article_snippet.sent: One of the perplexing realities for archaeologists is a lack of residual wood from the massive record of Roman crucifixion.
article_snippet.sent: Despite the fact the Romans killed tens of thousands of people through crucifixion -- and as many as 500 a day during the siege of Jerusalem from 66-70 CE -- the only piece of evidence connected to this terrible punishment was discovered in 1968, when archaeologists found the heel bone of a crucified man with the nail still intact.
article_snippet.sent: In the Israel Museum in Jerusalem, Israel Hershkovitz, who teaches anatomy and archaeology at Tel Aviv University, said that the heel bone of a crucified man with the nail was found in a Jewish burial tomb in a northern suburb of Jerusalem, near Golgotha -- the hill where the Romans crucified people.
article_snippet.sent: Yehohanan was cut down from the cross with a 4.5-inch nail still in Yehohanan right heel bone, and with part of a board still attached to the head of a 4.5-inch nail.
article_snippet.sent: Hershkovitz believes that the relative shortness of the length of a 4.5-inch nail reveals much about Roman crucifixion methods.
article_snippet.sent: a 4.5-inch nail was too short (to go through) two heel bones, so sure enough each foot was hammered separately to the cross.