As they worked, the team uncovered a smaller rectangular room with a wide set of steps leading down to a well. Archaeologists identified it as an ancient Jewish ritual bath, known as a mikveh, dating back at least 1,400 years.

The ruins of an ancient Jewish ritual bath have been found near Rome – the oldest such discovery outside of the biblical region of Israel and the surrounding area.

Instead, the archaeologists — budding and not — last summer uncovered what may be the oldest existing example in the ancient Roman world of a mikvah, a Jewish ritual bath. They have tentatively dated the structure to the late fourth or early fifth century.

A unique ancient Jewish bathhouse or mikveh has been found at Rome's ancient port of Ostia Antica. Culture Minister Alessandro Giuli presented the find in the site on the coast near Rome on Monday along with Rome Chief Rabbi Riccardo Di Segni.