Jerusalem Archives - Page 193 of 200

Top Ten Sites in Jerusalem

The Biblical Archaeology Society seems to have mastered internet marketing, judging from the frequent newsletters in my box. Usually there is at least 1/3 real content vs. sales pitches, but today’s was 100% ad. But I was happy to see “The City of David” for $50 off the regular price (now $100). I’ve been waiting to get this gem, and I can’t expect the price to get any lower. I’d be happy to tell you why it’s so great, but I’ll let you read about it yourself here.

But when I clicked the ad, it brought me to the “Father’s Day” sale page (until 6/18), at the bottom of which was a promo to get you to subscribe to BAR. If you pay when you order, you get the free guide, The Glories of Jerusalem: The Top Ten Sites in the Holy City, by Jerome Murphy-O’Connor. I had not heard of this book before, and it motivated me to come up with my own list. My list is free to you, and you don’t have to subscribe to anything. If you want, you can subscribe to the BiblePlaces Newsletter, which itself is free and filled with 100% good content and no ads.

I might preface my list by saying that while I am light years behind the distinguished author of the above guide, I have spent considerable time living in and teaching about Jerusalem. I gave my first college-level tours of the city soon after my 21st birthday, and I have taught a course on Jerusalem archaeology many times. This city is always fascinating, and there is always more to learn.

My top ten sites in Jerusalem are:

Temple Mount – this place really is the center of it all. Every time I am there, I am impressed with just how large the area is. Today it seems to be anything but a holy place, with kids playing soccer, women having picnics, and piles of trash unmoved for years. I still am inspired every time. (more)

Western Wall – large Herodian stones are cool, but this place gets a mention because of the people. Every sort of normal and strange person comes through the plaza, and they are interesting to watch and to talk to. (more)

Tomb of the Kings – most tourists never see this, because 1) the staircase is tough for old people; 2) climbing through tiny doorways inside the tomb is even more challenging; 3) it takes some work for the guide to explain what this tomb is all about; and 4) the owners of the site (the government of France) is positively rotten about allowing visitors. In my view, the government of Israel should force them to have regular hours, and they might, except for points #1-3 above. But the fact of the matter is, this is the best tomb in all of Israel, and it perfectly illustrates the types of burials in use at the time of Jesus. The tomb was carved ten years after the crucifixion of Christ and belonged to Queen Helene of Adiabene. See, I lost you already. (but more here)

Garden Tomb – it’s not the actual place of Jesus’ resurrection, but it sure feels more like it than anywhere else in the city. (more)

St. Etienne’s Iron Age tombs – forgive me for including yet a third tomb in the list, but I simply must. These are the best Old Testament period tombs in the city (probably in the country). A strange irony: these tombs are located on the property where Jerome Murphy-O’Connor has lived for many decades, but there is not a word about them in his excellent guide book, The Holy Land. Possibly they don’t want visitors (indeed, they don’t), and possibly he wants to avoid getting into hot water with intransigent French priests (his colleagues) who insist that these tombs are from the Roman period.

Hezekiah’s Tunnel – this is any kid’s dream – to walk through a rock-hewn tunnel for 1750 feet. Add to that the certainty that it was dug by King Hezekiah’s men and it is mentioned twice specifically in the Bible. (more)

Southern Temple Mount excavations – besides the impressive archaeological remains of streets, shops, staircases, and ritual baths, this is one area where you can be certain that Jesus saw in substantially the same form. That’s easy to miss in the rest of the dense buildings of the Old City. (more)

Mount of Olives – for the view, not the churches. (more)

Petra Hostel rooftop – ok, the view is actually better from the “Tower of David” (in the Citadel museum), but the entrance fee is less and thus I go here much more often.

Pool of Siloam – not the Byzantine one now covered with a mosque and reduced to a fraction of its former size, but the 1st century pool recently uncovered by archaeologists. (more)

The Jerusalem model – formerly at the Holyland Hotel, now at the Israel Museum. I suppose this isn’t a “site” in its own regard, but it is such an excellent presentation of how the city used to look that I cannot omit it from the list.

Honorable mention:
St. Anne’s Church/Pools of Bethesda

Church of the Holy Sepulcher (more)

Broad Wall (more)

Herodian Quarter

“Solomon’s Quarries”

There are many books about Jerusalem that describe the above-mentioned sites, but you might consider purchasing the Jerusalem volume of the Pictorial Library of Bible Lands. This CD ($25) includes 650 photos of the city along with all of my teaching notes. You’ll like it! (Sorry for sneaking that ad in!)

Tagged Jerusalem, Temple Mount

Excavating "David's Palace:" The Volunteers' View

The Edmond Sun has a brief article on three local college students who spent five months excavating the so-called “palace of David” in Jerusalem. Much of the article is not new to those following the story, but some information that I haven’t seen elsewhere is the fact that phase 3 of the project will begin this summer, and only 20% of the excavation is considered complete. Apparently the dig will continue to the west of the present area, if the comment about moving “inland” is any indication. Mention is made again of a wall that is 7 meters thick and 20 meters long.

HT: Explorator

Tagged Jerusalem

More Palace of David Discovered?

This story is about a week old, but I didn’t have time to comment on it before. Here is the complete text from the Jerusalem Post.

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.

A few comments:

1) As noted elsewhere, the headline is unfortunate. Mazar did not find, and does not claim to have found, any portion of a wall of a temple. The missing word is “period” – Mazar found a wall from the “First Temple period,” which is equivalent to Iron Age II (1000-586 B.C.).

