SAFED, ISRAEL—According to a Haaretz report, two intact amphoras estimated to be more than 2,000 years old have been recovered from a tiny cliffside cave in northern Israel. Speleologist Yinon Shivtiel of Safed Academic College was surveying caves in the Galilee that may have been used by Jewish rebels hiding from Roman soldiers during the Great Jewish Revolt between A.D. 66 and 70 when he saw the jars. Based on the jars' shape, however, Israel Antiquities Authority archaeologists believe they date to an earlier period. Other storage jars, a bowl, two juglets, and broken pieces of pottery were also found. “Considering that cooking and serving vessels were found, it would appear that those who brought them planned to live there for a while,” said archaeologist Danny Syon. But the small cave, located 100 feet up a sheer cliff above the ground, would have been hard to access. Shivtiel speculates that whoever went to the effort to use the cave must have been hiding food there while living somewhere else. “We have no theory on their identity at this point,” Shivtiel said. To read about another recent discovery in Israel, go to “Conspicuous Consumption.”
