Recent Archaeological Finds

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The hidden latrines of the Essenes

In one of his detailed accounts of the Essenes, Flavius Josephus (Yosef Ben Matityahu), described one of the many laws that shaped the Jewish sect's way of life during the Second Temple period. While the Essenes sat in a circle, Josephus wrote, it was forbidden for them to spit into its center. Like many other laws outlined by Josephus, the details of this law appear in the Dead Sea Scrolls found in caves along the northern end of the Dead Sea. These scrolls are attributed to the Essenes.

The resemblance between the 1st century historian's testimony and the content of the Dead Sea Scrolls does not end with the law forbidding spitting into the center of a circle. Magen Broshi, former curator of the Shrine of the Book at the Israel Archaeological Museum in Jerusalem, where the Qumran scrolls are housed, says there are dozens of parallels between Josephus' writing and the content of the scrolls. One of the main similarities regards purification rituals and the Essenes' meticulous hygiene.

Anthropologist Joe Zias, of the Hebrew University Science and Archaeology Department, recently found positive evidence of the Essenes' adherence to these rituals. Together with Dr. James Tabor, Professor of Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina and parasitologist Stephanie Harter-Lailheugue of the CNRS Laboratory for Anthropology in Marseilles, France, Zias found the latrines that were used by the Essenes in Qumran. The three researchers say that, in addition to shedding a great deal of light on the unique culture of the Essenes in Qumran, the discovery represents an archaeological bonanza: Additional proof that the Essenes wrote the scrolls. Zias explains that when feces are left on the desert floor, exposure to sun and wind quickly annihilates intestinal parasites. But when feces are buried in the earth, intestinal parasites may survive for many months and their eggs may be preserved for as long as 2,000 years, as in the case of Qumran.

Close attention to hygiene

The presence of the eggs of intestinal parasites, typically present in human intestines, in a relatively limited area, in the place described in the scrolls and by Josephus, led researchers to conclude that they discovered the bathroom of Qumran's ancient residents. "Only ascetic members of a sect that paid such close attention to hygiene would bother to walk hundreds of meters beyond their camp to relieve themselves, and invest the necessary energy to dig a pit in which to bury their waste," Zias concludes.

However, Dr. Yitzhak Magen, staff officer of archaeology in the Civil Administration of the West Bank, was not impressed by the new discovery. Last summer, Magen and his colleague, Yuval Peleg, published findings based on 10 years of excavation in the Qumran ruins. Both researchers reached the conclusion that Qumran was not a monastery but an enormous ceramics factory. They found fragments of clay artifacts at the site and many pools, which they believe were used to submerge the sediment that surfaces, to this day, when local rivers overflow to produce tremendous, winter floods. Magen maintains that this sediment provides excellent raw material for pottery production. According to Magen and Peleg, the pools were not ritual baths; nor were they used by the Essenes, who immersed themselves in ritual baths twice a day. "In addition," Magen says, "the Qumran area and particularly the caves surrounding the site, are full of predatory animals and animals that consume carrion, like foxes, hyenas, and leopards. People who lived in this area for years were well aware of that. They feared these animals and certainly would not leave their camps to relieve themselves. Thus, it is unreasonable to assume that the camp's latrine was located at such a distance."

"It was not the Essenes who buried the scrolls in the caves near the Qumran ruins," Magen adds. "The scrolls were buried by Jews who escaped from Jerusalem after the destruction of the Second Temple." One of the main escape routes from Jerusalem passed through Qumran. Jews, who were somewhat unfamiliar with the area and had no knowledge of its predatory animals, did not fear entering the caves to bury the scrolls, he proposes.

According to Magen, one finds ample evidence of this in the scrolls, themselves, as they are written in a broad variety of styles and they cover a great deal of content. "It is not possible to say that one man or one sect wrote all the scrolls," Magen says. It is more reasonable to conclude that they reflect the enormous diversity that typified Judaism during the end of the Second Temple period.

Magen's theory is the most recent in a series of conclusions that question the authorship of the Dead Sea Scrolls by Essenes. Since the first scrolls were found, in 1947, a number of suggestions regarding the identity of the authors of these scrolls arose, leading to occasional outbursts of angry discourse, fraught with thinly-veiled agendas. But the most solid conclusion, raised in the early days of Professor Eliezer Sukenik, who purchased the scrolls, was and remains that the Essenes wrote the scrolls.

"The best proof of that," Broshi says, "is evident in the 900 scrolls discovered in Qumran." Some of them describe a group of ascetic hermits, and the details match information provided by Flavius Josephus. "There are dozens of parallels between Yosef Ben Matityahu [Flavius Josephus] and the Dead Sea Scrolls." Broshi says that the conclusion that there were potters, rather than ascetics, in Qumran is unfounded.

Ascetics, not potters

According to Broshi, Qumran lacks the raw materials suitable to the production of ceramic pottery. Investigations conducted a few years ago, by Broshi and Professor Hanan Eshel of Bar-Ilan University, reveal that clay pots and other ceramic vessels found in Qumran were made with metamorphic rock that came from the hills surrounding Jerusalem.

In addition to that, clay pots must be fired in kilns, at temperatures of 800-900 degrees Celsius, and the Qumran area lacks raw material to produce energy of that magnitude.

"It is possible that the residents produced ceramic vessels," Broshi says, "but only for their own personal use - not as a source of income."

"Discovery of latrines neither proves nor disproves," Broshi comments.

It merely provides another piece in the larger puzzle, which, after 60 long years of research, few scholars still question.

"I do not know a single, serious researcher that maintains that Qumran was not inhabited by Essenes and that they did not write the scrolls."

