An ancient structure uncovered on the eastern slope of the City of David inside Jerusalem Walls National Park is believed to have been used for ritual practices during the time of the First Temple, according to a new study.

The structure contained eight rooms containing things like an altar, a standing stone, an oil press and a wine press.

Excavation director Eli Shukron said in an article published in the scientific journal Antiqot that the uncovered structure may have been used by residents of Judah for cultic or religious practices.

The study suggests the structure, which is in overall exceptional shape, dates to the First Temple period and was revealed during excavations performed by the Israel Antiquities Authority in the City of David.

ANCIENT TOMB BELONGING TO DOCTOR WHO TREATED EGYPTIAN PHARAOHS DISCOVERED BY ARCHAELOGISTS

“When we began excavating the City of David in 2010, we discovered that the site had been sealed with fill from the 8th century BCE (Before the Common Era), indicating it had fallen out of use during that time,” Shukron said. “The standing stone we uncovered remained upright in its original place, and the other rooms in the structure were also well-preserved.”

Shukron’s article proposed that the structure, comprised of eight rock-hewn rooms, was used for ritualistic purposes, not far from the Temple on the Temple Mount, nearly a few hundred meters away.

It is also the only known structure of its type from the period in Jerusalem and one of only a few found in Israel.

HIDDEN STAIRCASE IN CHURCH LEADS ARCHAEOLOGISTS TO UNEARTH 400-YEAR-OLD BURIAL VAULT

A carved installation is identified as an altar, with a channel for liquid drainage. (Credit: Kobi Harati, City of David)

The structure itself covers an area of about 220 square meters and has eight rooms, each used for different purposes.

One room contained an oil press for producing oil. Another contained a wine press for making wine.

Other rooms contained things like a carved installation with a drainage channel, which researchers identified as an altar; a large standing stone; and a floor with V-shaped carving marks, though researchers remain puzzled about the carvings’ purposes.

ARCHAEOLOGISTS UNCOVER ONE OF THE WORLD’S OLDEST CHRISTIAN CHURCHES

Mysterious carvings were discovered on the structure’s floor. (Credit: Kobi Harati, City of David)

Shukron hypothesized that the carvings may have been used as a base for a tripod used during ritual activities.

On the edge of the structure is a small cave that includes a cache of items dating to the 8th century BCE. The items in the cache included cooking pots, jars with fragments of ancient Hebrew inscriptions, loom weights, scarabs, stamped seals and grinding stones for crushing grains.

Shukron and his team believe the structure was used until the 8th century BCE, when the Kings of Judah ruled.

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A collection of artifacts uncovered in a cave adjacent to the structure. “The cave served as a repository for artifacts.”  (Credit: Eli Shukron)

“The structure ceased to function during the 8th century BCE, possibly as part of King Hezekiah’s religious reform,” Shukron said.

The Bible says Hezekiah wanted to centralize worship at the Temple in Jerusalem, and in doing so, he abolished the ritual sites located across the kingdom.

It also describes that during the First Temple period, other sites used for rituals were used outside the temple, and Kings Hezekiah and Josiah implemented reforms to eliminate the sites.

ARCHAEOLOGISTS STUMPED BY STRANGE ALIEN-LIKE FIGURINE DATING BACK 7,000 YEARS: ‘RAISES QUESTIONS’

Illustration of the carved rooms discovered in the City of David. (Illustration: Shalom Kveller, City of David)

“Nearly 3,000 years later, Jerusalem’s Biblical heritage continues to be unearthed in the City of David, and with the passage of time, its relevance and meaning only continues to increase, with significance to billions, not just millions, around the world,” Ze’ev Orenstein, the director of internal affairs at the City of David, told Fox News Digital. “Unlike most sites of antiquity, Jerusalem’s Biblical heritage remains both timeless and timely – not limited to museums & history books – but a necessary component in understanding the world today – past, present and future.”

The northern part of the structure was uncovered in 1909 by British explorer Montague Parker, who searched in Jerusalem for the Ark of the Covenant and the Temple treasures.

It was not until 2010 that Shukron began to excavate the property, which lasted over several excavation seasons.

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“This discovery in the City of David once again affirms the Jewish people’s ongoing 3,000+ year-old bond with Jerusalem – not simply as a matter of faith, but as a matter of fact – from Bible times to the modern day,” Orenstein said.

Jewish students at Rutgers are accusing the Biden administration for cutting what they see as a sweetheart deal with the university that lets it off the hook for allowing a persistent culture of antisemitism.

The settlement, announced by the Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights on January 2, requires Rutgers to take a series of actions to combat discrimination on campus after 400 reports of hateful incidents on campus were filed between July 2023 and June 2024, nearly three fourths of which alleged discrimination and harassment against Jews or Israelis.

