2,000-year-old Jewish ritual bath, weighing some 25 tons, found at an archaeological site near Kiryat Gat not previously known to have been a Jewish community.
By World Israel News Staff
A 2,000-year-old Jewish ritual bath weighing about 25 tons has been lifted intact from an archaeological site in Kiryat Gat in an unusual engineering operation designed to protect the ancient structure while a new neighborhood is built around it.
The mikveh was discovered during an Israel Antiquities Authority excavation in the new Carmei Gat neighborhood, where development work is being carried out with funding from the Israel Land Authority.
Archaeologists said the discovery provides evidence of a previously unknown Jewish settlement that existed in the area during the Second Temple period.
“The Jewish settlement we discovered here is the first and the only known one in this area,” excavation directors Elena Kogan-Zahavi, Maayan Margulis and Shira Lifshitz said.
“In the Judean Lowlands, many Jewish settlements from the Roman period are known, but in the seam between the Judean Lowlands and the northern Negev – no Jewish settlement was known until now.”
Alongside the mikveh, archaeologists uncovered stone measuring vessels of a type commonly associated with Jewish communities during the Second Temple period.
Under Jewish law, stone vessels were considered resistant to ritual impurity and consequently came into widespread use among Jews at the time.
Evidence from the excavation suggests the settlement was abandoned during the Bar Kokhba Revolt in the second century CE.
Settlement at the location resumed about 500 years later, during the Byzantine period, but archaeologists said the site’s population was then entirely different.
The Israel Land Authority is financing the salvage excavations required as part of the construction project, at a total cost of approximately NIS 28 million.
With development work continuing, conservation officials faced the problem of protecting the mikveh without destroying or dismantling it.
The Israel Antiquities Authority ultimately decided to remove the entire structure temporarily and transfer it to the National Treasures Department for safekeeping.
The roughly four-meter-wide ritual bath was still embedded in the ground when a four-member conservation team began preparing it for removal.
Over the course of approximately two weeks, conservators excavated around the structure to expose it on all sides. They then drilled beneath it at close intervals and inserted steel beams under the mikveh, creating a supporting frame that allowed the entire structure to be separated from the earth.
Additional precautions were necessary because of the ancient plaster lining the mikveh’s walls. Officials feared vibrations produced during lifting and transportation could cause the plaster to crack or peel away.
Conservators therefore covered the plaster with gauze and adhesive materials before lining and reinforcing the structure with foam to absorb vibrations during the move.
The lifting operation posed its own difficulties. Because of the distance between the crane and the mikveh, officials brought in a crane capable of lifting as much as 300 tons to raise the 25-ton ancient structure.
Its four-meter width also meant an ordinary transport truck could not be used. A wide-load vehicle was brought in to carry the mikveh to a storage facility at Beit Guvrin, with the road temporarily closed as escort vehicles accompanied the truck.
“Once you lift up a structure like this, there is no going back,” said Eyal Kaho, a senior conservator at the Israel Antiquities Authority who led the operation.
“If it falls apart – we’ve lost the mikveh. Therefore, every detail must be considered in advance. The day before an operation like this, you don’t sleep. You’re under pressure, because the responsibility is yours and there’s simply no price that can compensate for mistakes.”
Kaho said the tension surrounding such operations remains high despite his decades of experience.
“Even after 36 years at the Israel Antiquities Authority, every time, the adrenaline rises anew,” he said.
The mikveh’s removal is temporary. Once construction in the area is completed, authorities plan to bring the structure back to Carmei Gat and incorporate it into an open public space in the neighborhood.
Heritage Minister Amichai Eliyahu said the discovery contributes to the understanding of Jewish settlement patterns during the Second Temple period.
“The ritual bath uncovered in Kiryat Gat adds an important dimension to our understanding of Jewish settlement in the Land of Israel during the Second Temple period,” Eliyahu said.
“The complex operation led by the Israel Antiquities Authority to relocate it intact reflects our commitment as a nation to preserving our heritage assets, even amid rapid development.”
He added that returning the mikveh to the neighborhood would allow the archaeological discovery to become part of the modern community rather than remain hidden away in storage.
“Its future incorporation into the neighborhood’s public space will enable residents and visitors to encounter tangible evidence of Jewish life from 2,000 years ago as part of their daily lives,” Eliyahu said.
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