According to Dina Avshalom Gurni, the director of the excavation on behalf of the Antiquities Authority: "The mutt we found, from the 2nd century AD, joins only about 10 mutts known in Israel from the Second Temple period.
A decorated chalice (a vessel for handling incense and coals and transferring them from one place to another) and a urn made of bronze were recently uncovered in archaeological excavations by the Antiquities Authority at a site intended for the construction of a hotel on Migdal Beach near the Sea of Galilee, owned by Arc New Gate Company.
The mat is considered a "servant vessel" that has sanctity in the work of the temple. It was used by the priests, and its main function was to move the incense and coals from place to place in the ceremony at the altar of incense. The name "machta" comes from the act of heating the coals - increasing the heat of the coals by moving and shaking them, and it is mentioned in the book of Exodus, chapter 27: (verses 1-3): "And you made the altar... and you made its boats, its dung, and its fountains, and his forks and his bottoms; For all his vessels, you shall make copper." In Jewish art, the appearance of the censer is common as part of the temple vessels, alongside the menorah, the lampstand, and the etrog."
According to Dina Avshalom Gurni, the director of the excavation on behalf of the Antiquities Authority: "The censer we found, from the 2nd century AD, joins only about 10 censers known in Israel from the Second Temple period. At the beginning of the research, it was believed that the censer was only used as a ritual tool for handling the coals and incense used in ritual ceremonies. Over the years, after censers were also found without a ritual context, it seems that the censer was also used as a tool in everyday work. The kettle and the urn that were uncovered in the excavation were placed, one next to the other, on a stone floor in one of the warehouses near the pier of Migdal. It is possible that these vessels were kept as valuable for a family from the Jewish settlement of Migdal and were stored there, or they may have been used daily.
In extensive excavations by the Antiquities Authority at the site in recent years, under the direction of Dina Avshalom Gurani and Arfan Najjar together with Marcela Septa from the University of Mexico, a Jewish settlement from the Second Temple period was uncovered in Migdal. A synagogue whose walls were decorated with colorful plaster. In the center of the reading room was found a square stone, simulating the Temple in Jerusalem, and on one side of the stone is a seven-branched menorah decoration. The synagogue dates back to the 1st century AD - in the days when the Temple was active in Jerusalem, and is the seventh from this period known in Israel so far.
The current excavation season is focused on a warehouse structure near the pier of the large Jewish settlement of Migdal. Volunteers from Chile, Spain, Italy and Germany participated in the excavation, who came to Israel specifically to take part in the excavation.
According to Iyad Basharat, an archaeologist at the Israel Antiquities Authority, "the excitement of the volunteers was very great. They were not calmed down by the fact that these tools had been waiting just under the surface for 2000 years. Even we - seasoned diggers, were very excited: it is not every day that such rare finds are uncovered, and in a state of preservation every That's good."
According to Arfan Najjar, the director of the excavation on behalf of the Antiquities Authority, "in the treasure from the days of the Bar Kochba revolt that Yigal Yedin found in the Toll Cave in the Judean Desert, a firecracker and a pech similar to those we found in the tower were found. In the Galilee, firecrackers were also found in Beit Tsida, Tayba, and Wadi Hamm, all in all, this is a rare find In the Galilee and in Israel in general."
Migdal (with its Greek name "Trichai", which means "the place for salting the fish" - something that suggests the main source of livelihood of the city's residents 2000 years ago, was a large Jewish settlement in the early Roman period. It is mentioned in Jewish sources, and in the book of the destruction of the Second Temple it was used as its main base of Yosef ben Matthew
in his war with the Romans in Galilee. Evidence of a tower also exists in Christian sources, since according to tradition
Christian, it was the birthplace of Mary Magdalene, who was a major supporter of Jesus and was known as the "Apostle of the Apostles". According to the Gospels, Miriam was one of the women present at Jesus' crucifixion and resurrection.
The site is located near the settlement of Migdal in the north of the Sea of Galilee, it is open to visitors and offers a tour of the remains of the 2000-year-old settlement that was uncovered this year in excavations.
