Ancient World Review

Coin Discovery Redates Jerusalem's Western Wall

"Israeli archaeologists...said they had found ancient coins that overturned widely-held beliefs about the origins of Jerusalem's Western Wall, one of Judaism's holiest sites," according to Reuters.

"For centuries, many thought the wall was built by King Herod - also infamous, in the Christian tradition, for his efforts to hunt down the baby Jesus in the original Christmas story."

"But archaeologists said they had found coins buried under the wall's foundations minted 20 years after King Herod's death in 4 B.C., showing the structure was completed by his successors."

Jewish Rebel Coins Found In Judea

"The largest cache of rare coins ever found in a scientific excavation from the period of the Bar-Kokhba revolt [132-136 AD] of the Jews against the Romans has been discovered in a cave by researchers from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Bar-Ilan University," according to Science Daily News. The gold, silver and bronze coins, together with some pottery and weapons, were discovered in a cave in the Judean hills. The Bar-Kokhba rebels were apparently hiding out with civilian Jewish refugees in the caves, using them "as hiding and refuge places in the face of extensive Roman search-and-destroy missions." Some of the coins, originally Roman, were restamped by the rebels with "images and words (for example: the facade of the Temple in Jerusalem and the slogan 'for the freedom of Jerusalem"). The fact that they were issuing their own money, even if it only involved restamping Roman coins, seems to indicate that the rebels were well established at the time.

Find Casts Further Doubt On Shroud Of Turin

A burial shroud discovered in "a first century [Jerusalem] cemetery filled with priestly and aristocratic burials" provides further evidence that the Shroud of Turin "did not wrap the body of Christ," according to National Geographic News.

This new shroud, "radiocarbon-dated to between A.D. 1 and 50," is apparently the first burial shroud ever discovered from this period and location, and the bones it contained show evidence that the dead man wrapped in the shroud probably had leprosy--"the earliest known case of the disease." And the weave of the shroud doesn't match that of the Shroud of Turin, which was apparently manufactured at a later date.

Ancient Chamber Found In Jordan Valley

"A 2,000-year-old underground chamber has been discovered in Israel's Jordan Valley," according to National Geographic News. "The largest human-made cave in Israel, the 1-acre (0.4-hectare) space is thought to have begun as a quarry. In subsequent centuries it may have served as a monastery, hideout for persecuted Christians, or Roman army base, experts say." The chamber was likely started during the reign of Herod the Great in the first century B.C. Archeologists discovered "a huge hall lined with 22 thick pillars" engraved with "Christian crosses, Roman letters, a Zodiac sign and what looks like the Roman army's pennant."

Find Suggests Female Ruled City State In Canaan

"Archaeologists digging in the ruins of the Canaanite city-state Beth-Shemesh last summer found a decorated plaque with what could be the first known depiction of a ruler known as the Mistress of the Lionesses," according to the Discovery Channel. The plaque apparently dates back to at least 1350 BC, when mostly male kings ruled the city states of ancient Canaan, paying tribute to Egypt.

2000-Year-Old Frescoes Found In Herod's Tomb

"Archaeologists exploring King Herod's tomb complex near Jerusalem have uncovered rare Roman paintings as well as two sarcophagi, or stone coffins, that could have contained the remains of Herod's sons," according to National Geographic News.