When the Jewish quarter was rebuilt in the early 1970s, extensive archeological excavations were conducted in the area. The excavators found a Roman period house under a layer of ashes and destruction. They reconstructed a kitchen, ritual bath and work rooms. The house was part of a larger complex, belonging to the Kathros family of priests that served in the Temple (located nearby - to the east of the house).
The excavators reconstructed four rooms, a kitchen, a yard and a small mikveh (ritual bath - baptismal). They also found a bone in the rubble - an arm of a young female - perhaps one of the house members who died at the hands of the Romans. Another interesting find was a metal spear, which may have been used by the defenders against the Romans. Additional findings provided clues on the family's daily life and occupation: stone jars, kitchenware, coins from the period of the great revolt, tools, stone weights (including the name of the family) and other artifacts.
Josephus, in his classic writings almost 2000 years ago, describes the destruction of Jerusalem and the setting of the houses on fire, a month after the temple was set on fire:
"So they now left these towers of themselves, or rather they were ejected out of them by God himself, and fled immediately to that valley which was under Siloam, where they again recovered themselves out of the dread they were in for a while, and ran violently against that part of the Roman wall which lay on that side; but as their courage was too much depressed to make their attacks with sufficient force, and their power was now broken with fear and affliction, they were repulsed by the guards, and dispersing themselves at distances from each other, went down into the subterranean caverns. So the Romans being now become masters of the walls, they both placed their ensigns upon the towers, and made joyful acclamations for the victory they had gained, as having found the end of this war much lighter than its beginning; for when they had gotten upon the last wall, without any bloodshed, they could hardly believe what they found to be true; but seeing nobody to oppose them, they stood in doubt what such an unusual solitude could mean. But when they went in numbers into the lanes of the city with their swords drawn, they slew those whom they overtook without and set fire to the houses whither the Jews were fled, and burnt every soul in them, and laid waste a great many of the rest; and when they were come to the houses to plunder them, they found in them entire families of dead men, and the upper rooms full of dead corpses, that is, of such as died by the famine; they then stood in a horror at this sight, and went out without touching any thing. But although they had this commiseration for such as were destroyed in that manner, yet had they not the same for those that were still alive, but they ran every one through whom they met with, and obstructed the very lanes with their dead bodies, and made the whole city run down with blood, to such a degree indeed that the fire of many of the houses was quenched with these men's blood. And truly so it happened, that though the slayers left off at the evening, yet did the fire greatly prevail in the night; and as all was burning, came that eighth day of the month Gorpieus [Elul] upon Jerusalem, a city that had been liable to so many miseries during this siege, that, had it always enjoyed as much happiness from its first foundation, it would certainly have been the envy of the world. Nor did it on any other account so much deserve these sore misfortunes, as by producing such a generation of men as were the occasions of this its overthrow." (War of the Jews - Book VI, Chapter 8 - 5)
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