Jan 13, 2010

Herod's Palace?

Another hot day in the trenches. Our square 11 Y intersects this corner of the Roman building (35 M x 40 M). We also surprisingly found the bedrock/foundation of the wall. The foundation wall is protruding just .15 meters from the wall and this is what supports the sidewalk or road that run on the outside along the wall. Only a single course is now visible due to the modern framing and bulldozing. Also, under the sidewalk there was a layer of burnt char indicating a destruction layer in the building as Eusebius describes. The palace of Herod the Great was destroyed by insurrectionists and Herod Antipas his son rebuilt the city. The evidence from our dig matches the written record and argues for Livias as the identification of our site in the Roman/Byzantine period.

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