Temple times.
During the excavation, the archaeologists uncovered tens of various-sized building stones, as well as quarrying and cutting trenches whose outlines indicate the size of the blocks being quarried. “Most of the building stones extracted from here were huge rock slabs, whose length reached ca. 2.5 meters, their width was 1.2 meters and they were 40 centimeters thick,” say Michael Chernin and Lara Shilov, excavation directors on behalf of the Israel Antiquities Authority. [ Source: Israel365 (Read More…) ]