Posted on 04/14/2005 6:56:32 PM PDT by Daisy4
Apr. 14, 2005 20:26 | Updated Apr. 14, 2005 20:50 Temple Mount relics saved from garbage By ETGAR LEFKOVITS http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=111344110394
On the grounds of a Jerusalem national park with a view of the Temple Mount, a small group of Israeli archaeologists and volunteers sifting through piles of rubble discarded by Islamic Wakf officials from the Temple Mount into a city garbage dump have recently uncovered a series of history-rich artifacts dating back to the First and Second Temple periods.
The five-month old privately-funded project underway at the site, which is being directed by Bar Ilan University archeology professor Dr. Gabriel Barkay, is being called virtually unprecedented since archaeological excavation has never been permitted on the Temple Mount itself.
Six years ago, following the Islamic Wakf's unilateral construction of a mosque at an underground area of the Temple Mount known as Solomon's Stables, Wakf officials discarded more than 10,000 tons of rubble with history-rich artifacts, at a municipal garbage dump in the Kidron Valley and other locations outside the Old City.
The November 1999 destruction and removal of the antiquities in the wake of the mosque construction was later called "an unprecedented archaeological crime" by the head of Israel's Antiquities Authority, the state-run archaeological body nominally charged with supervision at Judaism's holiest site, as well as by Israel's leading archaeologists.
According to decades-old regulations in place on the Temple Mount, Islamic Wakf official administer the compound, while Jerusalem police are in charge of overall security at the site.
Straddled by political concerns and in flagrant contravention of the law, Israeli archaeologists from the Antiquities Authority have not been carrying out supervision for five years now at the bitterly contested site due to their concern about renewed Palestinian violence at the compound.
After the Antiquities Authority voiced disinterest in thoroughly sifting through the rubble discarded by the Wakf, Barkay applied -- and eventually received –a license from the Antiquities Authority to sort through the piles of earth thrown into the garbage dump in search of antiquities.
"The project should have been a government- sponsored initiative in coordination with the Antiquities Authority, but neither wanted to do it, " Barkay said in an interview.
"The whole matter exposes the Antiquities Authority's short-handedness in taking care of and protecting antiquities on the Temple Mount," he added.
Starting in November, the archaeologist and a small team, led by his 32-year-old former student Zachi Zweig, transferred 68 truckloads of rubble saturated with archaeological finds from the garbage dump to the Emek Zurim National Park, on the western slopes of Mount Scopus. Using a mechanical sifter, the rubble was then separated into heaps based on size, before being hand-checked for antiquities.
Over the last five months, Zweig a small team of six workers -- and an equal number of daily volunteers -- who have sifted through 15 percent of the rubble to date have uncovered scores of history-rich artifacts, from the First Temple Period until today amidst the rubble, including a large amount of pottery dating from the Bronze Ages through modern times, a large segment of a marble pillar's shaft, and over 100 ancient coins, among them several from the Hasmonean dynasty.
The one meter tall marble column, streaked with purple veins and white spots, is thought to date back to Late Roman or the Byzantine period, Barkay said, and is similar to column shafts near the southern wall of the Temple Mount.
No surprise. Arabs smashing everything under the Temple Mount weren't there for their health. It's really terrible.
Do you have a working link for this one?
Thanks.
http://jpost.com
front page
That is a link to the front page.
Please post the correct link to the actual story when you post a thread. Thanks.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1113445110394
Can we start to use real history on this site.
This is just crazy. I can't believe Israel is letting them get away with it--they're destroying history...
Hmmm. Let me see has this happened before
-Buddhas in Afghanistan.
Of course:
http://www.contenderministries.org/middleeast/tmdestruction.php
Ironically, the Palestinian Authority and the Islamic Waqf may unwittingly be aiding in the fulfillment of prophecy. Besides desecrating a holy site, this hollowing-out of the Temple Mount has significantly weakened the structures that once supported the Jewish Temples, and which have withstood thousands of years of earthquakes. Should this structure actually collapse, several prophecies stand to be fulfilled.
In Matthew 24:2, Jesus tells us, when speaking of the Temple, that "not one stone will be left upon another, that shall not be thrown down". A total collapse of the Temple Mount would certainly fulfill this prophecy. Should such an event occur, the entire Arab world would be outraged. It would be viewed as an Israeli plot by most of the world, and could prompt an Islamic retaliation of epic proportions. Just such an Islamic invasion is prophesied in the Bible, and is sometimes referred to as the war of Gog and Magog. This war, to be fought on all sides against Israel, will result in the complete destruction of the invading armies. God will supernaturally protect Israel while eliminating the enemy in spectacular ways. The Islamists may be setting the stage for their own destruction and the beginning of the seven year tribulation when God's judgments will rain down on a lost and evil world; a world that, no matter how they tried, could not break the covenant made between the God of the universe and His chosen people, the Jews.
and yet the MSM (including Fox) are TOTALLY and CoMPletly silent on this issue.
WHERE IS THE EXPOSURE!?
Where is the outrage?
If this were an american indian pet cemetary there would be screams and hollars.
If this were ANYTHING else it would be page one above the fold.
Israeli archaeologists from the Antiquities Authority have not been carrying out supervision for five years now at the bitterly contested site due to their concern about renewed Palestinian violence at the compound.
The Israeli Establishment needs to snap out of its dhimmi/galut mentality
The Israelites are Gods chosen people. The Jews are Israelites, but not all Israelites are Jews. Jews are of one tribe and one tribe only-Judah.
The stage is being set, IMO.
Nice link you provided!
Sounds to me like there is enough blame to go around but of course everyone will just blame the Arabs...
It's really sick that the Jews put up with this.
Sorry I guffed on the link. Don't know how that happened.
Daisy
Ummm, of the 2nd Temple of Jesus day, within 40 years "not one stone will be left upon another, that shall not be thrown down" was fulfilled, by Titus complete utter destruction of the Temple in AD 70. Only foundation retaining walls (like the Wailing Wall) at the edge of the site remain. The Temple was burned first, and golden instruments melted between the stones, so the Roman army pried apart the very foundation stones of the temple to extract the gold, completely fulfilling that part of Jesus' prophecy.
This certainly doesn't minimize the utterly atrocious barbaric behavior of the Arab Wafk...who probably disturbed rubble left alone since Titus' legions. The amazing thing is the whole world, except for a few Jews, have been silent about it. Think for a minute had the shoe been on the other foot (Israeli Jews despoiling an ancient Mosque site... of ANY significance) and you'd of had the whole Moslem world, Europe and the UN ready to Israel.
If you'd like to be on or off this middle east/political ping list, please FR mail me.
I just can't believe Israel allows the continued excavation and destruction to go on. Oh well, payback's gonna be a b*tch someday for the gold dome squatters.
Muhammad's moon cult is headed to the ash heap of history while Judaism will continue. Something is coming up that will rock the Islamic world and make it crumble. That something will be the obliteration of Islamic holy cities after the Islamics push too far and unleash some mega terrorism. No "holy cities" means no Islam.
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