I sraeli archaeologists uncovered a 2,000-year-old mansion
believed to have been home to Queen Helene of Adiabene,
whose clan ruled a region now in Iraq.
The remains of
the building were unearthed just outside the walls of
Jerusalem's Old City, underneath layers of a more recent
settlement that was hidden until recently under the asphalt
of a small parking lot in east Jerusalem.
RIGHT: Dig
site is just outside the walls of Jerusalem's Old City.
Israel
captured east Jerusalem from Jordan in the 1967 Mideast War.
Palestinians see the eastern part of the city as capital of
a future state.
The dig site is in the Arab
neighborhood of Silwan, built on a slope that houses the
most ancient remnants of settlement in Jerusalem and is
known to scholars as the City of David.
The building,
which includes storerooms, living quarters and ritual baths,
is by far the largest and most elaborate structure
discovered by archaeologists in the City of David area,
which was home 2,000 years ago almost exclusively to the
city's poor.
Jewish historian Josephus Flavius
mentions just one wealthy family living there — the family
of Queen Helene.
There is a "high probability" the
mansion belonged to Helene's family, Israel Antiquities
Authority archaeologist Doron Ben-Ami told reporters
Wednesday.
 "This amazing structure was destroyed with
the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D.," Ben-Ami said.
RIGHT: Overhead view
Built when Jerusalem was capital of the Roman-ruled
territory of Judea, the building was destroyed along with
the temple and the rest of the city when Roman legions
quelled a Jewish revolt nearly two millennia ago, he said.
Diggers at the site said the massive stones of the
second floor were toppled onto the arches of the first,
causing the house to collapse. In the ruins they found
ceramic shards and coins dating to the time of the Jewish
revolt against Rome.
The queen came from a royal clan
that ruled Adiabene, a region now in northern Iraq, and
converted along with her family to Judaism. They came to
Jerusalem in the first half of the first century A.D.
In texts she was praised for her generosity to
Jerusalem's poor, and for making contributions to the Second
Temple, the center of the Jewish faith, near her house. She
was buried in an elaborate tomb not far away.
Today
she has a downtown Jerusalem street named for her.
Source:
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,316044,00.html?sPage=fnc/scitech/archaeology
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