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Unearthing the mystery of the priestly city of Nob

The first biblical reference to the city of Nob is in Samuel I. During King Saul's reign, after the destruction of Shiloh, priests from the house of Eli resided in Nob, and the tabernacle was located there. After Saul discovered that one of the priests, Ahimelech ben Ahituv, gave David Goliath's sword, which was also kept in Nob, and that David had managed to escape, the king ordered all of Nob's inhabitants killed. "And Nob, the city of the priests, smote he with the edge of the sword, both men and women, children and sucklings, and oxen and asses and sheep, with the edge of the sword." (1 Samuel 22:19)

Despite Saul's vengeance, the city remained intact for hundreds of years. The prophet Isaiah mentions it in his description of a journey taken by King Ashur of Assyria in 701 BCE, when he attempted to conquer Jerusalem. Nob is referred to as the last city the Assyrian army passed through on its way to Jerusalem. "This very day shall he halt at Nob, shaking his hand at the mount of the daughter of Zion, the hill of Jerusalem." (Isaiah 10:32)

Nob is mentioned again, in Nehemiah's description of the return to Zion, as one of the settlements in the region of Benjamin, located north of Jerusalem between Anathoth, identified with the modern village of Anata, and Ananiah, identified with the modern village of Azzariyeh, according to accepted theories.

During the last 100 years, however, none of these biblical references helped researchers locate remains of the ancient settlement. While the Old Testament clearly indicates that the city was located somewhere north of Jerusalem, no site was found that provided sufficient evidence to connect it with Nob. All that remains is speculation regarding the city's location.

Archaeologist Professor Hanan Eshel, a senior lecturer at the Martin Szusz Department of Land of Israel Studies at Bar-lan University, suggests that Nob may have been located in the center of the present-day village of Shoafat. His colleague in the Martin Szusz Department, Dr. Gabi Barkai, proposes Jerusalem's French Hill neighborhood as the location of Nob. Other geographic "candidates" competing for the title of the priestly city include the A-Tur neighborhood.

In a conference held at Bar-Ilan University last week, Dr. Boaz Zissu proposed a new location: He believes the city was situated at the top of the hill overlooking the Eli branch of the Kidron Valley, called Wadi al-Joz in Arabic. However, since he lacks unequivocal proof to connect the remains he found with any specific settlement, including Nob, Zissu asks that his theory be approached with caution. Despite that, corroborating data indicates there is a good chance he is right.

This data began to accumulate in June 2001, when Zissu started excavations near the Kidron Valley, to salvage a site about 50 meters north of what is known as Ramban's Cave. That dig, under the auspices of the Israel Antiquities Authority, began after work to lay a new sewage pipe revealed an ancient limestone quarry.

The boulders in this quarry are of the desirable melekeh variety local builders treasured. Excavation marks at the site indicate the boulders were hewn into blocks for building. Similar quarries operated during the Late Israelite (Iron) Period (586-1000 BCE), when Israeli and Judean kings reigned, and they remained active until modern times in the area surrounding Jerusalem.

Zissu concludes that the quarries in the Kidron Valley operated until the end of the Hasmonean era, during the first century BCE. This conclusion is based on his discovery of vessel shards, including cooking pots and a pitcher, which masons left in the niches of the quarry's walls. After operations ceased, the quarry area was covered in a thick layer of dust. The dust included building stone and shards from the final days of the Iron Age. These shards are remnants of pitchers, bowls, candleholders, and other ceramic vessels associated with the seventh and sixth centuries B.C.E. The dust did not include shards from other periods.

Where did the ceramic vessels found in the dust come from? That question will apparently never be answered, but it is reasonable to conclude that they belonged to residents of a settlement near the quarry: Either in the present-day American Colony neighborhood, south of the quarry, or in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood, north of the quarry. Both neighborhoods are situated north of the Temple Mount, on the main road to Nablus, and, in either neighborhood, it is possible to see a man "shaking his hand" (Isaiah 10:32) at the hill.

Remnants of the ancient settlement were not found, and that is one reason for Zissu's caution. He says it is possible that stones used to build in the settlement were dismantled to expand the quarry. An aqueduct, constructed in a style typically found in the area's springs, was unearthed at the Western end of the excavation site, at a depth of about 3.5 meters. The aqueduct predates activities in the quarry, since the quarries run across the aqueduct's trench. The discovery of an aqueduct of this type raises the possibility that a spring once flowed near the site.

Other evidence of an Iron Age settlement at the Kidron Valley is found in Ramban's Cave. Signs that boulders were hewn into blocks of stone were found in the cave as well, and a system of four troughs, cut in the rocks, was found next to the hewn boulders. Water entered these troughs by means of a canal that came from a nearby spring. Zissu assumes that the spring was discovered during quarrying activities at the site, and associates this find with a settlement that was once located here - quite possibly the mysterious, priestly city.

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Temple aqueduct, ritual bath excavated 
New archaeological find in Jerusalem uncovers a 'missing link'

Excavations being conducted opposite the Western Wall Plaza have uncovered an aqueduct that brought water to the Holy Temple, as well as a ritual bath from that period.



The never-before-excavated area is situated behind the Western Wall police station, adjacent to the plaza where millions of worshipers and tourists come each year to visit the Western Wall and Temple Mount.

The new archaeological find uncovers a missing link in the ancient water system, known as the "Lower Aqueduct." This system channeled water from Solomon’s Pools near Bethlehem (located several miles south of Jerusalem) directly to the national focal point of Jewish worship - the Temple Mount.

