Days before Christmas, archaeologists on Monday unveiled what they
said were the remains of the first dwelling in Nazareth that can be
dated back to the time of Jesus — a find that could shed new light on
what the hamlet was like during the period the New Testament says Jesus
lived there as a boy.
The dwelling and older discoveries of
nearby tombs in burial caves suggest that Nazareth was an
out-of-the-way hamlet of around 50 houses on a patch of about four
acres (1.6 hectares). It was evidently populated by Jews of modest
means who kept camouflaged grottos to hide from Roman invaders, said
archaeologist Yardena Alexandre, excavations director at the Israel
Antiquities Authority,
Based on clay and chalk shards found at
the site, the dwelling appeared to house a "simple Jewish family,"
Alexandre added, as workers at the site carefully chipped away at mud
with small pickaxes to reveal stone walls. MORE>>>>>>>>>