Days before Tisha B'Av: Charred wooden beams from First Temple’s destruction unearthed in Jerusalem

JPost ^ | Jul 21, 2026

[Milagros]

The First Temple, built by the biblical King Solomon, was destroyed in 586 BCE at the hands of Nebuchadnezzar II, the second king of the Neo-Babylonian Empire.

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TOPICS: Culture/Society; Extended News; Foreign Affairs; Israel
KEYWORDS: 1sttemple; factsintheground; godsgravesglyphs; jerusalem; kingsolomon; lamentations; letshavejerusalem; sciencehatingtrolls; sunkenciv; temple

[Milagros]

Tisha B'Av is when they recite Lamentations , commemorating both Temples destructions

[crusty old prospector]

C’mon, man. There ain’t no evidence for all that Bible stuff.

[madison10]

Hope you’re being sarcastic...

[Beowulf9]

Heaven knows what would happen to those discoveries were the Muslims to get their way.

[Milagros]

So true

[Jan_Sobieski]

. It is called Tish B’Av (the ninth of the month of Av) in the Jewish calendar. The day is marked by fasting, mourning and solemn prayers by pious Jews around the world, in commemoration of both the Babylonian destruction of the Temple, in 586 BC, and the Roman destruction of the Temple on the same calendar day in 70 AD.

Not only had those two horrors occurred on that day, but there have been many,many other incredibly horribly occurrences which concern the Jewish people,on this same calendar day through history.

Incredibly , it was on the ninth of Av that;

* The Sages tell us that the 10 Spies discouraged Israel from occupying the Land God gave them, resulting in the forty years wandering in the wilderness.

* 586 BC, Nebuchadnezzar fulfilled the prediction of Jeremiah, destroying the Temple in Jerusalem, killing one hundred thousand Jews, and carrying hundreds of thousands of others off, into Babylonian captivity.

* 70 AD, Titus fulfilled the predictions of Jesus, surrounding the city of Jerusalem, imposing a siege and finally on the day of TishB’Av, destroying the Temple, not leaving One stone upon another.

Two and a half million Jews were killed in this war, by famine, disease, infighting and One million Jews were killed in that war, much of the nation was exiled, and 100,000 Jews sold to Roman slave markets.

* On 132 AD, Tish B’Av, the Bar Cochba revolt was crushed, killing over 100,000 Jews.

* 133 AD, Turnus Rufus plows site of the Temple. The Romans then built on the Holy Site the pagan city of Aelia Capitolina .

*1095 AD, On TishB’Av of that year was the date Pope Urban II called the first crusade, which resulted in the killing of more than ten thousand JEws, and the obliteration of Jewish communities in Germany.

* On TishB’AV 1290, all Jews were expelled from England , property was confiscated and killings of Jews occurred.

* In 1492 on the same date, TishB’Av, all Jews were expelled from Spain, by order of the “Holy order” of the Inquisition. There were forced conversions, family separations, pogroms, and much loss of property.

*In 1914, on Tish B’Av , Britain and Russia declare war on Germany. First World War begins. The First World War led to the Second World War and the Holocaust. Over 400 pogroms immediately following the war in Hungary, Ukraine, Poland and Russia.All but one-third of world Jewry would perish.

*On TishB’Av 1941, Hermann Göring ordered SS general Reinhard Heydrich to make all the necessary preparations for the Final Solution.

*TishB’AV, saw the 1942 mass deportation of Jews from the Warsaw Ghetto to the Treblinka concentration camp begin.

* On TishB’Av 1994, the deadly bombing the building of the AMIA (the Jewish community center in Buenos Aires, Argentina) which killed 86 people and wounded some 300 others.

* On TishB’Av 2003, at the Democratic National Convention, Barak Obama was catapulted from relative obscurity to national fame, after giving a speech which electrified the convention. He would go on to become the most avid anti Israel president in American history.

[VanShuyten]

“The beams appear to have served as the roof of an inner courtyard in a building from the First Temple period,” IAA excavation director Efrat Bocher said.

While they’re not beams from the Temple, they appear to be from the right time.
I doubt that dendrochronology goes back that far, and C-14 will only give a range of years. The diggers seem pretty confident of the timing, however.

[TheThirdRuffian]

He is.

But it’s a great imitation of a typical leftist.

[TheThirdRuffian]

Are they acacia?

[SunkenCiv]

More here:

• Burnt beams from First Temple's destruction
  found in City of David ahead of Tisha B'Av | Sarah Katz | July 20, 2026

[crusty old prospector]

But of course.

[onthelookout777]

There’s also a very interesting Biblical prophecy about Tisha B’Av, the 9th day of the Hebrew month of Av, on which so many terrible catastrophes have happened in Israel’s history, most notably the destruction of Jerusalem’s First and Second Temples.

In Zechariah 8:19, God prophesies that Tisha B’Av, also called “the fast of the fifth month,” will in the future become a day of rejoicing.

“The Lord of Hosts says this: The fast of the fourth month, the fast of the fifth, the fast of the seventh, and the fast of the tenth will become times of joy, gladness, and cheerful festivals for the house of Judah.”

In this verse, 4 specific fasts are mentioned, which track the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple:

— The Fast of the Fourth Month (Tammuz):
Commemorates the breaking of the city walls (17th of Tammuz).

— The Fast of the Fifth Month (Av):
Commemorates the burning of the Temple (9th of Av, or Tisha B’Av).

— The Fast of the Seventh Month (Tishrei):
Commemorates the assassination of Gedaliah (Fast of Gedaliah).

— The Fast of the Tenth Month (Tevet):
Commemorates the start of the Babylonian siege (10th of Tevet).

[VanShuyten]

The video said one was sycamore and the other was some conifer. Cedars used to be the dominant conifer then there.

[Jan_Sobieski]

Interesting!

[SunkenCiv]

Less than 100 meters from the southern wall of the Temple Mount, the Ophel Excavation is currently underway in one of the most important locations in all Israel. The joint project by Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the Armstrong Institute of Biblical Archaeology seeks to uncover the monumental remains from the late Second Temple Period (2,000 years ago) and even earlier. 

On today’s episode of Let the Stones Speak host Brent Nagtegaal speaks on-site in Jerusalem with excavation co-director Prof. Uzi Leibner about what has been uncovered so far and what this season’s excavation could reveal. 

2026 Ophel Excavation Begins in Jerusalem | 12:53 
Armstrong Institute of Biblical Archaeology 
53.1K subscribers | 9,284 views | July 19, 2026

 

YouTube transcript reformatted at textformatter.ai *may* follow.

Armstrong Institute of Biblical Archaeology

[Gasshog]

Not sure how they know for certain this find is from the 1st or 2nd temple but some charred wood is pretty unremarkable - must be a slow month in the excavation biz.

[Milagros]

God bless

[Milagros]

Also re Tisha b'Av:

In Jeremiah 31:12

"and I will turn their mourning into joy and will comfort them and make them rejoice from their sorrow".

[Milagros]

Thanks

[Milagros]

He is sarcastic . And he is trying to poke fun at atheists