New Studies on Jerusalem

On Thursday, December 24, 2009 a conference will be held dealing with new studies on Jerusalem at the Ingeborg Rennert Center, Martin (Szusz) Department of Land of Israel Studies and Archaeology, The Faculty of Jewish Studies at the Bar-Ilan University in Israel. The conference will be held in Hebrew, but the proceedings with English abstracts will be available at the conference. If you understand Hebrew and are lucky enough to be in Israel at that time, here is the programme:

8:20 gathering
8:45 opening remarks:
Prof. Joshua Schwartz, Director of the Ingeborg Rennert Center for Jerusalem Studies
Prof. Avraham Faust & Dr. Eyal Baruch, conference organizers

Session 1 – 9:00-10:55
Chair: Eyal Baruch
09:00 Ronny Reich & Eli Shukron- Channel II in the City of David, Jerusalem: Technical Details, Date and Function
09:20 Avraham Faust- King David’s Palace, a Hellenistic Structure or a Jebusite Fort: A Reexamination of the Large Stone Structure Unearthed by Eilat Mazar in the City of David
09:40 Moshe Garsiel- The Book of Samuel: Compilation Stages and Historical Value for Describing David’s Kingdom and His Capital in Jerusalem
10:05 Ehud Nezer- An opus reticulatum Structure, West of the Old City, Jerusalem
10:25 Ram Bouchnick, Omri Larnow, Guy Bar-Oz & Ronny Reich- Jerusalem Fish Menu from the Late Second Temple Period
10:45 Discussion
10:55 Break

Session 2 – 11:20-13:10
Chair: Joshua Schwartz
11:20 Michael Ben-Ari- Simchat Beit Sho’eva – The Origins of the Custom.
11:40 Varda Sussman- Shaving/paring of Herodian Oil Lamps
12:00 Ze’ev H. Erlich (Jabo) – What is the ‘Kotel ha-Katan?’
12:20 Amos Kloner- The Damascus Gate
12:40 Yoav Farhi & Oded Lifshitz- A Unique Bulla from the Ramat Rahel Excavations Bearing the Name of Hadrian
13:00 Discussion

13:10 Lunch Break

Session 3 – 14:20-16:30
Chair: Josef Drory
14:20 Yehoshua Peleg- Were the Temple Mount Gates Reconstructed in the Second Century CE?

14:40 Gabriel Barkay and Zachi Zweig- A Roman Period Centaur Relief from the Temple Mount
15:00 Perez Reuven- A Decorated Beam from the Roman Period in the Temple Mount
15:20 Bat-Sheva Garsiel- The Status of Jerusalem in Early Islamic Theological Writings
15:40 Michael Ehrlich- The Southern Quarters of Jerusalem during the Medieval Period: A Multi-Periodical Overview
16:00 Oded Shay- The Contribution Made by the Jerusalem-based Monk Father Antonin, to Jewish Studies and to the Research of the Material Culture of Palestine in the Final Years of the Ottoman period
16:20 Discussion
16:30 Break

Session 4 – 17:00-18:30
Chair: Boaz Zissu
17:00 Amos Frumkin & Boaz Lengford- The Research of a Karstic Cave Used for Refuge in the Jerusalem Hills
17:20 Boaz Zissu & Roi Porat- A Hoard of Coins and Other Finds from the Bar-Kokhba Period, Recently Discovered in a Refuge Cave in the Jerusalem Hills
17:40 Guy Stiebel- “On the Edge” – Military Equipment from a Refuge Cave in the Jerusalem Hills
18:00 Hanan Eshel- New Discoveries from a Refuge Cave in the Jerusalem Hills, and their Contribution to the Study of the Bar-Kokhba War
18:20 Discussion

Source: Joe Lauer

Leprosy in Jerusalem

In 1994 my archaeologist-wife Kathleen and I wrote an article in Biblical Archaeology Review (Nov/Dec 1994) called “Akeldama – Potter’s Field or Priestly Cemetery?” Akaldama is mentioned in the Bible as a burial place for strangers, bought with the money given to Judas to betray Jesus (Acts 1.19). Akeldama means Field of Blood, for Judas, while trying to hang himself, fell down and his body burst open.

We then suggested that a small, but beautifully decorated tomb in the area below St. Onuphrius Monastery might have belonged to Annas the High Priest, who condemned Jesus to death, for the Temple Mount could be viewed from this tomb and the architectural decoration of the tomb has been copied from the Temple Mount. There are other decorated tombs in this area. Instead of a burial place for strangers, this area was most likely the cemetery of priestly families.

TombAnnasTn
Entrance to the Tomb of Annas the High Priest

AnnasTombTn
Reconstruction of the Tomb of Annas (© Ritmeyer Archaeological Design)

In June 2000, another tomb was accidentally found, which contained bones and remains of a linen shroud. The tomb is located next to the tomb which we had identified as Tomb of Annas. Carbon-14 dating showed that the shroud dated from the first half of the first century AD. It has been reported that a new analysis has now showed that the man to whom the shroud belonged suffered from leprosy. Leprosy is mentioned in the Bible, but this is the first time that archaeological evidence has proved that it actually existed. Joe Lauer pointed me to an article in the Daily Mail, which has several photographs of the tomb.

It is interesting to note that this shroud doesn’t look at all like the Turin Shroud. The shroud in Jerusalem was made up of several wrappings and there was a separate wrapping for the head. This would, of course, be in harmony with the burial of Jesus, whose body was buried with a separate head cloth (John 20.27).

National Geographic’s The Holy Land Special Issue

While we were in the US, we noticed a special November 2009 issue of the National Geographic on The Holy Land.

It has many interesting articles about the Holy Land, but it also has a previously published poster of the Temple Mount as an insert. We described this poster, of which we were one of the contributors, in this previous blog post. Many readers asked for copies of this map and we are delighted to announce that it is still available inside this special issue.

If you don’t have a subscription to the National Geographic, you can order this special issue here.

Here is a view of the poster, reproduced with permission of the National Geographic Society:

Conferences and Lectures in New Orleans

My wife Kathleen and I enjoyed our time last week in New Orleans and even had time to sail on the Mississippi on the Steamboat Natchez. It was also interesting to listen to the many stories about the Katrina disaster four years ago. People’s lives are still dominated by that event. Their recent history seems to be divided in pre- and post-Katrina periods. The New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, where I lectured for two days as the Manuel Lectureship Speaker, is only now getting back to normal, after having had to move to Atlanta, as most of the campus was flooded.

natchezweb

There were many lectures to choose from at the ASOR, ETS, SBL and NEAS conferences. We attended lectures, ranging from Satellite Remote Sensing, the Location of Sodom, through the latest updates of recent archaeological excavations, such as Kh. Qeiyafa and Tell Es-Safi/Gath, to a fascinating section on Teaching Archaeology.

The latter section was at times hilarious, listening to archaeologists who had to teach archaeology, without having had any prior teacher training, to students who didn’t know anything about the subject at all. Reading assignments sometimes produced gems like the title of Eric Cline’s lecture: “The Israelites Wondered in the Dessert for 40 years” and “Before the Printing Press, it took 300 Sheep to Write the Bible”.

Here is a comment on my lecture on “The Eastern Wall of the Temple Mount in Jerusalem – Deciphering Its Story”.

A 2,000 year old Mikveh exposed in the Western Wall tunnels

While I was abroad, the IAA reported that a 2,000 year old mikveh has been found near the Temple Mount:

“The miqve was discovered inside the western hall of a splendid structure that is located just c. 20 meters from the Western Wall. Parts of the building were discovered in the past and the Israel Antiquities Authority is currently exposing another one of the three halls inside it. It is one of the most magnificent structures from the Second Temple period ever to be uncovered.”

This “magnificent structure” is the Council-chamber, also known as the Masonic Hall, which was first discovered by Charles Warren in the 1860’s. It is located near the Western Wall and the bridge over Wilson’s Arch was later partly built over it. This drawing shows the location of the Council-chamber, the Xystus and the Hasmonean Palace in relation to the Temple Mount:

Xystus

The confusing part in the rest of this report is the following sentence:

“In his book The War of the Jews, Josephus Flavius writes there was a government administrative center that was situated at the foot of the Temple. Among the buildings he points out in this region were the council house and the “Xistus”- the ashlar bureau. According to the Talmud it was in this bureau that the Sanhedrin – the Jewish high court at the time of the Second Temple – would convene. It may be that the superb structure the Israel Antiquities Authority is presently uncovering belonged to one of these two buildings.”

Josephus actually writes the following about the northern part of the First Wall in The War of the Jews 5.144:
“Beginning on the north at the tower called Hippicus, it [the city wall] extended to the Xystus, and then joining the council-chamber terminated at the western portico of the temple.”

The Xystus was not a building, but a paved open space for assembly, used for public speeches. In Greek, xystus means smooth, polished flag-stones. Previously, the Gymnasium was located there. In The War of the Jews 2.344, Berenice stood watching on the roof of the Hasmonean Palace, while King Agrippa made a speech to the people which he had summoned to the Xystus below. If they were inside a building, Berenice could never have watched this event. It is therefore a mistake to confuse the Xystus with the “ashlar bureau”, better known as the Chamber of Hewn Stone (Lishkat haGazit in Hebrew) of the Mishnah.

The Council-chamber (Bouleh in Greek) was located between the Xystus and the Western Wall of the Temple Mount. It was a public building and has nothing to do with the Chamber of Hewn Stone, which was located on the Temple Mount. It is described in Mishnah Middot 5.4 as one of the chambers of the Temple Court: “Those [chambers] on the south were the Wood Chamber, the Golah Chamber and the Chamber of Hewn Stone.” “The Chamber of Hewn Stone – there used the Great Sanhedrin of Israel to sit and judge the priesthood.” See also my previous post on The Sanhedrin and the Temple Mount.

