Jerusalem's Growth in Light of the Renewed Excavations in the Ophel

2018

From 2009 to 2013 renewed archaeological excavations were carried out at the Ophel under the directorship of Dr. Eilat Mazar on behalf of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. This volume includes the report of the Herodian (First century CE) buildings, many of which were planned to satisfy the needs of the large and growing number of pilgrims that arrived at the magnified newly constructed Temple and its breathtaking compound. These buildings, crowdedly built in the Ophel, included a large number of Purification Baths (Mikva'ot), ranging from single-sized baths to the “Jerusalemite” type, where a multitude of pilgrims could immerse at the same time, thus enabling easy access to the nearby gates and their underground passageway directly leading into the sacred area of the Temple. By the end of the Second Temple period, as stated by Josephus, the Ophel area also served as a hiding place for the rebels against Rome, and this is corroborated by the findings within the buildings unearthed during the excavations. The volume also includes reports on the impressive remains of First Temple Period buildings discovered at the Ophel’s Solomonic Royal Quarter, together with a large amount of pottery vessels, glyptic finds, weaponry, cultic objects, ivories and figurines discovered within them, many of which attest to the far-reaching international contacts Jerusalem enjoyed at that time. This volume comprises the report of the unique Fortified Enclosure, the earliest structure ever found in the Ophel, dating from the time of King David (early tenth century BCE) and most likely identified with the “Far House,” a structure he used while escaping from Avshalom (2 Samuel 15:17). In this volume is also the report of a stratified assemblage dumped from the Building of the Royal Bakers, which included the bulla (seal impression) of King Hezekiah himself, and maybe also the bulla of the prophet Isaiah, as well as dozens of finds found with them. The Ophel discoveries dramatically alter previously held conceptions of the development of ancient Jerusalem and provide striking tangible evidence for its Biblical and Second Temple period narratives. https://teacherstrading.com/shop/avitaltm

Archaeologically, Jerusalem is one of the most intensively researched cities in the world. Nevertheless, the architectural history of the city resembles a puzzle of which only a fraction of the pieces are known, which, in addition, belong to different historical levels. Since 1838, numerous archaeological investigations have taken place. The most important breakthrough discoveries were made by the excavations of Kathleen Kenyon, Benjamin Mazar, Nahman Avigad and Yigal Shiloh. Although all four have only published preliminary, roughly sketched initial reports, on the basis of their results an overall picture of the pre-Hellenistic history of the city was developed in the 1970s and 1980s, possessing an almost canonical status for a long time. The final excavation reports have only been published in recent years – still incomplete – and show findings which do not fit into the established overall picture. Added to this, there have been new excavations, especially by Ronny Reich, Eli Shukron, Doron Ben-Ami, and Yana Tchekhanovets, which are likely to call the current overall picture into question even further. Therefore not only survey-archaeological investigations into the settlement history of the western Jordanian hillcountry and the re-adjustment of pottery chronology, but also and especially these new findings in Jerusalem itself make a revision of the conventional overall picture necessary. This »Brief History of Jerusalem«, under critical discussion of current attempts, creates a synthesis of the findings in order to present a new paradigm for discussion.

Acta Fakulty filozofické, Ivo Budil (ed.), 2014

The file includes the English abstracts of the articles published in this volume (in Hebrew): David Ussishkin: Was Jerusalem a Fortified Stronghold in the Middle Bronze Age? An Alternative View Amir Feldstein: The Kingdom of Jerusalem in the 'El-Amarna' Period Yosef Garfinkel and Saar Ganor: Khirbet el Rai: An Iron Age Site in the Judean Shephelah Shlomo Bunimovitz and Zvi Lederman: A Lost Manuscript, Tomb 1 at Ain Shems and the Earliest Identification of Iron Age IIA in the Shephelah Ido Koch: Stamp-Amulets from Iron IIA Shephelah: Preliminary Conclusions regarding Production and Distribution, Pictorial Assemblage, and Function Avraham Faust: Tel ‘Eton and the Colonization of the Shephelah during the Iron Age IIA Gabriel Barkay and Robert Deutsch: Another Fiscal Bulla from the City of David Aaron Greener, Gabriel Barkay and Zachi Dvira (Zweig): Iron Age II Figurine Fragments from the Temple Mount Soil Efrat Bocher and Liora Freud: Persian Period Settlement in the Rural Jerusalem Hinterland Moran Hagbi: The Strategic importance of Judea and Jerusalem at the 2nd Century BCE - A view from the Fortified Sites David Gurevich: The Dam Dated to the Hasmonean Period at The Sultan's Pool, Jerusalem Eyal Regev: How Did the Hasmoneans Build Jewish Collective Identity Haim Cohen: Distinctive Plaster of Jewish Mikvaoth, Olive and Wine Presses during the Second Temple and the Talmud Period Zeev Safrai: Dk' lyh Shimon Gibson and Rafael Lewis: On Determining the Date of Agricultural Terracing Around Jerusalem Anat Avital: The Representation of Crops and Agricultural Tools in Late Roman and Byzantine Mosaics of Judea and Jerusalem Bat-Sheva Garsiel: The Description of Jerusalem in Travelers' Books Shlomo Lotan: The Description of the Fate of Jerusalem and the Crusader Kingdom in the Chronicles of the Roman Emperor Frederick II Eyal Davidson: Between the Bridge and the Strawberry Tree – The Jewish Cemetery in Jerusalem in the 16th Century Abraham David: The Travelogue of R. Moses Basola in the Beginning of Ottoman Rule as a Source for the History of Jerusalem and its Jewish Community

Zeitschrift des Deutschen Palastina-Vereins, 2022

This paper presents a critical synopsis of excavations by K. M. KENYON and E. MAZAR (and to a lesser extent Y. SHILOH and D. BEN-AMI and Y. TCHEKHANOVETS) on the Ophel and on the summit and upper east slope of the City of David, with a view to reassessing the evolution of the fortifications of Jerusalem from the 11 th to 9 th cent. B.C.E. By extension, the paper also addresses the nature and extent of Jerusalem across those centuries and the contribution of Jerusalem to the problem of early Israelite state formation. Few serious attempts have been made to integrate the results of MAZAR's excavations on the summit with the earlier, contiguous, work by KENYON. As for MAZAR's Ophel excavations, their recent final publication adds important new data that warrant a critical evaluation of MAZAR's characterization and dating of the remains. The paper concludes with a rebuttal of the view that Jerusalem was a small, unfortified settlement before the 8 th cent. B.C.E.

New Studies in the Archaeology of Jerusalem and its Region , 2022

English front pages and articles list of the lectures presented at the 15th Jerusalem archeological conference.

The Temple of Jerusalem: From Moses to the Messiah in Honor of Professor Louis H. Feldman, ed. S. Fine. Brill Reference Library of Judaism 19. Leiden: Brill, 2011

When Jerusalem first appears in biblical history, it is a location unaffiliated with any individual Israelite tribe. In the Bible, Jerusalem is described as a Jebusite settlement, conquered and chosen by David to be the capital of his newly united kingdom. In the three thousand years that separate the modern city from David’s settlement on the southeastern spur of Mount Moriah, Jerusalem is a contested city, considered sacred by the world’s three monotheistic faiths: Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Its spiritual significance encompasses past, present and future. In this paper, I reassess the evidence and present the major highlights of recent archaeological discoveries near the Temple Mount during the First and Second Temple periods.