Monthly Archive for May, 2008

Temple Mount quarry found

Published on May 20, 2008 in Excavations, Jerusalem, Research and Temple Mount. 4 Comments

It was reported today that another quarry has been found in Jerusalem, whose stones may have been used in the construction of Herod’s Temple Mount. The largest stone is said to measure 0.69 x 0.94 x 1.65 m. It has been suggested that these stones may have been used to build the Western Wall, but that is doubtful. The measurements given are of an unfinished stone. These quarry blocks needed trimming to make them suitable for building and that would make them smaller. The average height of the stone courses in the Temple Mount walls is 104-112 cm and the unfinished stone is only 94 cm high. It is possible, however, that stones coming from this quarry may have been used for the buildings and porticoes that stood on top of the Temple Mount and that is very exciting.

Last year, a quarry was found which produced much larger stones and these may indeed have been used in the construction of the Temple Mount walls. Although archaeologists are quick to claim that these stones were used in the Western Wall, we need to realize that identical stones were built in the southern, eastern and northern walls of the Temple Mount as well. There is no way of knowing where the stones of these quarries have been placed.

How were stones quarried? I have written extensively about the quarrying and transportation of these large stones in The Quest, pp. 132-137 and also in Secrets of Jerusalem’s Temple Mount, pp. 53-58.

The two illustrations below show how it was done.

Quarrying was done by digging channels in the rock, which were later filled with dry wooden beams. Once these were wedged into place, water was poured over the dry wood, causing it to swell. The expanding wood caused the stone to split off the quarry bed.

quarrying.jpg

Projections were left on either side of the stones, which were used to lift the stones sufficiently high to put a roller underneath. Using oxen and replacing the rollers, the stones were brought to the building site.

transport.jpg

One can see how much work was involved in the quarrying and transportation of one stone! It is amazing to realize that it took only eight years to build all the retaining walls of the Temple Mount. Truly, whatever one might say about Herod’s character, he was a master builder!

The Temple of Jerusalem: From Moses to Messiah

Published on May 19, 2008 in Jerusalem, Jerusalem Models, News and Temple Mount. 1 Comment

The Temple of Jerusalem: From Moses to Messiah
Conference at the Yeshiva University, Centre for Israel Studies, New York
May 11-12, 2008

Needless to say, I was delighted to see my “babies” (the models of the Tabernacle, Solomon’s Temple, Herod’s Temple and Herod’s Temple Mount) again, after a separation of 12 years! I was also pleased that Steven Fine organised a conference around this exhibition of models commissioned by the late Ben Adelman of Silver Spring, M.D. Mr Adelman’s estate had bequeathed the models to the Yeshiva University.

Mr. Ben Adelman and myself in 1996

Mr. Ben Adelman (right) and myself in 1996

modelny.jpg

Exhibition of models at Yeshiva University Museum, New York

My personal highlights from the two-day conference were:

• Meeting Professor Louis Feldman, who contributed to the Loeb translation of Josephus, that I use almost every day. The conference was held in his honour. He has worked at the Yeshiva University for the last 55 years.

• Hearing Lawrence Schiffman speak on the Temple Scroll. He put forward the idea that the temple design of the Temple Scroll was based on the layout of the Camp of Israel in the wilderness. The inner square court represented the Divine Presence, the middle court the Levites and the outer court all of Israel. I was particularly interested in this as I was asked by the late Professor Yigael Yadin to make a reconstruction drawing of this temple – see his book: Y. Yadin (1985), The Temple Scroll, (London).

• Discussing with Joshua Schwartz, the many problems – textual and architectural – which had to be considered in the reconstruction of the Herodian Temple and its courtyards for the UCLA virtual temple model.

• Seeing over 250 people from totally different backgrounds, ranging from Orthodox Jewish scholars and Israeli academics to Christian theologians, mingling around the Temple models and talking together when normally they would have little in common.

The exhibition, IMAGINING THE TEMPLE: THE MODELS OF LEEN RITMEYER, continues until August 31, this year. The next project of the Center for Israel Studies is the publication of the lectures in volume form.

The Ark of the Covenant – on the trail again!

Published on May 15, 2008 in Ark of the Covenant and News. 25 Comments

My Google Alert to Jerusalem Archaeology brought it all back: “The lost Ark: are the Germans on its trail?” Of course, the content of the article which reported that a researcher from the University of Hamburg claimed to have found the remains of the palace of the Queen of Sheba in Axum, Ethiopia and an altar that may have held the Ark, made me file it away in my file called “Weird.” Here, I tuck away some of the more outrageous snippets on Biblical Archaeology that come my way, together with some of the wackier emails I receive. The Ark of the Covenant is overwhelmingly the subject of most of these enquiries. Since my first involvement in the Temple Mount Excavations in 1973, not a week has gone by without some enquiry into its location. Invariably the writer has an idea of his/her own – one of the wackiest suggestions was that the Ark was hidden inside the Black Stone of Mecca!

As readers of this blog will know, my research into the Temple Mount over the years has led to the finding of the location of where the Ark stood in Solomon’s Temple. I believe that this is as close as we may ever come to the finding of the lost Ark. Now, with the latest Indiana Jones movie due out next week, after a gap of 19 years, people’s minds go back to the original Raiders of the Lost Ark movie made in 1981. This, together with the latest claim in a long line of claims of finding the Ark, reminds me of the links (many inadvertently!) we have had to this search.

Thought that readers might find some of these links interesting or at at least a bit of light relief!

My wife, Kathleen was brought up from age 1 to 8 near the Hill of Tara, in County Meath, Ireland where certain believe the Ark to have been buried by the prophet Jeremiah after the fall of Jerusalem. Here is a picture of her, taken on a visit in 1997, on the hill of Tara next to the illegal excavations carried out by a group searching for the Ark of the Covenant:

tara-copy.jpg

• We lived for 4 years in the Ethiopian Quarter in Jerusalem where the devout Ethiopian Orthodox residents took it for a fact that the artefact so carefully guarded by the monks at Axum was indeed the Ark of the Covenant. “Did we not know that a group of Israeli soldiers had twice tried to wrest it from the Ethiopians and recover it to Israel?”

• During the eighties, we worked on a design project with Vendyl Jones, the Texan self-styled archaeologist who claimed to be the inspiration for Indiana Jones. His claim has been debunked, with the honour going to the dog of George Lucas (co-producer of the film), who was with him when he wrote the story.

• The original opportunity for me to measure and draw up Warren’s Gate in 1981, came from a group of rabbis’ illegal excavation of this gate for the purpose of finding the Ark deep beneath the Temple Mount.

(Now they get a bit more ridiculous!)

• When we were recently leaving Australia for the UK, I tried to leave behind my battered fedora, veteran of many Israeli digs and Aussie bush expeditions, but my son Joel would not let me, even though I had a new Akubra!

• Finally, I can’t stop some wags from playing the theme tune from “Raiders of the Lost Ark” when I walk in to give a lecture!

BTW, for an overview of the story of the journeyings of the Ark see our book: “From Sinai to Jerusalem”.

Illustrating the Bible

Published on May 3, 2008 in News and Temple Mount. 0 Comments

I recently had an interesting contact with Graham Kennedy, cartoonist and animator and now full-time Bible Illustrator. After chatting back and forth, he suggested interviewing me on his blog, asking some searching questions, see The Bible Illustration Blog.