Galilee Archaeologists Unearth ‘Tantalizing’ Link To Second-Temple Period

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Galilee Archaeologists Unearth ‘Tantalizing’ Link To Second-Temple Period

Archaeologists at Reineh, in the Lower Galilee, said Thursday that the discovery of a Roman-era stone quarry used to make household items would shed important light on social norms in Israel during the Second Temple period. “In ancient times, most tableware, cooking pots and storage jars were made of pottery,” said Dr. Yonatan Adler, a senior lecturer at Ariel University and director of the excavations on behalf of the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA). “In the first century of the Common Era, however, Jews throughout Judea and Galilee also used tableware and storage vessels made of soft, local chalkstone, probably for religious reasons.” Adler explained that according to ancient Jewish ritual law, vessels made of pottery are easily made impure and must be broken. Stone, on the other hand, was thought to be a material which can never become ritually impure.