Hi Kika and Pat,
It is my understanding that Judean families lived on the top floor of a two-storey home with the animals housed underneath on the ground floor. There would have been bedding and hay placed inside for the animals, but almost certainly there was not a manger as we conceive of it. IIRC, the birth scene in Zefferelli's Jesus of Nazareth is pretty good about showing the newborn Babe in his Mother's arms and not in some makeshift cradle.
Carol Kelley,Taylors, SC USA
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