This may be a first.  From Ynetnews:

A man chanted anti-Israel slogans upon arriving at the Western Wall in Jerusalem on Monday and spray-painted a pro-Palestinian writing on a nearby wall. The man, in his 30s, was immediately seized by ushers stationed in the area and was later detained for questioning by the police. "A guy of Russian descent, a Hebrew speaker, arrived and began shouting, ‘End the occupation’ and ‘Fascists’," Yigal Levy, the Western Wall Heritage Fund’s operations manager told Ynet. "He pulled out a green spray can and wrote the word ‘Palestine’ in huge letters on the northern wall just next to the Western Wall." Levy added that the man, who committed the act under pouring rain, appeared to be mentally ill.

The full story is here.  Arutz-7 reports on it here.

Share:

The channel from the Western Wall area to the Pool of Siloam is not yet open to the public, but you can get a look inside with photos posted by the Israel Antiquities Authority.  Three high-resolution images are currently available at this page (or try this direct link to the zip file).

You can also watch a 3-minute video posted by the Israel Antiquities Authority, with archaeologist Eli Shukrun showing off the results of seven years of his work.

Share:

Archaeologist Eli Shukrun gave the Jerusalem Post a tour of the recently completed excavations of the drainage channel that runs from the area of the Western Wall to the Pool of Siloam.  The article includes details that have not been previously reported.  From the Jerusalem Post:

The channel was an early drainage system for the city of Jerusalem, which emptied into the Shiloah Pools on the southern end, in today’s Silwan neighborhood. Archeologists believe that the other side of the channel is near Nablus gate [Damascus Gate]. The channel was extensively excavated more than 100 years ago by British explorer Charles Warren in 1867 and archeologists Bliss and Dickey in the 1890s. The southern section of the channel has been open to the public for many years, but this was the first time that it was discovered that it is a continuous channel, about 600 meters long altogether.
[…]
Shukron led the Post on a tour of the channel following the announcement on Tuesday afternoon. The channel is about 1/3 of a meter wide and ranges in height from one to two meters, and is between 15 to 20 meters underground. The channel’s clearing also allowed archeologists to see the lower stones of the Kotel that are currently underground, though Shukron dismissed the Kotel stones as the least exciting part of the project.
“You know the Kotel already; that’s already been overdone,” he said, hurrying past the bottom of the Kotel to point out an underground mikve (ritual bath) and an ancient manhole.
[…]
Shukron also pointed out the remnants of previous explorations, including old wires and writing on the wall in French. He stressed that the channel did not go anywhere near the Temple Mount or the mosques, in contradiction to some claims. The channel follows the Tyropoeon Valley, which is the lowest area in ancient Jerusalem. “That’s why I can’t go up to the Temple Mount, because the Temple Mount is high. There’s no way that a drainage pipe could reach there,” Shukron explained.

The full story includes a photo of the ancient manhole.  The excavations are also reported by Arutz-7 and Ynetnews.

HT: Joe Lauer

Share:

As noted here over the weekend, archaeologists have completed excavation of a drainage channel that ran below street level in the 1st century.  It is now possible to walk along the street and then through the channel from the Pool of Siloam at the south of the City of David up to the Jerusalem Archaeological Park just inside the Old City walls.  In the future visitors will be able to exit the tunnel in the Davidson Center, the archaeological museum at the southwest corner of the Temple Mount. 

This will effectively create a protected route of passage for visitors through a sometimes dangerous Arab neighborhood.  Tourists would enter the archaeological area on the north end of the City of David, walk down to “Area G” before entering the Warren’s Shaft.  From this point, visitors have two options.  Those who are more adventurous and prepared to get wet can walk through Hezekiah’s Tunnel.  Others may choose the dry Siloam Tunnel.  Once at the Pool of Siloam, the tourist can walk along the newly excavated street (first photo below) and then through the newly excavated drainage channel (second photo below).

Excavated street in City of David, Schick, IMG_4413

First-century street in the City of David.  Photo courtesy of Alexander Schick.

