#jerusalem

#jerusalem

Thousand-year-old Hand Grenade Found in JerusalemJerusalem has been the site of violence since time immemorial, and archaeologists have another bit of evidence of that history. Archaeological digs have uncovered many ceramic "sphero-conical" vessels, meaning the shape of a ball with a point. These vessels were storage for many types of materials, from oil to perfume, but now some have been found, dating to the 11th or 12th century CE, that may have been used as hand grenades. Dr. Carney Matheson of Griffith University tells us about them.“These vessels have been reported during the time of the Crusades as grenades thrown against Crusader strongholds producing loud noises and bright flashes of light.”“Some researchers had proposed the vessels were used as grenades and held black powder, an explosive invented in ancient China and known to have been introduced into the Middle East and Europe by the 13th century.”Chemical analysis shows that locally-made explosive mixtures of fatty acids, mercury, sulfur, aluminum, potassium, magnesium, nitrates, and phosphorous, could have been used for the hand grenades. Read more about this study at Sci News.-via Fark (Image credit: Robert Mason, Royal Ontario Museum)#archaeology #handgrenade #crusades #Jerusalem #explosive   

Archaeologists Found a 2,700-Year-Old Luxury Toilet in JerusalemJerusalem holds layers and layers of history. Building a new tourist complex means the area must be excavated lest important artifacts be destroyed. An excavation in the Armon Hanatziv neighborhood recently unearthed a rare private toilet dated to the time of the First Temple, around 2,700 years ago. In an age when most people were lucky to have access to a public outhouse, the single stone slab with a hole is a sign of great wealth. Israel Antiquities Authority archaeologist Yaakov Billig said, "In fact, only the rich could afford toilets. A thousand years later, the Mishnah and the Talmud raised various criteria that defined a rich person, and Rabbi Yossi suggested that to be rich is ‘to have the toilet next to his table.'"The recovered toilet had a septic tank underneath, which will be studied to determine the diet of the people who used it. Other nearby artifacts also indicate that whoever lived in this plot was quite wealthy. Read more about the find at The Times of Israel. (Image credit: Yoli Schwartz/Israel Antiquities Authority) #Jerusalem #toilet #archaeology