[8][9] They mention in this context a 9th-century pilgrim who wrote that the pool was named after a pious matron, Mamilla, the wife of Thomas, who survived the 614 fall of the city.

[6] The older theory is based on the fact that during the rule of Herod the Great (37–4 BCE), improvements were made to the water supply system in Jerusalem.

[14] Itzik Schwiki of the Jerusalem Center Site Preservation Council attributes the construction of the Mamilla Pool itself to Herod.

[16][17][18] Israeli archaeologist Ronny Reich estimates a death toll of 60,000 people before the Persian authorities put an end to the killing.

[19] The eyewitness account of Strategius of St. Sabas narrates: "Jews ransomed the Christians from the hands of the Persian soldiers for good money, and slaughtered them with great joy at Mamilla Pool, and it ran with blood.

"[19] The Sulha al-Quds, the treaty of Jerusalem's capitulation to Muslim forces in 638, can only be understood in the context of the massacre at Mamilla.

[8] Throughout the late Ottoman period, the Mamilla pool's environs were being used as the place of a Muslim cemetery, for which reason many grave stones can still be seen surrounding the area.

The researchers named their find Hyla heinzsteinitzi, in honor of Heinz Steinitz, a deceased Israeli marine biologist.