Kfir Arbiv, Israel Antiquities Authority excavation director, cleans a 2,000-year-old ballista stone at the Russian Compound excavation site in Jerusalem. (Photo by Yoli Schwartz, Israel Antiquities Authority)
(TIMES OF ISRAEL) — For the first time in the research of ancient Jerusalem, physical evidence uncovered in recent excavations has proven Jewish historian Josephus Flavius’s account of the 70 CE conquest of the holy city.
Through computer analysis of 2,000-year-old Roman ballistics uncovered in Israel Antiquities Authority excavations in Jerusalem’s Russian Compound near modern Jerusalem’s Municipality building, archaeologist Kfir Arbiv claims he has demonstrated the veracity of Josephus’s narrative charted in his book, “The History of the Jewish War against the Romans.”
“It is extremely exciting to be proving the narrative of Josephus onsite,” Arbiv told the Times of Israel on Sunday, Tisha B’av, the Jewish day of mourning that annually commemorates the conquests of Jerusalem.
