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Mysterious Roman-era column found in Israel


guy

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A massive Roman-era column base was found near Mount Hermon in northern Israel. What was it used for? (credit: Tzviki Badihi and Anya Kleiner/Israel Antiquities Authority)

 

A base of a massive Roman-era column has been found the foot of Mount Hermon in Israel. Surprisingly, the column's material was limestone, unlike the local stone of basalt. It is thought that the column was neither built nor carved on location.

A massive Roman-era column base was found near Mount Hermon in northern Israel. What was it used for? (photo credit: Tzviki Badihi and Anya Kleiner/Israel Antiquities Authority)

 

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Often, columns would be used to help support homes and residences or public buildings around this period. However, this column has different dimensions, so it likely served a different function, like serving as a support column for a bigger, more important structure.

Supporting this is the fact that near the column base are remains of walls, which link these finds to other excavations done nearby in previous years.

These excavations revealed the remains of a Roman-era building and an aqueduct that supplied it with water.

Inside this building were flowers, a clay candle and ancient tools that had been imported, and the archaeologists believe the column could be related to these finds.

Most likely, it was either a flour mill or another agricultural facility that operated under Roman rule, but it is important to underline just how large this column likely was, and what that could imply.

 


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https://www.jpost.com/archaeology/article-720666

 

(Thanks to Lapham's Quarterly for bringing this article to our attention.)

Edited by guy
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