![]() ![]() ![]() Intent on finding storied remains of the biblical era, they have been slow to undertake the arduous work of sifting through garbage heaps to gain a fuller picture of everyday life millennia ago. ![]() Only very recently have they adopted techniques such as radiocarbon dating, long considered standard practice by researchers working in other parts of the world. The major culprit for these gaps in knowledge is the old fixation by archaeologists on Hebrew scripture at the expense of modernizing their approach to reconstructing the past. Scientists knew little about the health of the city’s inhabitants, what they ate, who they traded with, or how they influenced-and were influenced by-their neighbors. Entire eras within its 5,000-year-long archaeological record were missing, from the chapters documenting its early Judean roots to the later periods of Persian, Hellenistic and Arab dominance. Yet despite more than a century and a half of study, Jerusalem has largely confounded researchers. In time, they were largely replaced by secular academics who were less devoted to upholding scripture or finding treasure but who nonetheless considered the Bible to be a tool as valuable as their spades. Seeking tombs and riches, the early arrivals created the field of biblical archaeology-the only discipline founded on the idea that the tools of science can bolster rather than undermine traditional faith. Since the 1830s treasure hunters, religious enthusiasts and scholars have flocked here to dig into the past of a place billions of people hold sacred. Only here would an ancient latrine seize the imaginations of millions. ![]() And no place attracts as much media attention for its archaeological finds, no matter how mundane. No place on Earth has seen so much digging for so long as this ancient Middle Eastern city on any given day, a dozen or more excavations are underway in what is now a fast-growing metropolis. Its significance had less to do with long-ago plumbing than with the site of its discovery: Jerusalem. Last fall the discovery of a 2,700-year-old toilet made headlines around the world. ![]()
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