A top view of the dig showing the recently excavated remains from the Hasmonean and Iron Age periods.Credit: Shimon Gibson, and the Mount Zion Archaeological Excavation
Posted on 08/29/2023 3:22:27 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
The eastern slope of traditional Mount Zion is the scene of an archaeological conundrum. A densely layered site is visible nestling between the traffic-choked road snaking around the Old City of Jerusalem and in front of the southern Ottoman Old City wall. To the sound of constant honking, church bells, pilgrims singing and muezzin prayers, the archaeologists have been unearthing a crazy matrix of disrupted archaeological layers going back many thousands of years...
One sure thing: They have found evidence of the destruction of the Second Temple by the Romans in the year 70 and, a couple of meters below that, the destruction of the First Temple and city by the Babylonians in 586... the first time that both destructions are documented in the same space.
In its lifetime, Jerusalem has seen much conflict... utterly destroyed twice, it was also besieged 23 times, attacked 52 times, and captured or recaptured 44 times, according to Prof. Eric Cline of George Washington University, author of "Jerusalem Besieged"... But this site on Mount Zion is the only place (so far) where signs of both conflagrations have been found in close proximity, in layers situated one above the other, the archaeologists say...
...among the stones was a small, unique find: a rib bone inscribed with drawings and Hebrew letters. It was presumably an amulet, possibly wielded to ward off Roman invaders. If so, it clearly didn't work...
Why is interpreting the story of Mount Zion in southern Jerusalem such a head-scratcher? Because in a classic tell, new settlements arose atop old ones and the lowest layer will inevitably be the earliest. At Tell Megiddo, for instance, archaeologists found orderly layers of settlements from the Early Bronze Age until the town's destruction in the Iron Age. This is what archaeologists like.
(Excerpt) Read more at haaretz.com ...
A top view of the dig showing the recently excavated remains from the Hasmonean and Iron Age periods.Credit: Shimon Gibson, and the Mount Zion Archaeological Excavation
It is so fascinating-so much history…
Great post! Thank you!
My pleasure!
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