2) This story strikes me as a publicity-getter, as it lacks much substance. No photos or diagrams are included, and details are sparse. This accords with the rather secretive approach being taken in this dig. I can give personal examples, but will not.

3) I have trouble believing that a 7-meter-thick wall was found, and if it was, I hardly believe that it belonged to a palace (and not to the city itself). That’s the same thickness as the Broad Wall, which is one of the largest fortification walls in the entire country. The City of David is a small area; a 7-meter wall would take away a significant percentage of the living area.

4) I am also suspicious of Mazar’s dating until more is published (and the experts confirm it). That’s not because I don’t believe in the biblical account of David (actually, I do), but because I think that sometimes archaeologists jump to desired conclusions too quickly.

5) I have significant objections to Mazar’s interpretation of the Bible as regards David’s palace. Elaboration on that will have to wait for another time.

Excavation area from the east

Tagged Discoveries, Jerusalem

Palace of David: 2006-07 Findings

Aren Maeir has posted a short report from his visit to Eilat Mazar’s excavation in the City of David.

Mazar just concluded a six-month season and has uncovered more of the monumental building that she believes may be identified with the palace of David. Maeir says:

The structure is in fact very impressive, and it appears, based on the finds from below this astounding structure, that it was built no later than the late Iron Age I, since no later finds were found in the fills below this structure. Also, in one area, Iron Age IIA pottery was found in a context of secondary construction and use of the building. What this clearly means is that in the verly late Iron Age I, or the very early Iron Age IIA (whether you date this to late 11th/early 10th, or late 10th), there were substantial public architectural activities in Jerusalem.

Read the whole post and the comments, especially the one by Zachi Zweig. This is the sort of stuff that newspapers should be covering, not the silly nonsense so often featured. Mazar’s findings may radically affect our understanding of Jerusalem in ancient times, and that’s without regard to whether she has found David’s palace or not.

Elsewhere, Ronny Reich told a group of us today about some 200 bullae, a beautiful carved pomegranate, and a huge quantity of fishbones that have been discovered in the City of David in the last couple of years. These are significant because they date to the 9th century B.C. and have Phoenician elements. Reich suggests that these may be related to influence from the northern kingdom via Queen Athaliah. An article is due out on this in Qadmoniot (Hebrew) in the near future, with an English translation to follow in another journal.

Tagged Discoveries, Jerusalem

Dr. Leen Ritmeyer's Blog

One of my favorite scholars on matters related to biblical archaeology is Leen Ritmeyer. I am impressed not only by his scholarship but by his gracious and humble spirit. As architect for the Jerusalem excavations of Benjamin Mazar and Nahman Avigad, Ritmeyer has sketched many of the reconstruction drawings that you see in books and on posters. He’s done significant work on sites outside of Jerusalem as well. I am happy to recommend his work whenever I get the chance. His latest work is his magnum opus, The Quest: Revealing the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. I’ve been recommending it to students for years, though it only was published last year.

Ritmeyer now has a blog in which he intends to address matters related to the Temple Mount and biblical archaeology. His first post is a brief response to the new theory by Joseph Patrich which locates the temple facing the southeast on the basis of a cistern. Ritmeyer’s blog is welcome and recommended!

Tagged Jerusalem

Various Thoughts on Jerusalem Ramp and More

So much is going on in Jerusalem these days with protests over excavations that I’m not even trying to keep up with it on this blog. Paleojudaica stays right on top of it with his “Temple Mount Watch” so that’s the place to go for twice-daily doses. Instead, I offer a few brief comments.

The Washington Post on Sunday had a pretty balanced article concerning Jewish construction in the Old City. Of course, there are things I think could have been said better, but overall it’s a helpful read on a controversial subject (which is going to get even more heated in months/years to come, I predict).

Today’s Jerusalem Post has an article on “finds” already from the Temple Mount ramp excavation.

There’s no real content to the article; mostly it is what they expect to find, which is pretty obvious to anyone who knows about the excavations to the south. I think the article is an archaeologist’s attempt to try to stem the increasing tide of those calling for the excavation to stop. BTW, they’ve been digging for about a week and have already dug down three meters? That makes me wonder if R. A. S. Macalister is in charge of this project.

The reason why the excavation should not be stopped: it gives Muslims de facto sovereignty over the Western Wall area.

Some articles are quoting Meir Ben Dov as a Jerusalem archaeologist claiming the excavation is unnecessary and provocative. In the newspaper to those not familiar with Jerusalem politics, Ben Dov could be any average scholar. In fact, he is widely scorned by those in his profession. He’s the one archaeologist the journalists can find to give them an “alternate viewpoint.”

Would you rather learn something useful about Jerusalem instead of spending lots of time on endless controversies which will all pass? Here are three great books about archaeology around the Temple Mount:

Leen Ritmeyer, The Quest: Revealing the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. Very new, very good. $60, and worth it.

Eilat Mazar, The Complete Guide to the Temple Mount Excavations. (Out of print; used ones here).

Ronny Reich, Jerusalem Archaeological Park. (1 at Eisenbrauns; used ones here.)

The best book on Jerusalem overall is still Hershel Shanks, Jerusalem: An Archaeological Biography. Twelve years old, but most is still accurate and you can’t beat the illustrations.

Elsewhere, I am working on a phenomenal collection of old materials on the Temple Mount and Jerusalem by early explorers in the 1800s. I hope to have that available later this year.

Tagged Jerusalem