50 years ago: Pontius Pilate's name is found carved in stone near Caesarea

On June 18, 1961, Professor Antonio Flova, director of the antiquities department of northern Italy, announced that a University of Milan expedition had found the name of Pontius Pilate carved on a stone on the Mediterranean coast of Israel near Caesarea—the ancient capital of Roman Palestine—about 10 miles south of Haifa. Professor Flova reported that the name had been found three days earlier on a stone 31” X 23” in the ruins of a Roman amphitheatre. The stone had apparently been placed there when the building had been dedicated.