Only days before Tisha B’Av Archeologists have found a missing part of a 2,000 year old Roman sword in Yerushalayim.
While working at the Emek Tzurim National Park in Ir David in Yerushalayim, workers found an unusual piece of metal. Ben Mazuz, who was working in the area, said: We immediately recognized it was probably a piece of a sword, but we didn’t understand the context of it being there,”
“Only when the excavation director, Eli Shukron, arrived at the sifting site and saw the piece did I realize it was something significant.” Mazuz explained.
“He got very excited and immediately recognized it as part of the same sword he had discovered over a decade ago. He even identified the fragments of a leather sheath that covered the sword,” Mazuz described.
Shukron said of the finding: “This isn’t a discovery you find every day, and it’s very exciting, especially these days, just before Tisha B’Av”
The sword was originally discovered in 2011 during excavations of the drainage channel underneath the road up to Har Habayis, which has since been opened for tours. The sword dates back to the period of the Churban of the second Beis Hamikdash, and likely belonged to one of the Roman soldiers who destroyed Yerushalayim.
The drainage channel where the sword was found was used as a last hiding place for Jews hiding from the Romans during the Churban. Tragically, evidence has been found showing the Romans managed to break their way into the channel, and lit fires forcing the Jews out of their hiding places.
{Matzav.com}