A remarkable discovery of undisturbed archaeological material from the Temple Mount and dating to the Old Testament period was announced yesterday by the Israel Antiquities Authority.  This is remarkable for a few reasons:

By all appearances, there was little apparent archaeological supervision of the Muslim digging of a trench on the Temple Mount last month.  That’s why lots of people were screaming.  It’s not that digging itself is bad, but digging without proper archaeological procedure is simply destruction.

Undisturbed layers from the First Temple period (1000-586 B.C.) are not often found anywhere in Jerusalem.  This is because of later building activities and because of current inhabitation of the city.

No undisturbed layers from any period have been excavated on the Temple Mount, ever.  This is owing to Muslim control of the site and their prohibitions against archaeological excavation.  This dates back to the earliest “archaeologists” in Jerusalem, including Charles Warren in the 1860s.

It has been expected that the construction of the present Temple Mount by King Herod in the 1st
century B.C. was so extensive and destructive that little would remain (in stratified contexts) from the previous eras.  The present discovery does not seem to constitute significant material in and of itself, but it certainly gives hope that more could be recovered should excavations be permitted.  Similar discoveries from this time period have been made by Gabriel Barkay in his Temple Mount Sifting Project, but they were not from a stratified context as this was.

Enough of the significance of the discovery, here are some details:


Items discovered: ceramic table wares, animal bones, olive pits, bowls, juglet base, storage jar rim. 


Date of items: 8th-6th century (roughly the times of Hezekiah to Josiah)


Location of discovery: southeastern corner of raised platform on Temple Mount


Archaeologist in charge: Yuval Baruch, Jerusalem District Archaeologist


Consulting archaeologists: Sy Gitin, Director of the W. F. Albright Institute of Archaeological
Research in Jerusalem, Israel Finkelstein of Tel Aviv University and Ronny Reich of Haifa University


The key statement making this an important discovery: “The layer is a closed, sealed archaeological layer that has been undisturbed since the 8th century B.C.”, Jon Seligman, Jerusalem regional archaeologist.


The skeptic: Eilat Mazar, “I think it is a smoke screen for the ruining of antiquities.”


The future: examination of the discoveries in a future seminar to be organized by the Israel Antiquities Authority


More information: Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs (with photos), Israel National News (with wrong dates), Haaretz, Jerusalem Post, Maariv (more detailed article in Hebrew)

ABC has some photos of the quarry, or you can watch a two-minute video with relatively poor footage of the site (and two guys who can’t correctly pronounce the object of the discovery). 

BiblePlaces.com has some exclusive photos of the quarry area, with thanks to Aubrey Laughlin for sharing them with us.  Click on each photo for a higher-resolution version, which you are free to use for personal and educational purposes.

General view showing how the ancients cut away the mountain

View showing the proximity of the quarry to Ramat Shlomo

Showing a cross-section of the mountain and Jerusalem in the distance

Notice the trenches cut in the rock in the foreground

 
A view showing where quarrying activity ended.

 
You can easily see where the rocks were extracted

A trench made in order to extract the stone

I have been asked where exactly the quarry was located.  Here are two maps from Google Earth that show the area of the quarry, about 2 miles (3 km) north of the Old City.  You can click on each for a larger view.

General view.  Note the highway to the east of the quarry is similar to the ancient route (known sometimes as the Central Ridge Route or the Road of the Patriarchs).

Closer view, which will be helpful if you’re in the neighborhood and want to see it yourself.

Archaeologists in Jerusalem have made a significant discovery of one of the quarries used in the construction of Herod’s Temple Mount.  Located 3 miles (4 km) northwest of the Old City, the 1.25-acre quarry has remains of massive stones measuring 9-25 feet (3-8 m) long, comparable to the stones visible in the Western Wall today.  The quarry is located near the main road coming from the north and at an elevation that is 250 feet (80 m) higher than the Temple Mount, making it an ideal location for quarrying activity.  Coins and pottery found in the quarry help to secure the date of its use to the 1st century B.C.  The story is carried by the Jerusalem Post, Haaretz, and Arutz-7.

Photo below: Another quarry that many believe was used by Herod’s crews is the so-called “Solomon’s Quarries,” near the Damascus Gate of the Old City.

“Solomon’s Quarries”