Excavated drainage channel in City of David, Schick, IMG_4425

Drainage channel below first-century street in the City of David.  Photo courtesy of Alexander Schick.
From Haaretz:

The Israel Antiquities Authority has completed an archaeological dig of a tunnel that will enable visitors to cross under the walls of Jerusalem’s Old City, not far from the Temple Mount.
The tunnel, which was uncovered during excavations conducted over the past few months, was formerly used for drainage and dates back to the Second Temple. It links the City of David in Silwan with the Archaeological Park & Davidson Center, which is located near the Western Wall.
The Antiquities Authority stressed that the newly uncovered tunnel does not come near the Temple Mount and that it has no plans to dig in that direction.
The digging had been going on for seven years and was delayed for about a year by order of the High Court of Justice, after Silwan residents filed a petition claiming the dig was damaging their homes.

The full story is here.  Earlier reports about these excavations are linked to in a previous post.

Share:

Alexander Schick passes on word that the excavated tunnel is now open that allows you to walk on the 1st-century street from the Pool of Siloam up the City of David to the area of the visitor’s center. 

(A previous report about these excavations is here.)

Leen Ritmeyer is in Jordan and has photos of the newly opened baptismal site at “Bethabara.”

Ferrell Jenkins reports that Egyptian authorities are now prohibiting cameras from entering the Valley of the Kings. 

The Ohel Yitzchak Synagogue in the Old City of Jerusalem was looted and vandalized during the Jordanian occupation (1948-67), but its renovation has restored some of its former beauty, as you can see in Shmuel Brown’s recent photos.

With the verdict about to be announced in the forgery trial in Jerusalem, Hershel Shanks has written an e-book entitled, James, Brother of Jesus: Forged Antiquities and the Trial of Oded Golan and Robert Deutsch. Shanks believes the James Ossuary inscription was not forged and he plans to release the e-book when the judge issues the verdict.  See the sign-up details here.

The eastern Mediterranean is overdue for a big earthquake, says the Jerusalem Post.  The area has not had a seven or eight magnitude quake in nearly a millennium.  The 1927 tremor was a mere 6.2 on the Richter scale.

The newly re-opened Israel Museum has served half of a million visitors in the last half year. 

The LandMinds radio show has interviewed the recently retired Amihai Mazar, reflecting back on the excavations he directed at Tel Qasile, Giloh, Beth Shean, and Tel Rehov.

A Swiss architect is hard at work restoring and protecting the beautiful mosaics of Hisham’s Palace in Jericho.  A new excavation began at the site last week and new Russian museum is now open.

The season’s excavations at Tall el-Hammam are wrapping up and the team has posted a couple of videos.  The first shows what they have identified as a Middle Bronze temple (with a 10-foot thick wall!) and the second summarizes the finds in the Roman area.  They suggest that this was the city of Livias in the Roman-Byzantine period.

HT: Ferrell Jenkins, Roi Brit

Share:

Israel Finkelstein has written a brief article explaining why he believes conclusions based on the lack of archaeological evidence trumps the biblical text every time. “Archaeology as a High Court in Ancient Israelite History: A Reply to Nadav Na’aman” (pdf) is published in the Journal of Hebrew Scriptures.

James Tabor has posted an update on the Mount Zion excavation project, including news that the 2011 dig season will be conducted at Suba (“Cave of John the Baptist”) instead of on Mount Zion.

Ferrell Jenkins explains why you should check out his extensive collection of links to Biblical Studies resources, especially the Bible Places and Scholarly categories.

Aren Maeir has posted the schedule for the Aharoni Symposium, to be held on February 17 at Tel Aviv University.

In response to the recent story about the “Small Kotel,” Leen Ritmeyer observes:

It is ironic to see that Haaretz is worried about a strong reaction from the Waqf (the Muslim religious trust), while the praying Jews are apparently oblivious to the fact that they are touching stones laid by Muslims, which may have been taken from a destroyed Christian church, in order to repair the ancient Jewish Temple Mount walls.

Western Wall, Kotel HaQatan, tb102903595

The “Small Kotel”
Share: