2300-Year-Old Village Discovered near 'Burma Road'

The Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) and Israel Natural Gas Lines (INGL) announced, Tuesday, that remnants of a rural settlement that was occupied for approximately two centuries during the Second Temple Period were uncovered between August 2013 – January 2014 near the 'Burma Road' (not far from Mitzpe Harel) in the Judean Hills west of Jerusalem. The find was made during an IAA archaeological salvage excavation, before the start of work on a pipeline from the coastal plain to the outskirts of Jerusalem as part of a national project directed by INGL. Following the find, the IAA and INGL have changed engineering plans for construction of the gas line.

The excavations, which covered about 750 square meters, revealed a few stone houses and a network of narrow alleys. The excavations have shown that the site reached the height of its development in the Hellenistic period (during the third century BCE), when Judea was ruled by the Seleucid monarchy following Alexander the Great, and that it was abandoned at the end of the Hasmonean dynasty. The excavations yielded numerous and varied finds from all occupation periods, including basalt and limestone grinding and milling tools for domestic use, pottery cooking pots, jars for storing liquids (oil and wine,) pottery oil lamps for domestic use, and over sixty coins, including coins from the reigns of the Seleucid King Antiochus III and the Hasmonean King Alexander Jannaeus. 

http://www.information.myanmaronlinecentre.com/2300-year-old-village-discovered-near-burma-road/