Reaching across centuries, the skeletal arm of a woman gropes at a step within the Burnt House. Uncovered during the first season of excavation, the Burnt House and its human remains caught Avigad and his team emotionally off-guard. Charred masonry and wood, ashes and soot and a coin stamped “Year Four/of the Redemption of Zion” (69 C.E.) all indicated that the house and its inhabitants were victims of the Roman sack of Jerusalem in 70 C.E.