First Century Tunnel Found in Jerusalem
Posted by Kevin A. Wilson on 10 Sep 2007 3:06 pm. Filed under Archaeology , History.
The AP is reporting in an article carried by Yahoo! that archaeologists in Jerusalem have uncovered 100 meters of a tunnel that was built during the Second Temple period. Although originally designed as a drainage channel, the tunnel was used by many Jews to escape from Jerusalem during the Roman seige in 70 CE. The archaeologists seem to draw this conclusion by connecting the tunnel with one mentioned by Josephus in The Wars of the Jews. The tunnel seems to run from the Temple Mount to the Kidron Valley.
Hat tip: Charles Halton at Awilum.
On September 21st, 2007 at 3:00 pm
An article on the tunnel discovery, by Norman Golb, has been posted on the Oriental Institute website, with a list of passages from Josephus. It appears that the archaeologists erred in stating that Josephus describes refugees as hiding in this particular tunnel and, what is worse, they were unaware that several other tunnels of exactly the same type were discovered in Jerusalem during the nineteenth century (Golb provides some beautiful illustrations from a book entitled Underground Jerusalem, published in 1876). The link is http://oi.uchicago.edu/pdf/jerusalem_tunnel_sept2007.pdf
On September 21st, 2007 at 9:19 pm
Thanks for the update, Sarah. One of the things we always have to remember with archaeology is that initial reports are always tentative. It will be interesting to see how this will play out.