Thanks for a very interesting and entertaining article.

It is very difficult for amateurs to sort out the conflicting claims of archaeologists, because the archaeologists themselves often have their own personal agendas. So it's important to be very precise in your wording about things.

You said, "Jesus could not have walked [the Via Dolorosa], since the road didn't exist until a century after his death." Here in Chicago we have Milwaukee Avenue, which follows an important Indian Trail. We could accurately say that someone in 1830 could not have walked along Milwaukee Avenue, since the paved road did not exist at the time. Yet, a person could certainly (and would probably) have walked the ROUTE of Milwaukee Avenue if they lived here at this time.

Maybe there IS evidence that Jesus could not have walked the route that became the Via Dolorosa, but I suspect there is not.

So what are you (or the archaeologists) really saying?

To be more precise on the Via Dolorosa, Jerusalem has been utterly destroyed and rebuilt on top of the ruins several times since Herodian times - most notably the Jewish revolt in 70 AD and a generation later the Bar Kokhba revolt, where Hadrian rebuilt and renamed the city. The level where Jesus would have walked is now 50 to 150 feet BELOW today's street level, and in fact today's Via Dolorosa passes over where several Herodian buildings and a wall once stood.