Rare Second Temple Ritual Pool Discovered in Israel

A rare find in Jerusalem: archaeologists have uncovered a ritual pool from the Second Temple era near a highway construction site.

The discovery came during excavations carried out in advance of paving the Ora-Masua’ah highway in the Jerusalem neighborhood of Kiryat Menachem.
According to Israel Antiquities Authority excavation director Benyamin Storchan, “Numerous ritual baths have been excavated in Jerusalem in recent years, but the water supply system that we exposed in this excavation is unique and unusual. The pool consists of an underground chamber entered by way of steps. The mikveh received the rainwater from three collecting basins (otzar) that were hewn on the roof of the bath, and the pure water was conveyed onside the chamber through channels.
“The ritual baths known until now usually consiste of a closed cavity that was supplied with rainwater conveyed from a small rock-cut pool located nearby.
“The complex that was exposed at this time is a more sophisticated and intricate system...apparently associated with a settlement that was situated there in the Second Temple period.
“Presumable, due to the rainfall regime and arid conditions of the region, the inhabitants sought special techniques that would make it possible to store every drop of water.”
The pool, located in a picturesque valley with ancient agriculture, was uncovered a short distance from houses in the neighborhood. It conforms to all the Jewish laws, Storchan said, adding that the walls were treated with a special kind of plaster.
The Israel Antiquities Authority and the Moriah Company involved in the area’s development are “working to make this delightful treasure a site for the benefit of the residents and visitors,” according to the IAA.

Source: http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/166973#.UvGauz3nbmQ

'Swamp Monster' Skull found in Texas

A toothy, long-nosed skull found in Texas belonged to a "swamp monster" that lived more than 200 million years ago.

The creature is a previously unknown type of phytosaur, an extinct creature that hunted fish and other prey along the shallow edges of rivers and lakes. Dubbed Machaeroprosopus lottorum, the phytosaur probably measured about 18 feet long.
"They had basically the same lifestyle as the modern crocodile, by living in and around the water, eating fish, and whatever animals came to the margins of the rivers and lakes," study researcher Bill Mueller, assistant curator of paleontology at the Museum of Texas Tech University, said in a
statement.

Phytosaurs are a common find in the Cooper Canyon formation in Garza County, Texas, where the new species was discovered. This area is now dry and scrubby, but in the late Triassic, it was a conifer forest with fern underbrush and an oxbow lake where phytosaurs hunted.

In 2001, Doug Cunningham, a research field assistant at the Texas Tech museum, unearthed the new skull during a dig.
"When he found it, just the very back end of the skull was sticking out of the ground. The rest was buried," Mueller said. "We excavated it and brought it into the museum to finish preparation."
That preparation took years. Once the skull was out of the rock surrounding it, Mueller and his colleagues compared the features of the skull with other phytosaur skulls (more than 200 have been found in North America). They also analyzed another phytosaur skull, found 120 feet from the first.

They discovered that their specimens represented a male and female from a new species, which they named M. lottorum in honor of the Lott family, the owners of the ranch where the fossil was found.

Phytosaurs lived from about 230 million to 203 million years ago. They were one of the victims of the Triassic-Jurassic mass extinction, a huge die-off that wiped out many large land animals.
The new female's skull is about 3 feet long, and she would have grown to be about 17 feet total length, Mueller said. The male would have been about a foot longer. M. lottorum's delicate snout suggests it ate mostly fish, and not more robust prey. It would have looked very much like an alligator or crocodile, but its nostrils were up near its eyes at the base of its snout, rather than at the end.

Source: http://www.foxnews.com/science/2014/01/30/new-swamp-monster-skull-found-in-texas/