In Jerusalem, ancient ruins found outside the Old City

A marquee was found in excavations in Jerusalem by the team of archaeologist Yaakov Billig who presented them on September 3, 2020. AFP Photo / Emmanuel Dunand

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During the construction of a new tourist office in the south of the city, Israeli archaeologists found remains of structures.

A discovery that calls into question a central thesis supported by archaeologists until now who thought that all of Hierosolymitan life took place inside the walls.

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With our correspondent in Jerusalem,

In Jerusalem, the three times holy city, all you have to do is dig to find archaeological finds.

Israel's Antiquities Authority archaeologists call the find "

."

These are remarkably well-preserved capitals that, 2,700 years ago, hung over the columns of a palace.

Around 50 cm wide, these two limestone blocks bearing intact spiral-shaped engravings were found in what was, it seems, the garden of a royal estate which has now completely disappeared.

An important activity outside the Old Town

The architecture is similar to that of ancient Greece, in Proto-Aeolic style.

The palace was probably built between the reigns of kings Hezekiah and Josiah, when Jerusalem was barely recovering from the siege of the Assyrian army in 701 BCE, which resulted in its near destruction.

Other remains from the same period have been unearthed in this same area which for the Israeli archaeologist Yaakov Billig, the author of the discovery, attests against all expectations of the presence thousands of years ago of 'a large nerve center outside the Old City of Jerusalem.

Read also: A 9,000-year-old village discovered near Jerusalem

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• Jerusalem

• History

• Archeology

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