Digging water pipes, discovering 2,100-year-old treasures

Follow Live Scienceit’s a 2,100-year-old farmhouse, which was suddenly abandoned, possibly to flee an invasion by forces of the ancient Hasmonean Kingdom.

Archaeologist Amani Abu-Hamid, lead researcher from the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA), describes it as a perfectly “frozen” “time capsule”.

Artifacts were found to be still unfinished activities of people who “evaporated” 2,100 years ago, with ancient jars intact, scales for weaving looms dangling from shelves.

With age and preservation, the things that exist on this ancient farm are of unparalleled value.

The team also found agricultural tools such as picks and scythes made of iron, and coins dating back to the 2nd century BC.

The items don’t tell much about daily life on the farm, according to the IAA, but the unusually high number of looms suggest weaving was a major occupation here, so the farm may have once raised a lot of animals. many sheep.

Excavations have also revealed traces of overlapping settlements in the area, including the foundations of buildings and ceramic vases dating from the 9th to 10th centuries BC, according to the site. The Time of Israel.

The ceramics are dated according to the style of the making, while the organic materials have revealed their age through radiocarbon-14 dating.

Archaeologists stumbled across this great “world of treasures” at a site called Horbat Assad, east of the Sea of ​​Galilee, during pre-construction surveys for a valuable water pipeline project. $270 million from the Mediterranean coast. The new pipeline is part of a desalination project that supplies fresh water to farmland in Israel and neighboring countries.