New Christian site to take my friends to visit, if and when they do. Even if the specific identity of John the Baptist is to be doubted, they would still appreciate seeing something from a historical period close to the one so meaningful to them, and I'm sure that the many Christian visitors, even if they're as skeptical and careful as my boyfriend, will enjoy at least entertaining the *possibility* that the site relates to the people they cherish and worship.

It has a good side too: dig wherever, you're probably going to find SOMETHING, because Israel is so saturated with history and archaeology. You know, whatever gets people to visit, learn and expand their horizons.

This reminds me of the fishing boat they found in the Kineret. There is plenty of debate on whether the boat could have belonged to any of the disciples (they say Simon Peter was pretty well-to-do, so he could have owned a boat like that, though not necessarily this one). But the power of the boat lies, perhaps, not in the assumptions as to who it belonged to, but in the fact that it brings to life a period where folks like the disciples used boats that looked like it.

Of course, there's always going to be people who desperately need relics to externally fortify their faith. Those folks always remind me of Umberto Eco's The Name of The Rose, where his hero, William, mentions that two different skulls of John the Baptist have been found in two different churches...