‘Strong case’ house in crypt was home to Jesus, says archaeologist

There is a “strong case to be made” that a house excavated in Nazareth, Israel, was the childhood home of Jesus, according to an archaeologist.

Professor Ken Dark, from the University of Reading, has spent 14 years studying the remains of the 1st century dwelling beneath a modern-day convent.

He said the ruins were first suggested as Jesus, Mary and Joseph’s home in the 19th-century.

However, the idea was dismissed by archaeologists in the 1930s.

The site remained largely forgotten since then until Prof Dark launched a project in 2006 to reinvestigate the site.

He said: “I didn’t go to Nazareth to find the house of Jesus, I was actually doing a study of the city’s history as a Byzantine Christian pilgrimage centre.

“Nobody could have been more surprised than me.”