Solomon’s pools, situated just north of the modern Jewish town of Efrat, cover an area of about 7 acres and can hold three million gallons of water. A lengthy aqueduct conveyed the water from the lowest pool through Bethlehem, across the Gihon valley, along the western slope of the Tyropoeon valley, and into the cisterns underneath the Temple Mount. Today, the water from the pools reaches only Bethlehem due to the destruction of the aqueducts.

Current plans for the partition wall will leave Solomon’s Pools outside the area of Jewish sovereignty.

The plastered hewn-stone mikva (ritual bath) unearthed at the excavation is from the Second Temple period. It was originally situated in the foundation level of a private home during the time of the Second Temple. The ritual bath was damaged at a later date when the bedrock cliff opposite it was hewn into a vertical wall that rose up to a maximum height of about thirty feet.

The most extensive remains of the period are those of a Roman-Byzantine colonnaded street – the Eastern Cardo. Included in that area is a covered stoa, a row of shops and several artifacts.

The street appears on a 6th century map known as the Medaba Map and is known as the Eastern Cardo or the Valley Cardo. The lavish colonnaded street began at the Damascus Gate in the north and led south, running the length of the channel in the Tyropoeon Valley. Sections of this street were revealed in the past in the northern part of the Old City, at a depth of about four meters (12 feet) below the pavement. The full eleven-meter (33 foot) width of the original road was exposed in the present excavation for the first time.

“The street was paved with large flagstones that were set in place diagonally, in the customary method of the Roman world, which was probably meant to prevent wagons from slipping,” Shlomit Wexler-Bdolah, the director of the excavations, explained. She added that a drainage system was installed below the flagstones.

To the west of the street was a covered stoa that was six meters wide, and beyond it was a row of shops set inside cells whose walls were hewn out of the bedrock cliff. A large base of a magnificent corner column has just been exposed in the eastern side of the street and may be part of a building that stood there, or an intersection with an entrance to the road that runs to the east.

The Antiquities Authority is carrying out the excavations of the 80 by 200 foot area west of the Western Wall at the request of the Western Wall Heritage Foundation. The area will soon be the site of the Western Wall Heritage Center.

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City of David dig unearths pilgrims' road to Temple

At the end of the 19th century, the archaeologists Bliss and Dickey discovered a short piece of road dating back to the Herodian period in Jerusalem's City of David. The road ascended from south to north in the direction of the Temple Mount. Many years later, in 1963, the archaeologist Kathleen Kenyon found another piece of the road, a little closer to the Temple Mount. When, a little over a year ago, Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) archaeologists found yet another section of it, they believed they had solved a puzzle, and that they could now sketch the course of the main road by which many pilgrims of Second Temple times made their way up to the Temple after immersing themselves in the Siloam Spring. It turned out they were wrong. That road was apparently secondary.

The road that IAA archaeologists Ronny Reich and Eli Shukron have now found, which is much grander, wider and more central, is parallel to the one Bliss and Dickey discovered. Reich believes that at a certain point further to the north, these two roads converged.

The City of David excavations are funded by the Elad Association, which buys houses in the City of David area and populates them with Jews. The dig also enjoys government backing, and funding from the Tourism Ministry; the Israel Nature and Parks Protection Authority and the Jerusalem Municipality are involved as well. About 20 laborers, mostly Arab residents of Silwan (the Arab neighborhood where the City of David is located) are employed by the IAA in the dig.

Not far from there, at a lower point, the IAA has continued to unearth the Pool of Siloam, which is much bigger than previously thought. But this dig has been halted for the time being, until talks are resumed with one of the churches, which owns the area believed to cover the rest of the pool.

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Ancient spell may be oldest Semitic text

A magic spell to keep snakes away from the tombs of Egyptian kings, adopted from the Canaanites almost 5,000 years ago, could be the oldest Semitic text yet discovered, experts said Tuesday.

The phrases, interspersed throughout religious texts in Egyptian characters in the underground chambers of a pyramid south of Cairo, stumped Egyptian experts for about a century, until the Semitic connection was found.

In 2002 one of the Egyptologists e-mailed the undeciphered part of the inscription to Richard Steiner, a professor of Semitic languages at Yeshiva University in New York. Steiner discovered that the phrases are the transcription of a language used by Canaanites at some point in the period from 25th to the 30th centuries B.C.

"This is the oldest connected text that we have in any Semitic language," Steiner said in a telephone interview while visiting
Israel to present his findings in a lecture sponsored by the Academy of the Hebrew Language. The previous oldest Semitic text dates from the 24th century B.C., Steiner said.

Another expert said it was still unclear whether the Egyptian text is actually the oldest.

"This is highly significant because maybe, according to the researcher, it dates to the third millennium B.C., so it's the most ancient pre-Canaanite text that we ever met and maybe ... it is the most ancient Semitic text ever discovered," said Moshe Florentine, an expert on ancient Hebrew and a member of the language academy.

Steiner has not submitted his findings to a scientific journal but plans to do so, he said. More study of the fragments will be necessary to determine how these passages fit into the evolution of Semitic languages, Florentine said.

The Egyptians' use of the magic spell demonstrates the close relations they had at the time with the Canaanites. While Egyptians considered their culture and religion superior to that of their neighbors to the north, they were willing to do anything to protect the mummies of their kings from the poisonous snakes.

Believing that some snakes spoke the Semitic language of the Canaanites, Egyptians included the magic spells in inscriptions on two sides of the sarcophagus in an effort to ward them off.

"Come, come to my house," reads one section in the Semitic language that is supposed to be the snake's mother speaking, trying to lure him out of the tomb. In another passage, the snake is addressed as if he is a lover with "Turn aside, O my beloved."

