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YOLI SCHWARTZ, ISRAEL ANTIQUITIES AUTHORITY

BREACHING THE THIRD WALL. Begun by King Herod Agrippa I (r. AD 41–44) and finished in the years leading up to the First Jewish Revolt, the Third Wall of Jerusalem was an imposing barrier to the besieging Roman army in AD 70 and would have required considerable firepower for the Romans to break through. Excavations in 2015 at the Russian Compound in Jerusalem uncovered a large number of ballista stones that were fired against the city wall. These large worked stones could have been fired by Roman siege engines from upwards of 1,200 feet away.