Posted on 10/19/2006 7:29:17 AM PDT by Esther Ruth
Last update - 09:31 19/10/2006
First Temple artifacts found in dirt removed from Temple Mount
By Nadav Shragai, Haaretz Correspondent
The project of sifting layers of Temple Mount dirt has yielded thousands of new artifacts dating from the First Temple period to today. The dirt was removed in 1999 by the Islamic Religious Trust (Waqf) from the Solomon's Stables area to the Kidron Stream Valley. The sifting itself is taking place at Tzurim Valley National Park, at the foot of Mount Scopus, and being funded by the Ir David Foundation. Dr. Gabriel Barkai and Tzachi Zweig, the archaeologists directing the sifting project with the help of hundreds of volunteers, are publishing photographs and information about the new discoveries in the upcoming issue of Ariel, which comes out in a few days.
The bulk of the artifacts are small finds - the term used for artifacts that can be lifted and transported, rather than fixed features. The dirt was removed in the course of excavating the mammoth entrance to the underground mosque built seven years ago in the southeastern corner of the Temple Mount. The Waqf and Islamic Movement in Israel separated dirt from stones, then used the ancient building blocks for rebuilding, in case the police barred construction materials from being brought in.
(Excerpt) Read more at haaretz.com ...
Warning! This is a high-volume ping list.
excerpted..
The sifting project is precedent-setting: This is the first time dirt from any antiquities site is being sifted in full. Among the many volunteers are soldiers, tourists, high-school students and yeshiva boys. Visitors over the past few months have included ultra-Orthodox MKs and rabbis, who usually steer clear of archaeological digs.
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The oldest artifacts found are remnants of tools like a blade and scraper dating back 10,000 years. Some potsherds and shards of alabaster tools date from the Bronze Age - the 3rd and 2nd millennia B.C.E. (the Canaanite and Jebusite eras). Only a handful of potsherds were found from the 10th century B.C.E. (the reigns of King David and King Solomon), but numerous artifacts date from the reigns of the later Judean kings (the 8th and 7th centuries B.C.E.), such as stone weights for weighing silver.
The most striking find from this period is a First Temple period bulla, or seal impression, containing ancient Hebrew writing, which may have belonged to a well-known family of priests mentioned in the Book of Jeremiah.
Many other findings date from the Persian period (Return to Zion), Hasmonean, Ptolemaic and Herodian periods, as well as from Second Temple times. Second Temple finds include remains of buildings: plaster shards decorated a rust-red, which Barkai says was fashionable at the time; a stone measuring 10 centimeters and on it a sophisticated carving reminiscent of Herodian decorations; and a broken stone from a decorated part of the Temple Mount - still bearing signs of fire, which Barkai says are from the Temple's destruction in 70 C.E.
The project has also yielded artifacts from the Roman, Byzantine, Ottoman and Early Arab periods. According to Barkai, the Byzantine finds radically alter the assessment that the Temple Mount was empty at that time.
Ping!
I'm surprised we're even allowed to know that the Moslems found these things.
Or that they didn't smash them to pieces openly.
Gotta love the muslim complete disrespect for everything -- the ruins beneath temple mount are unique but they have no qualms destroying them.
From what I have read on this previously, the Muslims dug out the dirt and dumped it. There was no attempt on their part to do any archeological work on it. What is being done now iw sifting the dumped pile. That means that a LOT of history has been lost (like which artifact came first -- ie: which is higher in the untouched soil), but what is being done is better than nothing.
King David's royal household was probably not much more than a hundred people or so. His military high command was only a handful of picked men. The number of people who could read and write was probably a tiny portion of Israel when David conquered Jerusalem.
A.D. = Anno Domini
B.C. = Before Christ
B.C.E. = Before Christian Era
C.E. = Christian Era
Right?
That's how my students translate the new secular initials.
CE and BCE... Common Era, and Before Common Era
when the whole Temple Mount platform collapses from the excavations, with a hundred thousand moon worshipping lunatics on top, the world will cry it was Israel's fault for allowing the barbarians to dig their way to their own death.
Figure 15. Pottery from the First Temple. The earliest identified shard we found is dated to the 8th Century BCE.
Wrong!
B.C.E.= Before COMMON Era
C.E = COMMON Era.
Nice try, though.
What historic point does the change occur between the common era and the before common error? Furthermore what was so uncommon about the era before the common era? Did dinosaurs walk the earth and eat all the Sumerians? </sarc>
If your going to use the gregorian calendar, accept the fact that it is based around the birth of Christ and its a Christian calendar. Otherwise the athiest facists who use BCE an CE should make up their own calendar.
This may be a simplistic question, but why was an underground mosque built in the first place?
i dont believe the Jews are athiest facists. In Israel, either works for almost all documents.
Yeah, but I still like the translation of Christian Era and Before Christian Era. No matter what they do, Christ was the great divider of time and nothing will change that.
Then either use the Jewish calendar or respect the gregorian calendar. This is problem is throughout academia and not just Israel.
This is the academic world's attempt to rewrite historical placemarking by pretending Jesus Christ had nothing to do with the complete sea change in world history and historical dating found in the World.
Temple? Jews from thousands of years ago in Jerusalem? What are they trying to do, humiliate the "Palestinians"?
It will be "America's greatest legacy" to pretend nothing was found, nothing existed, the Jews are occupiers.
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