Posted on 11/23/2011 2:12:31 AM PST by Never A Dull Moment
The discovery of a new ritual pool [mikveh] under the Western Wall suggests a new theory that the Kotel was completed years later than during the reign of King Herod, as was believed until now. Israel Antiquities Authority excavations of an ancient drainage channel underneath the main street used by pilgrims 2,000 years ago revealed the ritual pool. The excavations beneath the paved road exposed sections of the Western Wall foundations. Dr. Donald Ariel, a native of the United States, said the coins that were discovered in the area were struck by the Roman procurator in the years 17-18 in the Common Era, meaning that Robinsons Arch, and possibly the longer part of the Western Wall, were built no sooner than a year later 20 years after Herod died. The Antiquities Authority said that building the walls of the Temple Mount and Robinson's Arch was a huge project that lasted for decades. "This dramatic finding confirms the descriptions of Josephus that the work was not completed until the time of King Agrippa II, the grandson of Herod. Archaeologists added that the completion of the Western Wall left up to 10,000 people unemployed.
(Excerpt) Read more at israelnationalnews.com ...
Shovel ready projects, always a day late and over budget.
bump
But I thought the wall was a hitching post for the winged horse Mohammed rode in his midnight ride?
lol!
Most of tje Western wall is the remnant of Hadrian’s temple to Jupiter, built after the fall of Bar kochba. Some of the lower foundation stones are from the temple.
If youd like to be on or off, please FR mail me.
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Dont forget ...the horses name? Barack
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LOL!!!
Unnngh!
“...a hitching post for the winged horse Mohammed rode in his midnight ride?”
Two if by land, one if by sand?
So, the new theory is that Josephus was correct? How novel!
A heart of stone
Nadav Shragai
Friday May 2, 2014
http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_article.php?id=17255
...Eli Shukron explains it with an interesting theory. “This stone came from the Temple Mount, from the surplus stones that were used in the construction of the Temple itself. Those stones were high-quality, chiseled and smooth, like this unusual one, which was discovered among the Western Wall’s foundations. This stone was intended for the Second Temple, and stones like it were used to build the Temple — but it was left unused. The builders of the Western Wall brought it down here because it was no longer needed up above — and this is how the other stones of the Temple looked,” he says, adding, “Anyone who passes a hand gently over this stone feels a slightly wavy texture, just like the Talmud describes.”...
Two more surprises awaited Shukron’s diggers at the base of the foundations. The first is a stone weighing a beka from First Temple times — a stone that was used to weigh the silver half-shekel and on which the word “beka” was engraved in Canaanite Hebrew script. Weights of this type have already been found in Israel. The beka is mentioned in the Bible as a unit of weight that was used to weigh the half-shekel that was given by those counted in the census as a way to count them. It was also used later on, in the Tabernacle.
The second surprise has to do with the Western Wall itself — or, actually, with its builders: a chisel about 15 centimeters (6 inches) long that was evidently used to carve the stones of the Western Wall. It was found in a pile of rubble at the bottom of the wall. Shukron believes that one of the workers carving the stone dropped it while he was working on scaffolding on an upper foundation of the wall. “It seems that he didn’t bother to go down or that he simply forgot about it,” Shukron says.
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