An Intact 2,000-Year-Old Mikvah Discovered In Eretz Yisroel

Funded by the Israel Land Authority, an archaeological excavation by the Israel Antiquities Authority in Kiryat Gat’s Carmei Gat neighborhood uncovered a 2,000-year-old mikveh, evidencing that a Second Temple period Jewish settlement existed here, hitherto unknown in academic circles. A 300-ton lifting crane extracted it intact, and the mikve will later be returned to the heart of the neighborhood as an open public display.

How do you move an entire 2,000-year-old purification bath, weighing 25 tons?

In a complex engineering-conservation operation, the Israel Antiquities Authority’s Conservation Administration recently transferred a Second Temple-era mikveh, discovered during an archaeological excavation in the Carmei Gat neighborhood of Kiryat Gat, for safekeeping at the National Treasures Department. The operation was carried out with the aim of protecting the ancient structure from damage during the neighborhood’s development work. When construction is completed, the mikveh will be returned to the site, and integrated into an open public space that will stand at the heart of the new neighborhood.

The purification bath was discovered in an excavation conducted by the Israel Antiquities Authority, with the Israel Lands Authority financing all costs of the salvage excavations necessitated during the neighborhood’s construction, to the tune of about 28 million NIS. Discovering this ancient ritual bath provides clear evidence of the existence of a Jewish settlement in this area approximately 2,000 years ago. The excavation of the settlement also uncovered stone measuring vessels, which according to Jewish law do not become ritually impure, and which were therefore widely used among Jews during the Second Temple period.

According to Elena Kogan-Zahavi, Maayan Margulis and Shira Lifshitz, Excavation Directors on behalf of the Israel Antiquities Authority, “The Jewish settlement we discovered here is the first and the only known one in this area.