Todd Bolen, Author at BiblePlaces.com

Temple Mount Debris summary

The sifting of debris removed from the Temple Mount continues under the direction of Dr. Gabriel Barkay and Tzachi Zweig, and Haaretz provides the latest update from the work there. Many artifacts have been revealed in the project.

The oldest artifacts found are remnants of tools like a blade and scraper dating back 10,000 years. Some potsherds and shards of alabaster tools date from the Bronze Age – the 3rd and 2nd millennia B.C.E. (the Canaanite and Jebusite eras). Only a handful of potsherds were found from the 10th century B.C.E. (the reigns of King David and King Solomon), but numerous artifacts date from the reigns of the later Judean kings (the 8th and 7th centuries B.C.E.), such as stone weights for weighing silver.

The most striking find from this period is a First Temple period bulla, or seal impression, containing ancient Hebrew writing, which may have belonged to a well-known family of priests mentioned in the Book of Jeremiah.

Many other findings date from the Persian period (Return to Zion), Hasmonean, Ptolemaic and Herodian periods, as well as from Second Temple times. Second Temple finds include remains of buildings: plaster shards decorated a rust-red, which Barkai says was fashionable at the time; a stone measuring 10 centimeters and on it a sophisticated carving reminiscent of Herodian decorations; and a broken stone from a decorated part of the Temple Mount – still bearing signs of fire, which Barkai says are from the Temple’s destruction in 70 C.E.

The Hebrew version of the article also includes a photograph of a bronze pendant and Roman and Babylonian arrowheads.

For background on where this all came from, see the photos and explanation here.

Tagged Jerusalem, Temple Mount

New Archaeological Center in Jerusalem

The Jerusalem Post reports on the ground-breaking for an archaeological center that will house a million objects. The 5-acre campus will be constructed between the Israel Museum and the Bible Lands Museum and is being funded by private donors.

The center will make public priceless archaeological treasures accumulated over the decades – including 15,000 Dead Sea Scrolls found in the Qumran excavations – which have heretofore been stored in the IAA headquarters at the Rockefeller Museum in east Jerusalem, out of the eye of the public. The plan of the building is based on the idea of an archaeological excavation, Safdie said. The building is arranged around three courtyards built along three descending levels. A dark glass canopy, reminiscent of the shade nets over archaeological excavations, will cover the main courtyard, which will serve as an open archaeological garden. A ring-like opening located in the canopy will allow rainwater to run into a pool situated in the courtyard below, creating a flowing waterfall. The three levels below it will be an open area that will include exhibition galleries, the largest library in the Middle East for the study of archaeology, a lecture hall and bridges overlooking the laboratories, and state treasures whose walls will be lined with glass curtains enabling the visitor to observe archaeological work in progress. The campus will also include the country’s nine-decade old archaeological archive, a 200-seat archaeological theater and an archaeological roof garden which will be used for the presentation of new finds.

The article says the center will be “opposite the Knesset between the Israel Museum and the Bible Lands Museum.”

Temple Mount: No Status Quo

Muslim officials are proceeding with plans to construct a minaret on the Temple Mount. This minaret will be located near the Golden Gate (arrow in photo above) and will be the tallest minaret in the complex at 134 feet (42 m) high. This will be the first minaret constructed in 639 years, as the other four (circled in photo above) were built between 1278 and 1367. The prayer tower will be Jordanian in style and will cost approximately $700,000.

Such a construction is a violation of the principle of status quo of disputed holy sites in Israel, and almost certainly will be built without any archaeological supervision. It is ironic that if one wants to build a cottage in a remote part of Israel and antiquities are present, then an excavation must take place. But if one wants to construct on one of the most important sites in the Holy Land, there are no such requirements.

Tagged Jerusalem, Temple Mount

Free Dead Sea Scrolls Mug

The Biblical Archaeology Society has a survey for current subscribers that takes not more than 5 minutes and after which you can supply a mailing address to receive a free Dead Sea Scrolls mug.

This normally sells for $10.

Unfortunately, they don’t have space for comments. If they did, I’d complain that they sell my address to others. Ironically, in the email requesting subscribers to do the survey, they say, “We will not sell your mailing or email address and nobody will contact you as a result of your responses.” But they do sell your magazine subscription address without asking or telling you.

Tagged Dead Sea

Is This Noah’s Ark?: A New Critique by Gordon Franz

The alleged discovery of Noah’s Ark in Iran has been discussed on this blog before (“Christians Doubt Cornuke Has Found Noah’s Ark” and “We Sell Hope“), and we wanted to alert our readers to a new critique of Robert Cornuke’s theory by Gordon Franz. The author’s conclusion is appropriate and fair:

With so many theories claiming to discover biblical truth, the evangelical Christian community must be very discerning and follow the model of the Bereans who, after hearing the Apostle Paul himself, “searched the Scriptures to see whether these things are true.” Before swallowing the next claim, our community must do our homework on the history, archaeology, geology and geography of the landing place of Noah’s Ark using primary sources and hard data. If we cannot, then hold off judgment (pro or con) until others are given the opportunity to do so.

At this point the claims made by BASE Institute do not seem to have any merit. For the sake of the truth, however, I encourage the BASE Institute investigators to offer scholars, independent of the BASE Institute, full access to all the data. Let their best evidence come under the tests of scholarly scrutiny. When all the test results are in, the investigation and its claims will either be vindicated or proven false. The church, the witness to an unbelieving world, and truth itself deserve no less.

Tagged Analysis

The Rise and Fall of the Dead Sea

Yes, it’s true – the Dead Sea’s falling threatens the environment and the roads, and the Dead Sea’s rising threatens the hotels. How one sea can be both rising and falling at the same time is best explained this way: there are two Dead Seas.

Until modern times, the Dead Sea was a 50-mile (78-km) long body of water, with a piece of land sticking out from the eastern side. Because it apparently looked like a tongue, it was called that in Hebrew (lashon) and Arabic (lisan).

With the damming of the Sea of Galilee and the use of water that formerly flowed down the Jordan River into the Dead Sea, the level of the Dead Sea dropped in the 20th century until the tongue reached all the way across the lake. The southern end is shallow and would have completed dried up if not for the channeling of water by the company that extracts minerals from the Dead Sea waters. So the southern end today is essentially an artificial evaporation basin, connected to the northern end only by manmade channels.

Today the northern end continues to drop because the limited inflow of water from the Jordan River. The southern end, however, is rising, because of the activities related to the mining of minerals. The rise of approximately 8 inches a year (20 cm) is now threatening the tourist resort of Ein Bokek and its many hotels.

Hotels of Ein BokekAccording to Haaretz, the Supreme Court of Israel has ordered the government to come up with a plan to solve this problem.

At present, there are three options: building a new lagoon with walls that will prevent flooding of the reservoirs, removing the extra salt from the bottom of the reservoirs or demolishing all hotels on the Dead Sea shore and rebuilding them in alternative locations.

In the meantime, expect the Dead Sea to continue to rise and fall simultaneously.

Tagged Dead Sea