In one such incident, a student penned an inflammatory post on social media encouraging violence against an Israeli attending the university with information on how to find them. In another report, a Jewish student’s dorm room was found to be vandalized with a Swastika drawn outside their dorm and their mezuzah defaced. Members of a Jewish fraternity alleged they were threatened because of their faith in another report. 

RUTGERS UNIVERSITY PRESIDENT SET TO RESIGN AFTER CONTENDING WITH PANDEMIC, ANTI-ISRAEL PROTESTS

As part of the settlement, Rutgers has agreed to issue a statement to students and employees saying that discrimination isn’t tolerated on campus, and to review past reports of discrimination to determine if further action needs to be taken in order to be Title IX compliant. 

However, many students at Rutgers feel that the agreement falls far short of what is necessary to protect them from the relentless onslaught of antisemitism unleashed on the campus since Oct. 7.

Camilla Vaynberg, Vice President of Rutgers Students Supporting Israel, tells Fox News Digital that the measures agreed to by Rutgers aren’t likely to stem the tide of antisemitism on campus, and may not even end up being enforced after its current president Jonathan Holloway steps down. 

“I personally think the university is being let off the hook, it’s a promise that we had before.” Vaynberg said.

“Will the agreements reached between [Holloway] and his faculty and the Department of Education remain the same regardless of who is taking his place?”

“A lot of what Rutgers agreed to involves ‘statements’ and ‘reviews’ but they have been stating and reviewing things right and left since October 7th and yet, the rate of antisemitic incidences at Rutgers continues to rise,” Ben Stern, 20, a sophomore at the school majoring in Political Science told Fox News Digital. 

“The DOE sat on over 400 reports of discrimination for a year, and on the way out the door signed another toothless agreement that literally does nothing to protect anyone. It is official; this administration utterly failed the American Jewish community,” National Jewish Advocacy Center Director Mark Goldfeder said. 

“I think this settlement falls miles short of what needs to happen in order to address the issues of antisemitism at Rutgers,” Stern lamented. 

RUTGERS STUDENTS CHANT ‘USA! TO COUNTER ANTI-ISRAEL AGITATORS

Students of Rutgers University set up Gaza solidarity encampment at a New Jersey university on the Rutgers-Newark campus in Newark, United States on May 21, 2024.  (Photo by Lokman Vural Elibol/Anadolu via Getty Images)

Some critics allege that the settlement was an attempt by the Biden administration to hamstring the incoming Trump administration from taking far more punitive action against the university. 

“It’s disgraceful that in the final days of the Biden-Harris administration is letting universities, including Rutgers… off the hook.” House Education Workforce Committee Chairman Rep. Tim Walberg (R-Mich.) said in a statement Thursday.

Trump vowed that his administration would strip colleges of accreditation and federal support if they do not stop teaching “antisemitic propaganda,” at the Combatting Antisemitism conference in Washington D.C. in September.

“The Biden administration has proven once again that it doesn’t give a dam about antisemitism in America. It’s not a coincidence that [they] released these long-awaited decisions just 2 weeks before leaving office,” said former Rutgers Hillel Director Andrew Getraer.

“It’s a weak deal,” Rutgers junior Joe Gindi told Fox News Digital. 

“I am incredibly disappointed by the Biden administration for cutting this deal with Rutgers. This deal is far from the end of hate at our state university,” Gindi said. 

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 Rutgers students occupy tents and hold rallies outside Murray Hall as part of their protest in support of Palestinians affected by the war in Gaza. (Alexander Lewis / MyCentralJersey / USA TODAY NETWORK)

Jewish students have been sounding the alarm about persistent antisemitism at the university in the year since Hamas launched their genocidal Oct. 7 attacks in which the terrorist group killed over 1,200 and kidnapped a hundreds more. 

LGBTQ Orthodox Jewish student Rivka Schafer sued the school after their face was featured on an anti-Israel flyer plastered right outside their dorm.

“The message to Schafer and other Jewish students was clear: ‘Don’t support Israel, we know where you sleep,’” their complaint read.

New Jersey lawyer Rajeh A. Saadeh, a member of Rutgers University’s Center for Security, Race and Rights, routinely shared sickening videos of Hamas terrorists killing IDF soldiers on his Instagram, declaring it “hunting season” in the captions, the New York Post reported. 

Rutgers, The Biden White House and the Department of Education did not immediately respond to requests for comment. 

Patricia Heaton slammed California leadership, claiming officials “dropped the ball” regarding the response to the Los Angeles fires.

Heaton, who has teamed up with LA Dream Center to help residents in need, said city leaders were not prepared and questioned where taxpayer money had gone in an interview with Fox News Digital.

The “Everybody Loves Raymond” star called for change after the “very harsh lesson.”

