2,750-year-old temple discovered in Israel

Posted on: 7:48 am, December 28, 2012, by Ryan Sullivan


A 2,750-year-old temple along with a “cache of sacred artifacts” has been discovered near Jerusalem, according to Fox News.
The Israeli Antiquities Authority announced Wednesday the discovery will provide rare insight into religious practices at the time.
The temple was unveiled at an archaeological site known as Tel Motza located west of Jerusalem.
Artifacts include pottery figurines, fragments of chalices and decorated pedestals. The items “indicate the site was the stomping ground of a ritual cult,” Fox News reports.
“The ritual building at Tel Motza is an unusual and striking find, in light of the fact that there are hardly any remains of ritual buildings of the period in Judaea at the time of the First Temple. The uniqueness of the structure is even more remarkable because of the vicinity of the site’s proximity to the capital city of Jerusalem, which acted as the Kingdom’s main sacred center at the time,” excavation directors Anna Eirikh, Dr. Hamoudi Khalaily and Shua Kisilevitz said in a statement.
The region where the discovery was made has been an archaeological site for the past two decades, according to Fox News.
Archaeologists say finds like this are rare because “alternative ritual practices were banned after the construction of the First Temple in Jerusalem by King Solomon about 3,000 years ago.”
Read more: FoxNews.com

http://myfox8.com/2012/12/28/2750-ye...red-in-israel/