Ancient Israel Was A Strong Bastion Of Islamic Power In The Early

Rare inscriptions on a burial box 2000 years may shed new light on the death of Jesus Christ, the researchers said.

Called an ossuary, a limestone box to reveal the house Caiaphas, the high priest involved in the crucifixion of Jesus the Israel Antiquities Authority, the ossuary was seized by looters three years ago, went along with Professor Yuval Goren Department of the University of Archaeology of Tel Aviv, which led to the effort of verification.

"Beyond reasonable doubt, the inscription is authentic," Goren said, after conducting a thorough review of the limestone box, with Jewish leaders, Muslim and Christians engaged in power struggles from the Middle East millennia. Now, an archaeologist at Tel Aviv University has found evidence suggesting that an Israeli website has been a bastion of Islamic power before the end of the region.

Professor Moshe Fischer of the Department of Archaeology and TAU cultures of the Middle East, says a bathhouse-inspired Roman fortress at Yavneh-Yam is located on a peninsula near the current Tel Aviv, this suggesting that the Arab leaders maintained control of the site until the 12th century AD

Officers of the fortress, he suggests, were responsible for hostage negotiations, the power of Arab and Christian crusaders, and the port used for prisoner exchanges.

Roman bath technology, adaptation and Arabic style

According to Professor Fischer, who is the head of Yavneh-Yam dig, recently found in bath houses, which used Roman techniques, such as heated floors and walls, shows that the Arab leaders to maintain control of the site until the end the early Islamic period. Be held in conjunction with other objects dating - such as pottery, lamps, and a weight of glass rare - this architecture shows that this has been Yavne-Yam in Arabic at a time when 70 percent of the surrounding area was in the hands of Christian crusaders.

Working with a doctoral candidate Itamar Taxell, director of excavations, Prof. Fischer was the site of Yavneh-Yam excavation for the past twenty years. Among the first discoveries were two glass weights dating from the 12th century, which bore the name of Arab power and dominance, Fatimid dynasty. The weights themselves were of interest and definitely shown an Arab presence on the ground, miners say. But the scale of this presence was underscored by the discovery of a bad dating from that era and built according to Roman.

This year, for the first time, researchers have completed a thorough analysis of the page promontory, the piece of land jutting into the sea, which is the site of a natural harbor. The main structures, a series of fortification systems, including a sharp turn and Wael around the top of the hill, it was discovered to be built in the distinctive Islamic style does. The Roman baths uncovered in the Fortress, Professor Fischer said, leaves little doubt that in the 12th century, the fortress was still inhabited by the Arabs in place of the Christian crusaders.

"This is an exceptional find and rare," he said, describing the bathroom as a smaller version of the traditional Roman baths, heated by hot air circulating between floors two and pipes along the walls. The Crusaders did not build this kind of baths, and after the end of the first Islamic period, they disappear completely. "You do not see these facilities until the resurgence of these techniques by modern technology in the 19th century," says Dr. Fischer. "This marked the end of the use of a traditional Roman bath house in the 12 century architecture."

Most likely, the fortress has hosted a list of captains to change the military and his men, to install bathrooms to provide these men with extra amenities. Although the baths themselves were destroyed today, the researchers found large blocks of marble that decorated the walls, and said the view from the suite with sea view

A place for business?

The fort served as a strategic lookout point over the fragile Arab fortresses to protect against the attack of the Crusaders. According to sources, Yavneh-Yam, such as the ports of Ashdod, and Yaffa, was the place where the Christian Crusaders and the Arabs negotiated the hostages.

During this period, both the Crusaders and the Arabs took prisoners on the other hand, later to be exchanged, either for ransom or other prisoners of war who had been captured. The Crusaders have more ships arrived to negotiate with Arab leaders, then send a note to Ramla, the Arab capital, pending orders and complete the transaction requested.

Researchers continue to archaeology excavations the site, now national, Professor Fischer said. By combining these new archaeological discoveries of historical evidence, "We have a nice picture of a complex relationship that existed in the Holy Land between the handful of Muslim enclaves, linked to the Arab domination in Cairo, surrounded by the Crusaders."

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