Excavations under the Aksa Mosque in the 1930s, photographs of which were recently uncovered, revealed a Byzantine mosaic floor. [Photo: Courtesy of Israel Antiquities Authority.]
Posted on 11/16/2008 8:33:32 PM PST by Jet Jaguar
The photo archives of a British archeologist who carried out the only archeological excavation ever undertaken at the Temple Mount's Aksa Mosque show a Byzantine mosaic floor underneath the mosque that was likely the remains of a church or a monastery, an Israeli archeologist said on Sunday.
The excavation was carried out in the 1930s by R.W. Hamilton, director of the British Mandate Antiquities Department, in coordination with the Wakf Islamic Trust that administers the compound, following earthquakes that badly damaged the mosque in 1927 and 1937.
In conjunction with the Wakf's construction and repair work carried out between 1938 and 1942, Hamilton excavated under the mosque's piers, and documented all his work related to the mosque in The Structural History of the Aqsa Mosque.
Hamilton also uncovered the Byzantine mosaic floor and beneath it a mikva (ritual bath) from the Second Temple period, which he pointedly did not include in the publication about the mosque, but instead photographed and labeled in a file about the mosque, archeologist Zachi Zweig said on Sunday.
Zweig uncovered the photographs in the British archeological archives that are kept at the Antiquities Authority in Jerusalem.
The Byzantine mosaic floor, which was uncovered under the Umayyad level of the mosque, is "without a doubt" the remains of a public building - likely a church - which predated the mosque, Zweig said in an address at a Bar-Ilan University archeological conference.
A similar mosaic can be found at the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, he said.
"The existence of a public building from the Byzantine period on the Temple Mount is very surprising in light of the fact that we do not have records of such constructions in historical texts," Zweig said.
Over the last several years, numerous marble church chancel screens have been uncovered by Zweig and Bar-Ilan University archeologist Dr. Gabriel Barkay from rubble that was dug up during Waqf construction at the site in the last decade and dumped in the Kidron Valley.
The mosaic found on the Temple Mount is dated to the fifth to seventh centuries, said Dr. Rina Talgam, a mosaic expert at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
"We were very surprised by the discovery of such a mosaic on the Temple Mount," Talgam said, noting that it contradicted the testimony of pilgrims who described the site as deserted in the Byzantine period and was also unlikely to have been part of the earliest mosque at the site, in the Early Islamic period, since that structure was made of wood.
"The simple mosaic pictured does not give us a hint that it was certainly part of a church but it very well could have been part of a hostel or some other nondescript structure," she said.
Since the establishment of the state, no archeological excavations have been held on the Temple Mount, in keeping with religious sensitivities of both Muslims and Jews.
"It is hard to establish with certainty that this was indeed the site of a church, but without a doubt it served as a public building and was likely either a church or a monastery," Barkay said.
He called the discovery of the photographs in the British archives both a "sensational" and "important" find.
"This changes the whole history of the Temple Mount during the Byzantine period as we knew it," he said.
It’s a habitual pattern with Muslims. Tear down or convert ancient churches into mosques. Perhaps the most notable instance is Hagia Sophia. The same with ancient synagogues, including the Temple Mount itself. And the same with ancient Hindu and Buddhist temples in India.
I’ve always thought that the next-door Dome of the Rock was a Byzantine church before it was turned into a mosque.
It has the shape of a Byzantine church and is not like any other mosque in the world.
If it was a church, then it also might have mosaics, some of which might depict Jerusalem as it was in the 4th century.
And, more light might be shed on 4th century Byzantine art if these were to be rediscovered.
But I doubt the mosque guardians would ever permit anyone to challenge their assertion that a caliph built the mosque; or that anyone was ever there before muslims...
dugg
Odds are very good that yes it is.
probably
The site of al-aqsa was originally a small prayer house built by caliph Umar, who was born in 581, when mohammed was 11.
When mohammed in his drug-induced stupor dreamed that he was taken to heaven (and returned) in a single night, no mosque yet existed in Jerusalem!
Pretty good trick!
High Volume. Articles on Israel can also be found by clicking on the Topic or Keyword Israel. or WOT [War on Terror]
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If there was a Church there, that's where they'd build it.
It is my understanding that the arches and original dome were the church in much the same manner as Santa Sophia in Turkey
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Thanks Jet Jaguar for posting this topic (saved me work). |
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Excavations under the Aksa Mosque in the 1930s, photographs of which were recently uncovered, revealed a Byzantine mosaic floor. [Photo: Courtesy of Israel Antiquities Authority.]
I am glad you found it. My apologies for forget to ping ya.
Worst message board interface in history, though.
If the prophet was only 11 when it was built, who was it a prayer house to? The guy couldn’t have been a caliph then?
Or does caliph predate islam?
Taj Mahal - A Hindu Temple-Palace.Link.
Excerpt:
...During their rule they looted and destroyed hundereds of thousands of Hindu temples. Aurangzeb himself destroyed 10,000 Hindu temples during his reign! Some of the larger temples were converted into mosques or other Islamic structures. Ram Janmbhoomi(at Ayodhya) and Krishna Temple(at Mathura) are just two examples. Many others exist!
The most evident of such structures is Taj Mahal--a structure supposedly devoted to carnal love by the "great" moghul king Shah Jahan to his favorite wife Mumtaz Mahal. Please keep in my mind that this is the same Shah Jahan who had a harem of 5,000 women and the same Shah Jahan who had a incestuous relationship with his daughter justifing it by saying, 'a gardner has every right to taste the fruit he has planted'! Is such a person even capable of imagning such a wondrous structure as the Taj Mahal let alone be the architect of it?
The answer is no. It cannot be. And it isn't as has been proven. The Taj Mahal is as much a Islamic structure as is mathematics a muslim discovery! The famous historian Shri P.N. Oak has proven that Taj Mahal is actually Tejo Mahalaya-- a shiv temple-palace. His work was published in 1965 in the book, Taj Mahal - The True Story. However, we have not heard much about it because it was banned by the corrupt and power crazed Congress government of Bharat who did not want to alienate their precious vote bank--the muslims...
(must be the curry!)
Well duh...Muslims have burnt, pillaged, whitewashed, vandalized, transformed into mosques - you name it they have done it - to Christian churches over the ages..and most recently in Kosovo where hundreds of churches have been desecrated and destroyed in the most hideous way.
Thanks Mr. Bush.
The conversion of pre-existing buildings into houses of worship for newly dominant religions is not new and not restricted to non-Christian cultures. Right now in the US old line Protestant and Catholic churches and Jewish synagogues are being converted to churches for immigrants as well as mosques. Classical structures such as the Parthenon, the Pantheon, and the Colisseum all were converted to Christian churches.
Bump.
I saw a film where some local monks said just that. It was well known that the Dome of the Rock mosque was made out of pieces of Christian churches.
If there were any mosaics depicting life in the 4th century, I doubt they survived. Muslims don’t allow images.
The abomination that causes desolation.
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