The Egyptian and Semitic sections are each an integral part of the magic spell and neither can stand alone, Steiner said. For this reason, the Egyptian experts could not fully understand parts of the religious texts until Steiner got involved.

The Semitic language of these texts that have now been deciphered was a very archaic form of the languages later known as Phoenician and Hebrew, Steiner said.

The text includes words that have the same meaning as in Hebrew, like "yad" for hand, "ari" for lion, and "beit" for house, he said.

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Israel Begins Renovation Near Holy Site

Police took up positions throughout Jerusalem's Old City on Tuesday as Israeli archaeologists began digging near a site holy to both Jews and Muslims amid protests and threats from Palestinians.

The Israel Antiquities Authority said the work poses no danger to the holy site. Palestinians fear Israel will damage it and have warned the work would inflame tensions.

Palestinians clashed with Israeli forces in several areas of Jerusalem and the West Bank, though no injuries were reported. Palestinian leaders harshly condemned the project.

"What is happening is an aggression," Mohammed Hussein, the mufti of Jerusalem, told the Gaza Strip radio station of the Hamas militant movement. "We call on the Palestinian people to unite and unify the efforts to protect Jerusalem."

The dig is just outside one of the most sensitive places in the Mideast conflict - the hilltop in the heart of Jerusalem that is known to Jews as the Temple Mount and to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary. The site often has been the catalyst of Israeli-Palestinian fighting.

Israel plans to build a new pedestrian ramp to the complex and says it wants to ensure the renovation work does not come at the expense of important artifacts. Such exploratory digs are common practice in the ancient city.

The ramp will replace a centuries-old walkway that was damaged in a snowstorm three years ago.

"The construction of the bridge, located in its entirety outside the Temple Mount, has no impact on the Mount itself and certainly poses no danger to it," Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's office said.

Yuval Baruch, Israel's chief archaeologist for the Jerusalem region, told Israel Radio Tuesday that the work was between 60 to 70 yards from the site, and that there was "no intention of getting close to the Temple Mount."

"We invite everyone to come see. We are working under the open sky and have nothing to hide. We won't do anything secretly or in the dark," Baruch said.

On the first day of work, however, access was heavily restricted.

Police spokesman Shmuel Ben-Ruby said police were stationed in alleys throughout the Old City and at the entrances to the disputed compound "to thwart any attempt to disrupt order."

Police also prevented tourists from entering the site, and restricted access for Muslim men to Israeli Arabs and east Jerusalem residents over the age of 45.

Jews revere the Mount as the site of their two biblical temples. Muslims believe it's where the Prophet Muhammad ascended to heaven during a nighttime journey recounted in the Quran, the Muslim holy book. Two mosques - the Al Aqsa and Dome of the Rock - now stand on the site, along with some of the temples' original retaining walls, including the Jewish shrine called the Western Wall.

"The continued Israeli aggression on Al Aqsa mosque and Jerusalem require all Palestinians to unite and remember that our battle is with the occupation," said Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas. He spoke as he departed for Saudi Arabia for reconciliation talks with President Mahmoud Abbas of the rival Fatah faction.

Fighting between Hamas and Fatah has claimed more than 130 lives since May. But Palestinians were united in their opposition to the Israeli renovation project.

Islamic Jihad, a small and violent group funded by Syria and Iran, said it fired two rockets from Gaza into southern Israel to protest the construction. The army said the rockets caused no damage.

Earlier, Islamic Jihad, which has carried out dozens of suicide bombings, warned it would "shake the land underneath the legs of the Zionists" and that Israel was "opening the door for a new war with the Islamic nation."

The Al Aqsa Martyr's Brigades, a Fatah-linked militant group, weighed in with similar fiery threats, along with Hamas' Qassam Brigades. Raed Salah, the fiery leader of the Islamic Movement inside Israel, called on his followers to come from all over the country to protect the site.

"The danger in Jerusalem has increased. It is high time for the intifada of the Islamic people," Salah told reporters near the holy site on Tuesday.

gotcha98 Husseini, the director of the Islamic Waqf, the trust that oversees that complex, said he was concerned the new walkway could damage the original earthen ramp, which he said was Waqf property.

"This is a very dangerous project that will damage things of great historical value in this very sensitive place," Husseini said.

He said he suspected Israel of trying to tunnel under the site, a common allegation among Muslims, though one never substantiated.

When Israel opened a tunnel alongside the complex in 1996, it touched off clashes that killed 80 people. In 2000, then-opposition leader Ariel Sharon visited the site. The next day, riots erupted, leading to years of violence.

Jordan, which has a custodial role over the site, expressed concern about the work there, according to the kingdom's official Petra news agency.

Jordanian government spokesman Nasser Judeh quoted Prime Minister Marouf al-Bakhit as saying that the dig was "a big concern to Jordan, its king, people and government," Petra reported.

The site is part of east Jerusalem, which was ruled by Jordan until Israel captured it and the adjacent West Bank in the 1967 Mideast war.

In 1988, the current's king's father, King Hussein, renounced his country's claim to the West Bank, but maintained Jordan's authority to look after the mosques - a role that Israel recognizes.

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In Jerusalem archaeology is politics

The very stones of Jerusalem are political weapons in the age-old struggle for possession of the Holy Land.

And nowhere is more sensitive than the great platform built by King Herod, known to Jews as the Temple Mount and to the Muslims as the Haram al-Sharif, the Noble Sanctuary.

To understand the current row over excavation and repair work just outside one of the gates onto the compound, it is important to know that here history, religion and politics meet. Nothing in Jerusalem can be understood without all three.

The history

It was where Herod the Great ('Great' because of his buildings) constructed the Second Temple - and where King Solomon had probably built the First Temple, destroyed by the Babylonians.

Religious belief placed Abraham here when he offered his son Isaac for sacrifice.

For the Jews, it was once the centre of their world - and the place to which they always promised themselves in exile that they would return.

Even today, Jews pray at the nearest point they can reach to the Temple Mount, its Western Wall, once known as the Wailing Wall. Most are content to leave the eventual reconstruction of the temple to the future - and to God.

Plan of the holy sites

Religious Jews will not even go onto the Temple Mount for fear of stepping on some holy relic.

Christians know it as the temple where Jesus overturned the tables of the moneylenders.

The Romans knew it as a place of Jewish rebellion and, under Titus, demolished it in 70 AD (the Common Era) after the Zealots' revolt, which also saw the siege and fall of Masada.

 After the Romans left and the Byzantines arrived, it lay empty for centuries. Christians were more interested in the site of Jesus' crucifixion. The place was a rubbish dump.

Then in 638, the Muslim army of Omar, Commander of the Faithful, conquered Jerusalem.

There was then built one of the most beautiful edifices in the world, the Dome of the Rock, followed by the al-Aqsa mosque nearby.

The Dome became, in Muslim eyes, holy because they believe that it was from this rocky outcrop that the Prophet Muhammad in a dream ascended into heaven on his horse Buraq to receive commandments from God.

The al-Aqsa ("The Furthest") was built to commemorate the furthest mosque to which Muhammad states that he travelled from Mecca in his dream.

It has become the third most holy place in Islam, after Mecca and Medina.

Politics

One now has to roll forward until 1967. When the Israelis captured the Old City from the Jordanians, the question as to the future of the compound obviously arose. Political realism prevailed. The Dome of the Rock and al-Aqsa mosque would not be demolished. A compromise was reached.

Israel allowed the Muslim religious authority known as the Waqf to administer the whole compound. But the Israelis claimed the right to enter it at will to keep security control. They enforce this claim regularly.

They do so by entering the compound through a small gate known as the Mougrabi or Moors' Gate.

The gate

It is this gate that is at the centre of the current controversy.

Because the gate is high up in the wall (it overlooks the Western Wall,) it has to be reached by either an earth mound or a walkway.

Last year, the earth mound collapsed after a rainfall. So a temporary wooden structure was put up. The current work is designed to replace this with something stronger and more permanent.

This entails removing the remains of the earth mound down to bedrock in order that there can be secure foundations for the new walkway or bridge.

The observer

An independent observer, Father Jerome Murphy-O'Connor, from the French institute the Ecole Biblique in East Jerusalem, said that the work was "completely routine".

"This work is not inside the Haram. It is outside, leading to the Moors' Gate. The earth ramp fell down and has to be replaced," Father Murphy-O'Connor, author of an Oxford University guide "The Holy Land", told me.

"I do not know why the Palestinians have chosen to make an issue out of this. It is a recognised Jewish area under the arrangements that prevail in the Old City.

"One can contrast this to the extensive excavations just round the corner in a Muslim area where huge pilgrim hostels from the 8th Century were revealed, with no protest. There has also been no protest over digs at the City of David nearby.

"There is absolutely no danger to the foundations of the al-Aqsa mosque since that is built on the huge Herodian blocks that are still there."

The reason for the protest does not really have much to do with archaeology in fact. It is a protest about presence. The Palestinians and the wider Muslim world have an objection to anything the Israelis do that touches on the Haram.

Such work is seen as symbolising a threat to Palestinian and Muslim identity and a rallying point for Palestinians to express their desire for their own space, their own state.

In this atmosphere, the arguments of the archaeological academics do not carry much force.

The Moors' Gate is perhaps even more sensitive than other sites, as it is the only gate to the compound for which the Israelis hold the key. They do so, Father Murphy-O'Connor said, under an agreement reached in 1967 between General Moshe Dayan and the Waqf.

In 1996, the Israelis tunnelled further along the Western Wall, prompting riots and unrest. Again, the issue was not so much the actual dig as the concept.

Israeli digs

But it has not only been the Palestinians who have linked archaeology and politics.

Over recent years, Israelis have accused the Waqf of deliberately removing evidence of Jewish remains on the Haram/ Temple Mount and dumping them in rubbish fills.

Especially after 1967, the Israelis, among them the amateur archaeologist (and illegal hoarder) Moshe Dayan himself, made a concerted effort to dig into history to provide evidence that the Jews had been there and had a right to be there still.

"They were digging for God and country," says Father Murphy-O'Connor. "Though it has to be said that those days are over. The younger Israeli archaeologists just dig. They have for example been leading the way in researching the monasteries of the Judean wilderness."

But in Jerusalem, you cannot "just dig". There, every stone counts.

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Temple's location found,
says Israeli archaeologist 
Study of ancient cisterns pinpoints sacred site,
– Muslim Dome of the Rock outside confines

Using maps created in 1866 by a British explorer and passages from the Jewish Mishnah, an Israeli archaeologist and professor at Hebrew University says he has pinpointed the location of the sacred Jewish Temple, twice built and twice destroyed in ancient times.

While popular consensus places the Temple, built by King Solomon in the 10th century B.C. and rebuilt by Jews who returned from Babylon in the 5th century B.C., on the site of the present Muslim Dome of the Rock, Prof. Joseph Patrich says archaeological remains show its exact location – and the consensus is wrong.

According to Patrich, the Temple, its corresponding courtyards, chambers and gates were oriented in a more southeasterly direction, sitting diagonally on what is the modern Temple Mount. The difference in orientation and the placement further eastward varies from the east-facing orientation of other scholars who believe the Temple was closer to today's Western Wall.