CALIFORNIA FIRES: ESSENTIAL PHONE NUMBERS FOR LOS ANGELES-AREA RESIDENTS AND HOW YOU CAN HELP THEM

Heaton explained Los Angeles didn’t seem prepared for the fires, which began burning on Jan. 7 in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood. Since then, multiple fires have burned in different areas of the star-studded city, destroying thousands of homes and businesses. The actress emphasized a need for forestry management and reservoirs actually filled with water.

“I know some of the officials were saying, ‘Well, the system was overwhelmed.’ Well, in case of a huge fire, of course it’s going to be overwhelmed,” she told Fox News Digital. “You should know that and have been prepared for that. So, I think there’s a lot of money spent in L.A. and we can’t figure out where it’s going.”

WATCH: ACTRESS PATRICIA HEATON SAYS WE ‘CAN’T RELY ON THE GOVERNMENT’ AFTER LA FIRES DESTROY CITY

Heaton insisted California residents “can’t just rely on the government to take care of things.”

“It’s people coming together in your community and insisting on getting stuff done. And sadly, this is a very, very, very harsh lesson.”

“But I guess that’s what it takes to kind of break apart that bureaucracy and get the stuff done that the government is supposed to do, which is take care of the infrastructure first and foremost,” Heaton said.

RORY SYKES, FORMER CHILD STAR, DEAD AT 32 FROM CALIFORNIA FIRES

Patricia Heaton relocated from Hollywood to Nashville. (Getty Images)

Heaton is working with LA Dream Center to help with diaster relief efforts, and she’s not the only one. Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, Kathie Lee Gifford and Chris Pratt have all donated needed items or money to the charity working to help those affected by the Los Angeles fires.

“They’ve stepped up. They’ve showed up. We’ve had advocacy,” Matthew Barnett, founder of LA Dream Center, told Fox News Digital about the celebrity support. “We have people like Snoop Dog the other day – like I’ve never met in my entire life – but he did a whole minute and a half, like, Instagram post of me just talking.”

Matthew Barnett, founder of LA Dream Center, told Fox News Digital that Dwayne Johnson, Kathie Lee Gifford and Chris Pratt have all donated to LA Dream Center to help with fire relief efforts. (Karwai Tang/WireImage | Getty Images)

WATCH: DWAYNE ‘THE ROCK’ JOHNSON, SNOOP DOGG HELPING OUT LA DREAM CENTER DURING FIRES

The LA Dream Center typically serves as a resource center focused “on providing support to those affected by homelessness, hunger, and the lack of education” through community programs, according to the website.

The charity has switched gears as multiple fires continue to burn in Los Angeles.

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Patricia Heaton is known for her role in the TV sitcom “Everybody Loves Raymond.” (Richard Hartog/Los Angeles Times)

While Heaton once called Los Angeles home, the actress knows moving to Nashville, Tennessee, was the “right decision” for her.

“My four sons still live in L.A., and we go back to hang out and take meetings,” she told Fox News Digital. “And we have many friends there and are doing business there, but Nashville seems to be welcoming a lot of people from our industry. So I’m not the only one that made this decision.”

“It is filling up,” Heaton noted. “And I have a feeling after this fire we’re going to get another huge amount … of talented, creative people who have decided, you know, they’ve had enough and are ready to live in a beautiful place with friendly people and where they can be creative without worrying about houses burning down and taxes going up and crime and all that stuff.”

For her part, Heaton has helped out friends in Los Angeles who have had to evacuate and opened her home in Nashville for those looking to “get out” of the city.

A person walks through the destruction left behind by the Palisades Fire in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles on Jan. 9. (AP/Jae C. Hong)

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A house burns in the Eaton Fire in Altadena on Jan. 8. (AP Photo/Nic Coury)

The number of people who have lost their homes to the L.A. fires, which began Jan. 7 with the Palisades Fire, has continued to rise. The multiple fires have destroyed thousands of homes and businesses, leaving 24 people dead so far.

Fierce Santa Ana winds have been largely blamed for turning the wildfires sparked last week into infernos that leveled entire neighborhoods around the nation’s second-largest city, where there has been no significant rainfall in more than eight months.

In less than a week, four fires have ignited more than 62 square miles (160 square kilometers), roughly three times the size of Manhattan.

An air tanker drops retardant while working to contain the Eaton Fire in Altadena on Jan. 13. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)

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The Associated Press contributed to this report.

So the sign of a wise person is their ability to change once they realize they made a mistake. Whether you are a former liberal who’s finally come around, or perhaps an organization admitting that you’ve hired some real idiots. OK, I had to get that out of my system. Now, remember, making a mistake doesn’t define you. It’s what you do after the mistake. 

