Terracotta under glass

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The window is reflected in the showcase and also on the glass floor.
In the display case are Roman roof tiles stamped LXFRE. 

The tiles and many other ceramic elements were manufactured here, under the floor of the Jerusalem convention center, in a Roman kiln, some 1,900 years ago. 
LXFRE  stands for Legio X Frentensis,  the famous Tenth Legion of the Roman Empire. 

The kilns were discovered I think in the 1950s, when the foundations were being dug for the huge Binyanei HaUma convention hall. 
Two of the kilns were left in situ and the building was built over them. 
Sometimes (rarely), the basement room is unlocked and you can go in and observe the antiquities up close instead of through glass. 
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See a Roman soldier's sandal print in one tile in an earlier post and in this one too.
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(Linking to Weekend Reflections and Whimsical Windows, Delirious Doors.)
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Legio X

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Isn't she beautiful?!
And to think, she is just a terracotta antefix.
Made by the Romans here in Jerusalem between the 1st and 3rd centuries of the Common Era.

Our lovely mask-shaped roof edge decoration--or antefix--was used like this, on the covering tiles of a tiled roof.

But the reason this post is going to ABC Wednesday's X-day is because of what is stamped on these old tiles:
LEG X FRE which means TENTH ROMAN LEGION, FRENTENSIS.
When the Tenth Legion, stationed in Jerusalem, was not engaged in destroying the city it was busy building up the infrastructure of the area.

As the exhibit is described in the Israel Museum

In peacetime, Roman soldiers were employed in public works.
The most hated of these were the back-breaking construction projects: paving roads and building fortresses, walls, dams, and aqueducts.
The legions would record their labors for posterity with Latin inscriptions carved in stone.
The produced their own building materials in special workshops, stamping them with military symbols to prevent their sale on the open market.

The tiles shown above were made at the kilns discovered (and preserved!) under what is today Jerusalem's International Convention Center.
Notice the sandal-print of a poor Roman soldier who goofed and stepped on the tile as it was drying!

Here is another Roman numeral X.
The limestone stone reads LEG X FRE COH IIX.
It is the inscription of the Eighth Cohort of the Tenth Legion Frentensis.
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(For more about Jerusalem's Roman history you can click on my labels Tenth Legion, Romans, Roman kiln, Roman pavement, Roman theater.
Or, see Wikipedia about Legio X Frentensis.)
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UPDATE: As Rob reminds me in a comment now, it was the Legio X Frentensis, headed by Peter O'Toole--oh, I mean Roman governor of Judea Lucius Flavius Silva--that laid siege to Masada in the years 72-3.
And also that the Tenth Legion had a garrison at the present-day Arab village of Abu Ghosh, just outside Jerusalem. They chose to build a fortress there because it was close to the Roman road going from Emmaus to Jerusalem.
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Romans have returned

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Russian writing and a rather ridiculous rendering of a Roman.
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Right after you enter Jaffa Gate into Jerusalem's Old City, you will see him.
Reflection of the gate is visible in the moneychanger's window.
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All these Rs are for ABC Wednesday.
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X Legion

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For ABC Wednesday meme participants, X is the most dreaded letter.

;-)

But let's take X not as a letter but as the Roman numeral.

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If you say Roman and ten in the same sentence, most of us here in Israel will immediately think TENTH ROMAN LEGION, FRENTENSIS.

For several centuries the Roman Legion alternately built up or destroyed Jerusalem.

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Please enlarge the photo of their reconstructed standards to see the inscription LEG X FR and their symbols, the eagle and the wild boar.
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It is all part of the long history of Jerusalem as told in the excellent Tower of David Museum, in which I took the photos for this post.

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(For more about our Roman history, you can click on my labels Tenth Legion, Romans, Roman kiln, Roman pavement, Roman theater.)

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The Christmas tree that came out on top

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The best--and almost only--place in Jerusalem to find Christmas decorations is inside the walled Old City.
Yesterday, for That's My World Tuesday, I walked all around the Christian Quarter in search of the red and green.

The inflated Santa Claus waved me into the arcade of the old Imperial Hotel.
I found it hilarious that a Christmas tree was standing atop the little-known column!

If you click to enlarge the photo you can see the inscription:
M • IVNIO MAXIMO LEG AVGG ANTONINIANA LEG • X • FR C DOM SERG IVL HONORATVS STREIV

The Latin is a votive inscription to Marcus Maximus, a legate of the Tenth Legion, Fretensis.

Walk inside the gate under the sign "Hotel Imperial" to find the Santa.

The hotel is just inside the Jaffa Gate that we talked about in yesterday's post.

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When foundations for the hotel were being dug in 1884-89 the column shaft was found, along with roof tiles stamped LEG X FR. The kiln where the Roman Xth Legion Frentensis soldiers made the ceramics can be seen in earlier posts, here and here.

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We here in Israel remember this unit as the one which conquered the city and destroyed the Second Temple. They were garrisoned in the city until the late 3rd century.
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I really wonder how the pagan conqueror Marcus Maximus would feel if he could see the Christian Christmas tree standing on top of his column which is now in the capital of a sovereign Jewish state.

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Roman Tenth Legion

Guess what's under Jerusalem's International Convention Center!
Hint: today's post is for R Day at ABC Wednesday.

R is for Roman kilns from over 1,900 years ago!

Click on the photos to enlarge them.

The Roman Tenth Legion was stationed in Jerusalem for over 200 years. When they were not busy quelling Jewish rebellions (The Great Revolt, 66-70 CE, and the Bar-Kochba Rebellion, 132-135 CE), destroying the Temple and Jerusalem and killing her citizens, the Legionnaires were busy building infrastructure and army camps, public buildings, and bathhouses.

When foundations for the convention center were dug, the Roman factory was discovered.

For the full story, click on the photo above.

Two of the kilns were left in place and put on display under the blue glass.

Once, while at the Book Fair, I walked slowly on the glass floor, looking down in wonder. A woman sitting on the stool drinking coffee called to me, "Did you lose something?" Then I realized that many visitors don't even know the antiquities are there.

The kilns and some of the earthenware products are enclosed in a glass room. The door is more often than not locked.

Upstairs, glass cases on the wall show the roof tiles, pipe sections, and bricks that the Roman soldiers produced at the factory. Maybe tomorrow I can show you them.

But my favorite is the story (described in the sign above) of the hobnail sandal (cleats protruding from the bottom of the sole), called caliga.

Some of the square bricks had sandal-prints in them. Apparently while the bricks were drying, before they were fired, a soldier stepped on them by mistake! So, beside the prestigious Tenth Legion stamp of LXFRE, Legio X Frentensis, there is a footprint of a simple Roman soldier.

This is so very human! I almost cried.

Sometimes archaeology does that, lets you feel a bond with one individual, one in whose footsteps we now walk.