Israel uncovers Roman structure at foot of Jerusalem's Western Wall

Israeli archaeologists in Jerusalem’s Old City on Monday unveiled a newly unearthed section of the Western Wall and the first Roman public structure ever discovered in the city, they said. Archaeologist Joe Uziel said he and his colleagues knew the wall section was there and had expected to find a Roman street at its base. “But as we excavated and excavated we realised we weren’t getting to the street. Instead we have this circular building,” he told reporters at the underground site. “Basically we realised that we were excavating a theatre-like (Roman) structure.” He said that carbon-14 and other dating methods indicated it came from the second or third centuries AD and appeared to be unfinished. The Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA), which conducted the two-year dig, said that historical sources mentioned such structures but in 150 years of modern archaeological research in the city none had been found.