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Summary
Israeli archaeologists said they unearthed a structure dating back to the time of Jesus in the town of Nazareth where he is said to have spent part of his life. It's the first time in Nazareth we found the rest of the house from the time of Jesus and it's very important because some people in the USA for example, explain 'no, no, no, we don't have town, we don't have village of Nazareth in the time of Jesus', but this excavation gives explanation (that) in the past we had the town of Nazareth, said Marc Hodera, co-ordinator of the International Centre of Mary of Nazareth Project. The Israeli Antiquities Authority said the remains were found near the Church of the Annunciation, built atop the remains of three earlier churches, on the site where Christians believe Mary, the mother of Jesus, received the revelation by the Angel Gabriel that she would conceive a child to be born. The building, archaeologists said, consisted of two rooms and a courtyard. A few artefacts were recovered from inside the building and several fragments of chalk vessels were also found, which were only used by Jews in this period because such vessels were not susceptible to becoming ritually unclean, the Israeli Antiquities Authority said. Yardenna Alexandre of the Israeli Antiquities Authority, head of the excavation, says the structure found is the first building in Nazareth dating back to the early Roman period. In the early Roman period, the time of Jesus, (Nazareth) was a small hamlet and any remains that existed of this period were covered up by later buildings and were not accessible and would not have been found. Likewise, in the basilica, they did find archaeological remains of the early Roman period but they did not find buildings, Alexandre told Reuters Television. The discovery, near a cave that was already ascribed in antiquity to the house of Jesus' family, comes days before Christians around the world begin celebrating the birth of Jesus.