The archaeologist Alexander Onn correctly calls the Council-chamber a government administrative building. The mikveh with its 11 steps was built later into the building, testifying to the growth and development of Jerusalem later on in the Herodian period.

The Council-Chamber was a beautifully designed building with pilasters cut into the interior walls, resting on a plinth which was located about 1 meter (3 feet) above the original floor. The newly discovered mikveh is located in the western hall of this building, well below the original floor level. Below is my reconstruction drawing, showing the location of the mikveh:
mikvehtn

Temple facade shown on Bar-Kokhba coins

A large cache of rare coins has been found by archaeologists in the Judean Hills. “Leaders of the Jewish resistance imprinted and dated coins for each year of the rebellion with, for example, images of the exterior of the Second Temple in Jerusalem and poetry for reclaiming Jerusalem as a means for spreading the rebellion via currency.”

Of special interest is the coin shown in the Jerusalem Post report, which dates from the third year of the Maccabean revolt. The Temple coins show a facade with four columns, a foundation course, a central entrance and a wavey line on top, perhaps representing the entablature. It was clearly an indication that the Jewish rebels against the Roman domination wanted to rebuild the Temple, once their freedom was regained. I once used a similar coin to reconstruct the facade of the Temple for an Israeli scholar and later used the information to design a reconstruction model of the Temple.

webcoin

A Bar-Kokhba coin of year 3 showing the facade of the Temple

webfacadecoin

The reconstruction drawing of the Temple facade is based on the coin’s image

Facade

A reconstruction model showing the facade of Herod’s Temple

Solomon’s Temple and Herod’s Temple Mount

This is a post I am thrilled to be able to write! Followers of this blog will know that over the years, we produced educational slide sets that lecturers and teachers used to give presentations or to enhance their own presentations. We updated two of these to CD format and many of you wrote to say how helpful you found these. In fact, we received many communications begging us to transform the remaining slide sets into CDs. Pressure of other projects delayed this until recently, when further CDs were requested for a lecture tour.

We are pleased therefore to inform you that two more of these are ready, in time for the beginning of the academic year: Volume 4: The Archaeology of Herod’s Temple Mount and Volume 6: In Search of Herod’s Temple Mount. Do click on CDs under Product Categories to have a look.

Vol 4 web

Vol6 web

If you follow Temple Mount matters, you will know that this coming Thursday, July 30th, is Tisha be’Av, (the ninth day of the Jewish month Av), which commemorates the destruction of both the First and Second Temples on this same date (the First by the Babylonians in 586 B.C., the Second by the Romans in 70 A.D.). With the help of these presentations, you can, wherever you are, “Walk about Zion, and go round about her: tell the towers thereof. Mark ye well her bulwarks, consider her palaces; that ye may tell it to the generation following” (Psalm 48:12,13).

Hopefully, we will soon post news of the remaining two CDs.

A new Bible program

During the last eight months or so, we have worked as archaeological and historical consultants for a new digital Bible program, called GLO.

On the introductory page of the new website, it says: “Glo is an interactive Bible with a world of media, resources and tools to help you get closer to the Word of God”. The program will soon be available. GLO will prove to be very helpful for the Bible student who wants to know more about the Bible and the physical background on which the stories are played out.

Through 5 main “lenses”, Bible, Atlas, Timeline, Media and Topical, the Bible student will be able to browse the contents of this very useful program.

There are numerous virtual tours, high-res photos, vidoes, articles and maps which help bring the Bible to life. You can even share your personal notes with friends online.

More information will follow.

German Lecture Tour

From June 19-27, 2009 a lecture tour in Germany has been planned. My wife Kathleen will join me.

The first series will take place on June 19, 20 in Schwäbisch Gmünd, for see details here.
The lecture titles are:
1. Reconstruction of Herod’s Temple (Saturday 20, 9.30 – 11.30)
2. In Search of Solomon’s Temple (20.00 – 22.00)

Next some lectures will be given at the Freien Theologischen Hochschule (FTH) Giessen
(Giessen School of Theology) on June 23 and 24. The three lectures are entitled:
1. The Role of the Herodian Temple in Jerusalem (23 June, 11.10 – 13.00)
2. The Archaeology of the Temple Mount in Jerusalem (June 23, 19.30 – 21.15)
3. Solomon’s Temple in the Books of Kings and Chronicles (June 24, 14.10 – 16.00)

Finally, two lectures will be given at the Saxon Conference for the German Friends of Israel at the Pavillon of Hope, Puschstr. 9, Leipzig on Friday 27th (15.00) and the titles are:
1. What did Herod’s Temple Mount look like?
2. Where on the Temple Mount stood Solomon’s Temple?

Historical Jesus

Some of you may be interested in the following 8-part series on the historical Jesus:

http://dod.org/Products/DOD2121.aspx

It features the scholars of the IBR Jesus Study Group (Darrell Bock, Craig Evans, Grant Osborne, Michael Wilkins, et al.) discussing the conclusion of 10 years of research. It’s filmed on location in Israel, and it’s very well done.

Passed on by Justin Taylor