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Archaeologists have identified a fantastic street in Jerusalem that was built by Pontius Pilate , the Roman prefect of Judea who is far-famed for oversee the trial andcrucifixion of Jesus .
The well-nigh 2,000 - foot - long ( 600 meters ) street would have unite the Siloam Pool — a home where pilgrim could stop to bathe and get sassy water — to the Temple Mount , the most holy place in Judaism . The street was likely used by ancient pilgrims on their way to worship at the Mount , the researchers said .
The ancient street built by Pontius Pilate ends near these pilgrim stairs at the southern end of the western wall.
archeologic evidence forPontius Pilateis limited and the find moult a act of light on what the prefect was like , researchers compose in a paper recently published in the daybook " Tel Aviv : Journal of the Institute of Archaeology of Tel Aviv University . " The fact that Pilate built a street that would have helped people hand the Temple Mount suggest that he may not have been as ego - serving and religiously insensitive as ancient writers claim , the investigator say .
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Dating the street
student have long lie with of the existence of the street , with archaeologists excavating in the area as early as the 19th C . What archaeologists did n’t experience until now was when precisely the street was manufacture .
Historical implications
historic disc and biblical accounts often depict Pontius Pilate in a negative light . Among Christians , he is noted for presiding over thetrial of Jesusand ordering his crucifixion . Ancient record also show that he clutch money from a sacred Treasury obligations to build an aqueduct , dishonour Judaic spiritual natural law and clubbed citizenry protesting his action at law .
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The ancient writer Philo ( who lived from 20 B.C. to A.D. 50 ) wrote that citizenry in Judea became so tired of " the bribery , the insults , the robberies , the scandalisation and wanton accidental injury , the executions without trial constantly repeated , the ceaseless and supremely severe cruelty " that Pilate allegedly perpetrate that the mass of Judea broadcast a petition to papist Emperor Tiberius requesting that he intervene ( rendering by F. H. Colson ) .
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The find that Pilate construct a street that connected the Siloam Pool to theTemple Mounthints that Pilate perhaps was n’t so corrupted , the researcher noted .
" The importance of this street is evident from its attribute as well as from the quality of its construction , which doubtlessly required an grand manpower that included skilled jack and craftsmen , " the investigator wrote in their paper , noting that the street is at least 26 feet ( 8 meters ) wide and would have required 10,000 ton of quarried limestone careen to build .
" It is no longer potential to view this first period of unmediated Roman administration in Judea as one exclusively characterize by self - interest and corruptness , " the squad spell .
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The squad ’s excavations of the street started in 2013 .
Reaction from scholars
archeologist not involved in the enquiry have clap the employment .
" About the date - — there is no dispute , " Dan Bahat , the former chief archeologist of Jerusalem , told Live Science . He noted that the street belike exist as a soil road before Pilate decided to pave it . Bahat emphasized that this street would have been used for more than pilgrim’s journey . " It was a street in the metropolis and not deal out to the use of the Pilgrim Father more than any other street in the metropolis , " Bahat said .
Ronny Reich , a retire archaeologist who has excavated the street in the past times , also agreed that the fresh evidence shew that the street was build up during the time that Pilate was prefect of Judea .
Hillel Geva , director of the Israel Exploration Society , said that there is a chance the street was built by a later prefect or ruler of Judea , " but if so we should expect to find post [ Pilate ] coin under the street . " So far no coins that escort later on than Pilate have been retrieve .
in the beginning published onLive scientific discipline .
