In the latest edition of Israel Museum Studies in Archaeology Volume 12 2025, there's an article describing the results of new efforts to investigate "A Roman Spatha Sword and Scabbard From Excavations on Mount Zion in Jerusalem" found over 50 years ago.
The authors are Shimon Gibson University of North Carolina at Charlotte; Rafael Y. Lewis Bar-Ilan University; Yarden Pagelson Ben-Gurion University of the Negev; Dudi Mevorah Israel Museum, Jerusalem; Hadas Seri Israel Museum, Jerusalem.
The spatha was found south of the Zion Gate:
Here it is in situ:
And its appearance in 1971:
By all means, read it even it it can be very technical. It is dated to late Second Temple Period and its following century.
What excited my imagination, however, is its exact location when found. It "was uncovered on 3 October 1971 in earthen sediments and fills within a plastered stepped ritual bath (miqweh) inside one of the rooms of a very large Early Roman mansion exposed in Area I (Square 6, Locus 12, Basket (B) 1254). This was the first area to be excavated on the eastern side of the Armenian courtyard of the St. Saviour property, due south of the Zion Gate (Fig. 1)."
A mikveh?
We have a novel waiting to be written.
What was a Roman sword doing in a mikveh?
Was it stolen from a soldier or his corpse and stored there?
Did a Roman soldier attempt an assault there?
Did a Jewish woman belong to a Jewish fighting force and had hidden it there?
If you have any other suggestions, comment below.
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