Cave possibly used by John the Baptist found



"The site we've uncovered is seemingly the connecting link between Jewish and Christian baptism," said British archaeologist Shimon Gibson, who heads the private Jerusalem Archaeological Field Unit and supervised the dig.

Archaeologists said the cave was carved in the Iron Age, somewhere between 800 and 500 B.C.E., by Israelite monks who apparently used it as an immersion pool.

The most striking discovery dates from the first century C.E.: it indicates "a ritual that differed from the normative Jewish ritual" of the time. Believers would have walked down 28 stone steps, at the bottom of which they would have placed their right foot onto a stone with an imprint of a foot, about shoe size 45.



A small depression to the right of the imprint would have contained oil, to be poured over the foot for cleansing, Gibson said.



Please visit the link provided for the complete story.