The newly redeveloped Beersheva Central Bus Station gets a lot of foot traffic.
But the floor is clean and shiny enough to reflect the signs of Burger Ranch, CocaCola, and Little Switzerland.
Good for James' Weekend Reflections.
This special part of the floor is right next to one of the entrances to the bus station.
Look what's under the glass floor--antiquities!!
Found a year or two ago just one or two feet below surface, in a rescue dig!
"For Byzantine Beersheba, this was it," according to Dr. Daniel Varga, excavation director for the Israel Antiquities Authority, who conducted the dig. "This was the heart of the Byzantine city, right here. Two Byzantine churches were built within a radius of 300 meters from here, and right over there was the Roman military camp."
The bustling Byzantine city of Beersheba was home to several thousand people and a popular stopping place for Negev travelers.
Surprisingly, most of the rooms were empty with no signs of destruction, suggesting that the residents left the area of their own accord.
The Byzantine site is remarkably well preserved due to centuries of abandonment following Arab invasions in the seventh century C.E. and recent coverage by the old bus station itself.
(The Muslim conquest of Palestine was completed in 640.)
The dig information here comes from Travelujah and Bible History Daily articles from 2012.
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P.S. See my post on the Roman Tenth Legion for a similar way of preserving antiquities under glass, under Jerusalem's International Convention Center.
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