However, that difference is why, Patrich says, the Temple did not sit over the rock believed by Jews to be the site where Abraham was prepared to sacrifice his son Isaac and where Muslims believe Muhammad ascended into heaven.

Patrich's siting of the Temple is derived from information collected by British engineer Sir Charles Wilson in 1866 on behalf of the Palestine Exploration Fund. Wilson mapped a series of ancient cisterns below the present Temple Mount platform. One of those, Patrich says, preserves a vestige of the Temple that stood until it was destroyed by Rome in A.D. 70.

The cistern mapped by Wilson, approximately 15 feet wide, 170 feet long and 45 feet deep, was located near the Temple Mount's southeast corner. It was oriented in a southeasterly direction with branches extending north and south.

"Until now no one has ever thought that the location of the cistern on the Temple Mount and its unique shape were derived from the shape and location of the altar and sanctuary," Patrich told YNetNews.

According to the archaeologist, this cistern is the only one found on the Temple Mount that corresponds to descriptions in the Jewish Mishnah – the rabbinic oral tradition compiled in the 3rd century A.D. – of daily purification and sacrificial duties carried out by the priests on the altar in the Temple courtyard.

The Mishnah says water was drawn by a waterwheel mechanism from a cistern and held in a large basin, or laver, for daily purification by the Temple's priests before they ascended the nearby ramp to the altar to offer sacrifices.

Patrich believes the placement of the waterwheel and laver can be reconstructed from Wilson's map of the giant southeast-trending cistern and from that, the location of the altar and the Temple itself.

Patrich's siting has the Temple further east and south of locations proposed by other scholars and diagonal, rather than perpendicular to the Temple Mount's eastern and western walls. It also leaves the rock in the Dome of the Rock outside of the confines of the Temple itself.

Patrich said his research on the Temple's location is strictly academic, and political connotations should not be attributed to it.

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Discovery of mosaic halts work at Jerusalem walkway
Byzantine artifact found at bottom of underground shaft where pillars to go



The planned walkway at the centre of the furious dispute over Jerusalem's holiest site could be further delayed by the discovery of a Byzantine mosaic.

The geometric patterned fragment was exposed by archaeological workers yesterday at the bottom of an underground shaft where one of the walkway pillars is intended to go, as The Independent examined excavation work in the area.

"We have a real time discovery," reported Gideon Avni, director of excavations and surveys at the Israel Antiquities Authority.

Dr Avni said further excavations would now be needed to see whether the mosaic, probably from the fifth or sixth century AD, was part of a larger decorated room or house. He said it was too early to say whether the pillar would have to be moved. If the fragment turned out not to extend further, it could possibly be extracted and exhibited.

The discovery was the latest in a series of twists in the conflict over access through the Mugrabi Gate to the compound sacred to Jews as the Temple Mount and to Muslims as Haram al-Sharif - noble sanctuary.

Seventeen policemen and 23 Palestinians were injured last Friday during demonstrations against the building of the new walkway, where the Dome of the Rock and the Al Aqsa Mosque - Islam's third holiest site - is located. The work, is being carried out close to the Western Wall, the remains of the second Jewish Temple destroyed by the Romans AD70, and most sacred place in Judaism.

On Monday, Jerusalem's ultra-Orthodox Mayor, Uri Lupolianski, won praise from Israeli liberals when he unexpectedly announced work on the new walkway would be frozen to allow time for objections, including by Muslims, under a formal planning procedure. But the Israeli government said the archaeological "salvage digging" customary when construction work is carried out in the area, would continue.

Dr Avni vehemently denied claims by some Islamic leaders - and echoed by demonstrators from Cairo to Damascus - that the excavations posed a threat to the foundations of the mosques, saying they were all taking place in a limited area outside the walls of the compound. The Israeli authorities are arranging for webcam pictures of the dig to prove his case.

And while archaeology in Jerusalem is often complicated by religious and political overtones, Dr Avni virtually ruled out the possibility that the digs will discover remnants of the Jewish temple period.

Pointing to arches from Ottoman and Mameluke structures below the ramp, he added: "I don't believe that they will even reach the early Islamic period."

The eminent Israeli novelist Amos Oz yesterday praised the Mayor's decision to put work on the walkway on hold but added in an article in Yedhiot Ahronot: "It would be appropriate if this argument would also lead to the postponement of the archeological excavations - these excavations are also sparking the fires of religious dispute over the question of who in fact is the proprietor of the Temple Mount holy sites."

[Soldier4Christ]

Collector accused of forging 'James ossuary' says old photos prove authenticity

Mysterious photographs from the 1970s are to be brought as evidence to prove that the so-called ossuary of James, the brother of Jesus, is authentic. They are to be presented by attorneys for Oded Golan, the antiquities dealer charged with forging the item, which when it was made public, was dubbed "the most important archaeological discovery from the beginnings of Christianity."

The photographs, copies of which have reached Haaretz, have already been examined by an American expert and are to be submitted as evidence in court. But they do not remove doubts about the item, which touched off a storm in the archaeological world.

In December 2004, after a lengthy police investigation, the State Prosecutor's Office indicted Golan and three other Israelis for what they called the most serious case of antiquities forgery ever uncovered in Israel.

Golan, 55, a Tel Aviv resident, was charged with allegedly masterminding a ring responsible for the fabrication of antiquities over a period of more than 15 years. According to the charge sheet, the group stands accused of attempting to sell items to museums and wealthy collectors for millions of dollars.

The indictment states that in 2001 or shortly before, Golan forged the inscription on the ossuary (bone receptacle) and that at approximately that same time, also forged the so-called "Joash inscription."

