Jerusalem family finds ancient ritual bath under home

JERUSALEM, July 1 (UPI) -- A ritual bath, over 2,000 years old, was discovered under a private residence in Jerusalem, the Israel Antiquities Authority announced Wednesday.

The room, or mikvah, found in southwestern Jerusalem's Ein Kerem neighborhood, dates to the Holy Land's Second Temple era, in the first century A.D. It features a stairway carved from rock and an immersion pool surrounded by walls plastered in accordance with then-existing Jewish laws regarding purity and sanitation. It was found by an unidentified family living in the home as they renovated the living room. Fragments of pottery found at the site helped identify the date of the room's construction.

The family said it was reluctant to call the Antiquities Authority for fear of the "consequences" involved in owning an archeological treasure. "Our sense of civic and public duty clinched it for us," one family member said. They simply covered the opening to the room with a wooden door and lived with the find beneath them for years.

"The discovery of the ritual bath reinforces the hypothesis there was a Jewish settlement from the time of the Second Temple, located in the region of what is today 'Ein Kerem," Avit Re'em of the Antiquities Authority said, adding archeological remains from the Second Temple era are rare.

The neighborhood is regarded as sacred by Christians; regarded as part of the New Testament's "City of Judah," it is believed to be the birthplace of John the Baptist, and where his mother Elizabeth met with Jesus' mother, Mary.