Tony Robinson, the Time Team presenter, wrote a book called Archaeology is Rubbish. He wasn’t disowning the discipline that had given him a career after Blackadder. He was making the observation that most of the artefacts pulled out of the earth are the debris and detritus left behind by those who have gone before us.
That’s why drains and dumps are treasure troves for archaeologists. A recently announced broken piece of rubble from just such a drain in Jerusalem may be the find of 2025 for Bible archaeology!
The Jerusalem channel
Over the past few years archaeologists have been excavating underground in the city of Jerusalem. The discovery of a wide road leading up from the Pool of Siloam to the Temple has been the focus of an enormous archaeological tunnel excavation. In use during the first century, it was revealed as part of the accidental discovery of the original Pool of Siloam in 2004. The pool was actually a baptistry during the time of Jesus and the stepped road would have functioned as a ritual route to ascend from baptism up to the Temple courts.
Comedy, free speech and warnings from the past
Hannah Arendt was a Jewish philosopher who grew up in Nazi Germany. Eventually she had to flee to France and, …