Burnt House

In 1970 one of the findings of the Avigad excavations was the Burnt House, which was found under a layer of ashes and destruction, indicating that the house had been burned down.[2]

The house is only part of a large complex, which could not be fully excavated and still lies under the Jewish Quarter. Coins were found in the house issued by the Roman governors of Judea, as well as those issued by the Jewish rebels in 67–69 CE, and none that were later than that, indicating that the house was burned down at the end of this time.[2]

The ground floor of the Burnt House was exposed to reveal a house with an area of about 55 (32 ft) square. It included a small courtyard, four rooms, a kitchen and a mikvah (ritual bath). The walls of the house, built of stones and cement and covered with a thick white plaster, were preserved to a height of about one meter. In the beaten-earth floors of the rooms were the sunken bases of round ovens made of brown clay, indicating perhaps that this wing of the house was used as a workshop.[2]

The courtyard of the house was paved with stone, and through it one reached the kitchen and the other rooms. Three of these were medium-sized and a fourth, a side room, extremely small. The very small mikvah is covered with gray plaster and has four steps descending to its bottom. In the corner of the kitchen was a stove, basalt grinding-stones next to it, and a large stone tray. Several stone jars were also found in the kitchen. The occupants probably used the heavy stone kitchenware, rather than pottery, because according to Halacha they do not contract ritual impurity. This suggests the occupants were a priestly family, who had to maintain their cleanness in order to work at the temple. This is also indicated by the presence of the mikvah.[3]

Throughout the house are stones burnt by an intense fire, scorched wooden beams and layers of ash and soot that testify to the huge fire that raged here. Its walls and wood-beamed ceilings collapsed in a conflagration, sealing an abundance of diverse objects in its rooms. And scattered in disarray among the collapsed walls, ceilings and the second story, were fragments of stone tables and many ceramic, stone and metal vessels, iron nails found in the ruins are all that was left of the wooden roof, the shelves and furnishings which were completely burnt.

Also found were inkwells, Roman-period oil lamps that were used to light up the house during the evenings, and other household items, the large jugs, bowls and measuring cups, indicating that this was a perfume production workshop.[4] Leaning against a corner of a room was an iron spear, which may have belonged to one of the Jewish fighters who lived here.[5]

A covered drainage channel from the Roman period. According to the historian Josephus, some of the last Jewish rebels to hold out against the Romans hid in tunnels such as this.

In the room identified as the kitchen, the forearm bones from the finger tip to the elbow joint of a woman approximately 25 years old were discovered.[6] Since the bone is almost certainly that of a Jewish woman, it was buried in accordance with Jewish law, but pictures of the findings are on display.[7]