Ancient Ritual Bath in Jerusalem Holds Mysterious Message Carved on the Walls

Archaeologists have made an extraordinary find in Israel. They've found an impressive ritual bath dating back to the time of the first century CE that had a message written inside of it.

The ritual bath, called a miqwe, had walls that were treated with ancient plaster and were adorned with numerous wall paintings and inscriptions that were written in mud, soot and incising. The inscriptions themselves are Aramaic and written in cursive Hebrew script. Among the symbols that are drawn are a boat, palm trees, various plants species and possibly a menorah.

"There is no doubt that this is a very significant discovery," said Royee Greenwald and Alexander Wiegmann, excavation directors on behalf of the Israel Antiquities Authority, in a news release. "Such a concentration of inscriptions and symbols from the Second Temple period at one archaeological site, and in such a state of preservation, is rare and unique and most intriguing."

Currently, the inscriptions along the bath are a mystery. However, the researchers believe that some of the inscriptions might indicate names. The symbols depicted on the wall are common elements in the visual arts of the Second Temple period.

"On the one hand the symbols can be interpreted as secular, and on the other as symbols of religious significance and deep spirituality," write the excavators.

Currently, the researchers want to investigate what the relationship is between the symbols and the inscriptions and why they were drawn in a ritual bath. They also want to find out who is responsible for painting them, and whether or not it was graffiti or actually meant to be there.

The images have been removed from the site and are now being conserved in Israel Antiquities Authority laboratories because they're so sensitive to air exposure.

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