You can either say, I admit what I did, and I’m ready to try something new or just keep blaming it on climate change. It’s especially true when it comes to Donald Trump. Most idiots dig in their heels, hating him even at the cost of destroying themselves. Look at Robert DeNiro. He played a boxer, but it was Trump that gave him brain damage. But I’m also a good example. Oh, sure. I was early pro-Trump.

2015 FLASHBACK OF GUTFELD: We’ve heard these rumors that you might run for president. And I was wondering if you do, and you win, what would be my role?

TRUMP: Well, I think you’d be a fantastic press secretary. You know, we’d finally have a little personality in that position.

But fast-forward a few months.

GUTFELD FLASHBACK: People defend him about making fun of a disability, making fun of John McCain, making fun of women, a woman’s face. It just never ends. No one will ever stop defending the crass stuff, he says. He’s very impulsive. He’s – instead of thinking about what he says is impulsive, and it makes you wonder, do you want an impulsive leader? Or do you want a leader that thinks? I want somebody who can beat Hillary. I don’t think an impulsive leader is going to beat Hillary.

Was that really me? Why was I like that? Was it because Dana and I did a line of coke in the bathroom right before showtime? No, no, no. She offered. But I said, not today. But, you know, when I hear myself describing Trump, it reminds me of myself. Witty, powerful, outspoken. And we both dated supermodels. Shout out to Fabio. But why was I so emotional about it? Well, here’s an analogy. In the late 1970s, I couldn’t wait to hear the Sex Pistols. They were punk rock and they were going to destroy all the mainstream crap on the radio. But when I got the record, I hated it. It was loud and scary and ugly and evil, and I didn’t get it. 

So I separated the record from my collection. I didn’t want its evilness to rub off on my cheap trick records, like some type of musical STD. But then time passed and I decided to give it another shot. And it blew my mind. But the record didn’t change. I did. What happened there? Why did it take time? Well, Iike Trump, the Pistols were not asking for me to like it, and I resented that confidence. But then I grew to love it. 

That’s the Trump effect in three steps – it’s repulsion, confusion, then affection. It’s the same three emotions I get when I stick my finger into Larry Kudlow’s belly button. That’s why he’s smiling. And so, the Trumpian messages that used to upset me then resonated. I changed. Trump didn’t. So when people in the media said ‘I used to like Gutfeld but he’s changed’ – damn right I changed. If you don’t, when you realize you’re wrong, you’re a f**** idiot. Much like this fella.

JIMMY KIMMEL: Let’s be honest. It was a terrible night last night. It was a terrible night for women, for children, for the hundreds of thousands of hardworking immigrants who make this country go.

Someone fetch that guy a 12-pack of tampons. That’s a Trump effect, but not a healthy one. Here’s Trump on meetings with Democrats.

TRUMP REPORTEDLY PLANS TO UNLEASH AROUND 100 EXECUTIVE ORDERS AFTER TAKING OFFICE

PETER DOOCY: A lot of CEOs, including some who censored you four years ago, have been coming down here basically to kiss the ring. Did they change or did you change?

TRUMP: Well, maybe we all changed. I think they’ve gained a lot of respect. I think they looked at the mandate that we got. As you know, we won the popular vote.

This is a good answer for it suggests a middle ground, even if he didn’t have to give an inch. And it gives Dems a path forward out of the darkness. We all changed. Funny, Trump may turn out to be the greatest ally for the Democratic Party, but not for the reason the media thinks. Trump is their Moses in that he’s parting the sea so Dems can flee their extremism and seek sanctuary in common sense. 

Just when you thought he couldn’t do any more for the Jews, now this. Maybe they’re finally ready to get rid of their golden cows. The Trump effect gives you the green light to talk in real terms about real problems. So now Dems no longer have to embrace stupid causes. They can talk about illegal immigration, rising crime, schools. Stephen A. Smith, Bill Maher, Fetterman – they all seem freer. Hell, Fetterman looks positively radiant. 

Like Frankenstein if they put in the good brain. And why? Trump made it OK not to give a s*** about pronouns and focus on the economy, law and order and, yes, fires. When a fireman is coming up that ladder and he doesn’t look like you, who gives a s***? Yeah, I want mine to look like Ryan Gosling, but it’s not happening. So when someone like Zuckerberg gets grief for now backing Trump, your instinct might be to say, too late, we’re good. 

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But as Scott Adams always says, all good things take too long to happen, including other people coming around. This is why conservative never-Trumpers are so miserable. Their ego won’t allow them to admit they were wrong, for their hatred of Trump is tied to their self-worth. 

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But thankfully, not all Dems are like that. RFK, Tulsi, Musk, when faced with new information, they changed too. How ironic for Democrats really. The guy they’ve been trying to imprison for years is the one to break them out of their own.