[Avodah] Use of Stone Keilim During Bayis Sheini

[Micha Berger via Avodah]

See http://www.timesofisrael.com/2000-year-old-stone-workshop-discovered-near-where-jesus-turned-water-into-wine
or http://j.mp/2v1gxan

    The Times of Israel
    By Amanda Borschel-Dan August 10, 2017, 11:51 am
    2,000-year-old stone workshop discovered near where Jesus turned water into

    Only four Second Temple stoneware production centers have been
    unearthed in Israel

    Because it was immune to ritual impurity, the use of stoneware was
    rife among Jews during the Roman era
    ...

   A large 2,000-year-old Second Temple period chalkstone quarry and
   workshop was discovered at Reina in lower Galilee by a team of
   archaeologists headed by Dr. Yonatan Adler...

   A manmade chalkstone quarry cave was recently discovered between
   between Nazareth and the village of Kana. What is unique in this
   excavation is the additional find of a stoneware workshop -- one of
   only four in Israel.

   Although pottery was also in use during this period, archaeological
   digs around the region point to an uptick in stoneware during the
   Second Temple period -- likely for ritual purity reasons, as attested
   in the Talmud.

   "In ancient times, most tableware, cooking pots and storage jars were
   made of pottery. In the first century of the Common Era, however, Jews
   throughout Judea and Galilee also used tableware and storage vessels
   made of soft, local chalkstone," said Adler.
   ...

   "According to ancient Jewish ritual law, vessels made of pottery are
   easily made impure and must be broken. Stone, on the other hand, was
   thought to be a material which can never become ritually impure, and as
   a result ancient Jews began to produce some of their everyday tableware
   from stone," he said.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             You will never "find" time for anything.
micha at aishdas.org        If you want time, you must make it.
http://www.aishdas.org                     - Charles Buxton
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