The ossuary was unveiled in a press conference in Washington, D.C., in October 2002. It was inscribed in Aramaic with words interpreted as "Yaakov the brother of Yeshua," alluding to the fact that the individual whose bones it held was Jesus' brother, James, mentioned in the New Testament. A geological test commissioned by the owners of the ossuary and confirming the authenticity of the find was presented at the briefing.

A panel appointed by the director of the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA), Shuka Dorfman, determined in June 2003 that the inscription on the ossuary was "added recently," while the ossuary itself was authentic.

In the defense's photographs, dated 1976, the ossuary is shown on a shelf, apparently in Golan's home. In an enlargement, the whole inscription can be seen with great difficulty. The photo was examined by Gerald Richard, a former FBI agent and an expert for the defense. Richard testified that "Nothing was noted that would indicate or suggest that they were not produced in March 1976 as indicated on the stamps appearing on the reverse side of each print."

Golan's attorney, Lior Beringer, told Haaretz that the photos support the defense's position. "The prosecution claims that Golan forged the inscription after the beginning of 2000. But here is a detailed report from an FBI photo lab that states that the inscription existed at least since the 70s," Beringer said. "It is unreasonable that someone would forge an inscription like this in the 70s and suddenly decide to come out with it in 2002," he added.

The date of the photo is also significant legally because any antiquity discovered in Israel since the passage of the 1978 Antiquities Law belongs to the state.

The IAA refused yesterday to comment on the new finds and would say only that the matter was being dealt with by the state prosecutor.

The photos join experts in Israel and other countries who have tried to disparage the credibility of the IAA panel, in what the IAA at the time described as a well-orchestrated campaign backed by interested parties. The accusation was leveled against Hershel Shanks, the editor of the Biblical Archaeology Review, published in the U.S. Shanks' identification of the ossuary brought him credit worldwide. He funded the exhibition of the ossuary in a Toronto museum, from which money poured in from thousands of visitors to the organizers, including Shanks. Shanks has told Haaretz in the past that he is motivated by the desire to get to the truth in the matter.

But it is the way the ossuary was found that seems to raise the most doubts. Golan, whose friends say his knowledge is "phenomenal," said that for years he did not realize that he had of the most important archaeological finds in the world on his shelf. When asked by Haaretz about this in an interview, he explained, "It didn't set off any bells, I am not an expert in Christian tradition."

[Soldier4Christ]

More evidence to prove the historicity of the Bible.

Eastern Porch of Darius' Palace Discovered in Bolaghi Gorge

In continuation of their excavations in area number 34 of the historic site of Bolaghi Gorge where evidence of a palace denoted to Achaemenid Emperor Darius the Great (549-486 BC) had previously been discovered, Iranian and French archeologists succeeded in discovering the eastern porch of the palace.

Announcing this news, Mohammad Taghi Atayi, Iranian head of the Iranian-French archeology team told CHN: "A black cubic plinth was discovered during the first days of excavations in the area which was later found to have been built by stones obtained from Majdabad query."

According to Atayi, three meters from the place where this plinth was unearthed, another pillar base was found which was very similar to the first one. Since this pillar base was discovered at the opposite site from the western porch, it is believed that it must have belonged to the eastern porch, constructed symmetric to the western one. "Since the western porch was four-columned, we were expecting to find four pedestals in the eastern one as well; however, we found out that the eastern porch, which has a dimension of 9x6 meters, was constructed with two columns with two small chambers in place of the other two pillars, making the palace look like those of the historic site of Pasargadae," explained Atayi.

Prior to this and during the first season of excavations in area number 34 of Bolaghi Gorge, archeologists had succeeded in discovery of a round black pedestal with the design of an inverted lotus flower carved around. This pedestal was supposed to have belonged to the eastern porch of the palace; however, the idea was rejected after the new discovery since the newly found pillar base has a cubic shape and exhibits no similarity to the one found earlier.

Some of the palace's pedestals have been moved from their original places due to activities of bulldozers in the area, something that has made it difficult for archeologists to decide which part of the palace any of these pedestal mush have belonged to.

"We assume that the black round pedestal might have belonged to another part of the palace, most probably the central hall. Still we hope to find the original place of the pedestal by finding more similar pedestals in the area during our excavations," said Atayi.

Head of the excavation team in area number 34 of Bolaghi Gorge further explained that three kinds of pedestal have so far been unearthed in the area including the black and white cubic plinths in the western porch, the cubic black plinths found in the eastern porch, and the round one with the design of an inverted lotus flower possibly belonging to the central hall.

Discovery of pieces of bricks, 45x33 centimeters in size which are bigger than standard bricks used in other Achaemenid structures are among the other discoveries in area number 34 of Bolaghi Gorge. "Discovery of these bricks is somehow strange and shows that might not have been used in the walls and most probably were used for flooring the palace," explained Atayi.

Regarding other archeological achievements in the area, Atayi said: "A raised platform constructed with rubbles has also been discovered during this season of archeological excavations in the area. This raised platform was constructed in front of the eastern porch and just like the plan used in the western porch, it is built in the northeast direction."

According to Atayi, the discovered palace is rectangular in shape. He further said that archeologists have not yet succeeded to reach to the main floor; however, it is expected that the height of this part of the palace which was luckily not destroyed by bulldozers must have been 1.5 meters, 80 centimeters of which has so far been unearthed.

Excavations by the team of Irano-Franch archeologists are directed by Mohammad Taghi Atayi from Iran's Archeology Research Center and Remy Boucharlat from the French Institute of Archeology. The team's most stunning discovery was that of the gigantic palace, believed to have belonged to Darius the Great.

