Ancient Jerusalem street unearthed, PalArabs skeptical

From AP:

Archaeologists say they have unearthed a section of a stone street in Jerusalem that provides new evidence of the city’s commercial life in Byzantine times.

The discovery confirms the shape of the city in the fourth to sixth centuries provided by a map [left] earlier discovered in a Jordanian Church.

Excavation director Ofer Sion of the Israeli Antiquities Authority said Wednesday the discovery shows the current street follows the “same path as the noisy street from 1,500 years ago.”

Archaeologists have uncovered 19 feet (5.8 metres) of the pathway, which lies 14 feet (4.3 metres) below street level and once they complete restoration work, the segment will be covered because of the heavy pedestrian traffic in the area.

Even though this finding is from 1500 years ago, during Byzantine times and not when Jerusalem was under Jewish rule, the Palestinian Authority spokesman is saying that these claims are unfounded and just another lie that the Jews are using to prove the historical Jewish connection to Jerusalem.

For a people with a supposedly ancient tie to the land, Palestinian Arabs really seem to dislike archaeology - the very science that can validate their claims.