Jerusalem’s First Hasmonean Building Comes to Light

JERUSALEM, ISRAEL—The remains of a large building from the second century B.C. has been uncovered in a parking lot at the Walls Around Jerusalem National Park. Although pottery and other artifacts from the time have been uncovered, this is the first time that a building from the Hasmonean period has been found in the ancient city. Its thick walls made of rough limestone blocks and coins helped archaeologists from the Israel Antiquities Authority to make the identification. “The Hasmonean city, which is well-known to us from the historical descriptions that appear in the works of Josephus, has suddenly acquired tangible expression,” said archaeologists Doron Ben Ami and Yana Tchekhanovets.