[Soldier4Christ]

Army retiree digs for biblical city of sin known as Sodom

In a search for the most deplorable, notorious place in history, a mix of amateur and seasoned archaeologists are digging for evidence of destruction that they say will prove the Bible correct.

The men and women — some of whom pay thousands of dollars for their excavation trip to Jordan — are searching for evidence of Sodom. The Bible in Genesis tells that God rained down burning sulfur on Sodom and Gomorrah, smiting their sinful populace.

By unearthing the destruction of Sodom, the group hopes to give credence to the accuracy of the Bible, said Kennett Schath, an Army retiree who now works on Ramstein Air Base.

“If we can show that truly God did these things, if we can show that destruction layer, then we can show that this is a pretty significant story here and the rest of the Bible should be absolutely correct and accurate,” he said.

To refresh your memory, the ancient city of Sodom and its companion city of Gomorrah have become synonymous with sin, lawlessness and godlessness. Some refer to Las Vegas as a modern-day Sodom and Gomorrah. Sodom was such a bad place that it gave rise to the word “sodomy.”

Many of those digging are amateur archaeologists and devout Christians who paid their way for the chance to connect with biblical history. That does not mean the dig is being taken lightly.

“We’re doing everything as scientifically as possible so that the geography, the archaeology and the history all match what the biblical accounts are because it would be the only story from Genesis that would be able to be proved,” said Schath, who is pursuing a doctorate in biblical counseling through Trinity Southwest University, based in Albuquerque, N.M., which is sponsoring the dig.

Schath just returned from the dig site in Tall el-Hammam, Jordan, where the site director believes Sodom is buried. For the 2007-2008 dig, Schath is looking for 10 to 15 people from Germany to accompany him in December and into January.

Site director Dr. Steven Collins, dean of the College of Archaeology and Biblical History at Trinity Southwest University, is using biblical works as a foundation in his efforts — a method frowned upon by other archaeologists. In the preface to his book “The Search for Sodom & Gomorrah,” Collins takes on these critics.

“Along with this has come the desire on the part of many scholars to do away with the term ‘biblical archaeology’ altogether, as if to say that the Bible is not a historical document credible enough to guide or control archaeological pursuits,” according to the preface. “To that I say, ‘Hogwash!’”

The dig project just finished the second of its seven planned years, and evidence is building that the group has found the site of Sodom, Schath said.

“We’re at 98 percent right now that what we have is Sodom,” he said. “I know that Dr. Collins, without a doubt, can defend it to anyone in the world.”

[nChrist]

AMEN Pastor Roger,

Brother, I love this thread and others like it. I'm well aware that the Bible contains absolute PROOF for itself within its Sacred Pages, but I also love it when outside sources such as science and archeology add to that absolute PROOF. The devil hates it when sources outside of the Bible provide PROOF that the Holy Bible is completely TRUE AND ACCURATE. There is a growing mountain of evidence, and it's fascinating to read about. The frequency of discoveries is also increasing, almost as if GOD is giving mankind another message, "MY WORD IS TRUTH".

Love In Christ,
Tom

Galatians 3:6-12 NASB  Even so Abraham BELIEVED GOD, AND IT WAS RECKONED TO HIM AS RIGHTEOUSNESS. Therefore, be sure that it is those who are of faith who are sons of Abraham. The Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, "ALL THE NATIONS WILL BE BLESSED IN YOU." So then those who are of faith are blessed with Abraham, the believer. For as many as are of the works of the Law are under a curse; for it is written, "CURSED IS EVERYONE WHO DOES NOT ABIDE BY ALL THINGS WRITTEN IN THE BOOK OF THE LAW, TO PERFORM THEM." Now that no one is justified by the Law before God is evident; for, "THE RIGHTEOUS MAN SHALL LIVE BY FAITH." 

[Soldier4Christ]

City of David claim reinforced by find


A recently found wall from the first Jewish temple in Jerusalem has given strength to a claim of where King David's palace existed, an archaeologist says.

Israeli archaeologist Dr. Eilat Mazar said Thursday the recent unearthing of the First Temple wall section offers additional proof to her 2005 discovery of the palace's location, the Jerusalem Post said.

Ever since Mazar discovered the 10th century BC structure in 2005, the authenticity of the site as the palace of King David has been a source of debate.

Samuel II:5 of the Hebrew Bible states that King Hiram of Tyre built the palace for David after he conquered Jerusalem.

While the authenticity remains debatable, Mazar said that the nearly 66-foot-long wall section represents the largest discovery ever from the time of King David.

The Post said the successful archaeological dig is being supported by the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the city's Shalem Center.

[Soldier4Christ]

More on this:

First Temple wall found in City of David

A wall from the First Temple was recently uncovered in Jerusalem's City of David, strengthening the claim that it is the site of the palace of King David, an Israeli archeologist said Thursday.

The new find, made by Dr. Eilat Mazar, a senior fellow at the Shalem Center's Institute for the Archeology of the Jewish People, comes less than two years after she said she had discovered the palace's location at the site just outside the walls of the Old City.

The monumental 10th century BCE building found by Mazar in 2005 following a six month dig has ignited debate among archaeologists about whether it is indeed the palace built for the victorious David by King Hiram of Tyre as recounted in Samuel II:5.

A 20-meter-long section of the 7-meter-thick wall has now been uncovered. It indicates that the City of David once served as a major government center, Mazar said.

Mazar estimates less than a quarter of the entire wall has been uncovered so far, and says that it is the largest site from King David's time ever to have been discovered.

The dig is sponsored by the capital's Shalem Center, with academic backing from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.