During groundworks to build an intersection a rare Galilean ritual bath was found, sawed out of the bedrock and moved in an extraordinary collaboration
A rare Galilean mikveh dating to the Second Temple period discovered near Kibbutz Hannaton has been rescued from oblivion: Instead of being paved over by a new intersection, it has been extracted and moved to a permanent home at the kibbutz.
As was the way of Second Temple ritual baths, the mikveh had been hewn from bedrock. Saving it from disappearing under the tarmac took a complicated and expensive process of laboriously sawing the whole enchilada out of the bedrock, gingerly hoisting it with heavy machinery and moving the thing onto a truck. This was achieved thanks to the insistence of kibbutz members and the goodwill and funding of a host of government bodies as well as crowd-funding.
