A few months ago, Israeli President Isaac Herzog's Media Advisor, Eylon Levy, and a friend of his, Yakov Ashkenazi, were walking in Tel Lachish National Park in southern Israel when they came across a small pottery shard, a broken piece of pottery material, with some kind of inscription on it. They notified the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA), which sent it to a laboratory. To the great surprise of the experts, the shard was 2,500 hundred years old and provided evidence of the government of Persian King Darius the Great at Lachish at the turn of the 5th century BC. According to a news release by the IAA, "This is the first discovery of an inscription bearing Darius the Great's name anywhere in the Land of Israel."
The Israeli Antiquities Authority (IAA) has uncovered a moat outside the walls of Jerusalem's Old City dating back at least 1,000 years. The moat was dug out of the rock surrounding the city. At one place on the moat's wall was an unusual carved imprint of a hand.
Excavation director says archaeologists have yet to deciphered the meaning of the imprint; adds the moat surrounding the Old City dates back to the 10th century CE, and its function was to prevent enemies approaching Jerusalem walls
The moat s function was to prevent the enemy besieging Jerusalem from approaching the walls and breaking into the city - Click the link for more details.