KIRYAT GAT, Israel โ Israeli archaeologists and conservation experts have successfully moved a 25-ton Second Temple-era mikveh from an excavation site near Kiryat Gat in an unusual engineering operation to protect the ancient Jewish ritual bath during construction of a new neighborhood.
The Israel Antiquities Authority discovered the approximately 2,000-year-old mikveh during archaeological excavations in the Carmei Gat neighborhood.
According to the IAA, the discovery provides evidence of a previously unknown Jewish settlement between the Judean Lowlands and the northern Negev.
Israel’s National Treasures Department will temporarily store and protect the mikveh while development work continues. Once construction is completed, authorities plan to return the ancient structure to its original area and incorporate it into a public open space at the center of the new neighborhood.
The Israel Lands Authority is financing the salvage excavations required as part of the development project at a cost of approximately NIS 28 million.
Evidence Of Ancient Jewish Life
Archaeologists found more than the ritual bath.
Excavations at the settlement also uncovered stone measuring vessels associated with Jewish ritual practices during the Second Temple period.
Under Jewish law, stone vessels were considered resistant to ritual impurity, contributing to their widespread use among Jewish communities during that period.
The combination of the mikveh and stone vessels provided archaeologists with significant evidence about the identity of the people who lived at the site.
“The Jewish settlement we discovered here is the first and the only known one in this area,” excavation directors Elena Kogan-Zahavi, Maayan Margulis and Shira Lifshitz said in a joint statement released by the IAA.
“In the Judean Lowlands, many Jewish settlements from the Roman period are known, but in the seam between the Judean Lowlands and the northern Negev, no Jewish settlement was known until now.”
Archaeological evidence indicates the settlement was apparently abandoned during the Bar Kokhba Revolt in the second century CE.
About 500 years later, during the Byzantine period, settlement resumed at the site, although the IAA says the population was then of a different composition.
Moving 25 Tons Of History
Preserving the mikveh posed a formidable problem for conservators.
As the modern neighborhood developed, the ancient structure could not safely remain where it had been excavated during the next phase of construction.
Rather than dismantle it, the IAA’s Conservation Department decided to move the structure intact.
The mikveh weighs approximately 25 tons and measures about four meters across.
Four conservation specialists spent approximately two weeks preparing it for removal.
Because the mikveh had remained buried in the earth for centuries, workers first excavated around the entire structure, gradually exposing it on every side.
They then drilled closely spaced openings beneath it and inserted steel beams under the ancient bath. The supporting framework strengthened the structure and provided the foundation needed to separate it from the ground.
But moving the stone structure itself was only part of the conservation challenge.
Ancient plaster still survives on the mikveh’s walls. Conservators feared vibrations from the lifting operation and subsequent road journey could cause the fragile material to crack or separate.
They covered the plaster with protective gauze and adhesives before surrounding and reinforcing the structure with foam cushioning.
A 300-Ton Crane
The mikveh’s location created another engineering problem.
Because of the distance between the crane’s base and the archaeological structure, workers needed a crane with a lifting capacity of approximately 300 tons to move the 25-ton mikveh.
Its four-meter width also meant it could not be transported as an ordinary load.
A specialized wide-load vehicle was brought in to carry the structure to the IAA’s Beit Guvrin storage facility.
The road was temporarily closed to traffic during the move, while escort vehicles traveled ahead of and behind the truck carrying the ancient structure.
For the conservation team, the operation left little room for error.
“Once you lift up a structure like this, there is no going back,” said Eyal Kaho, a senior conservator with the Israel Antiquities Authority who led the operation.
“If it falls apart, we’ve lost the mikveh. Therefore, every detail must be considered in advance.”
Kaho, who has worked for the IAA for 36 years, said the responsibility involved in such operations remains intense despite his decades of experience.
“The day before an operation like this, you don’t sleep,” he said. “You’re under pressure, because the responsibility is yours and there’s simply no price that can compensate for mistakes.”
“Even after 36 years at the Israel Antiquities Authority, every time, the adrenaline rises anew.”
Ancient Site To Become Part Of New Neighborhood
The relocation is intended to be temporary.
Rather than separating the archaeological discovery permanently from the place where it was found, plans call for the mikveh to return to Carmei Gat once construction conditions allow it to be safely reinstalled.
It will then be incorporated into an open public area within the modern neighborhood.
The project will ultimately place a surviving structure from a Jewish community of approximately 2,000 years ago within the public landscape of a new Israeli community being built on the same ground.
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