City of David: The Story of Ancient Jerusalem

For my birthday last month, I received a magnificent tome called: City of David: The Story of Ancient Jerusalem by Ahron Horovitz (edited by Dr. Eyal Meiron), Jerusalem: Megalim-City of David Institute for Jerusalem Studies, 2009, 325 pp. Amazon price $56.07.

If you are considering requesting the book to be brought from Jerusalem, give a thought to your friend’s baggage allowance! The book is lavishly produced, quite large and very heavy. So heavy indeed  (about 6 pounds) that it was cheaper to bring it 160 miles by car from London to Cardiff, where we live, than to send it by Royal Mail!

The book recounts the Biblical story of Jerusalem and uses the results of archaeological excavations to illustrate it.

Jane Cahill West, a senior staff archaeologist for the Hebrew University’s City of David project (1978-’85) directed by the late Yigal Shiloh, writes in her book review here:

One of the best features of the book is Horovitz’s ability to provide clear, concise descriptions of the debates that surround interpretation of Jerusalem’s most controversial archaeological remains, such as Warren’s Shaft, the Stepped Stone Structure, and the city’s fortifications. Reconstruction drawings depicting how the city may have looked at various stages of Biblical history are based primarily on the interpretation of fellow tour guide Eyal Meiron, while explanations for some of the most controversial features of Jerusalem’s water supply systems are those offered by Zvi Abells, a retired electrical engineer who devotes all his spare time to studying Jerusalem’s water systems. These reconstructions and interpretations offer perspectives on issues of contentious debate rarely seen in print.

 

 

 

 

The 37 Israel Archaeological Congress (Bar Ilan University)

From Jack Sasson:

37th Annual Archaeological Congress in Israel

This Thursday (14th of April, 2011) the 37th Annual Archaeological
Congress in Israel will be held at Bar-Ilan University. The
conference, as always, will be a combination of short lectures
presenting new finds and excavations, as well as topical studies (note that the afternoon sessions will be running in parallel halls).

This year, there were be sessions on the following topics:
1) Prehistory (9 to 11 am)
2) Archaeological Science (11:30 to 13:30)
3) New Directions in the Study of the Persian Period (14:30-16:30)
4) Feasting in the archaeological record (14:30-16:30)
5) New excavations and studies – early periods (17:00-19:00)
6) New excavations and studies – later periods (17:00-19:00).

Program (in Hebrew) at
<http://arenmaeir.files.wordpress.com/2011/04/the-37-israel-archaeological-congress.pdf>.

Should be a very interesting day. Hope to see you there!

The Western Wall of the Temple Mount Gets Cleaned for Passover, All Notes Taken Out

Did you ever wonder what happened to all those prayer notes that people stick in between the stones of the Western Wall of the Temple Mount? Once a year, in preparation for Pesach (Jewish Passover), they are taken out and buried. According to Jewish Law they cannot be trashed, as the name of God appears on most of the notes. This Israel National News report and video tells you how they do it:

The holiday of Passover is quickly approaching and as we are all busy cleaning our homes, the Kotel (Western Wall) is also being cleaned and the many notes which visitors place between the stones throughout the year are being removed. After the notes are removed, they are taken to genizah (storage for sacred documents).

You can watch the video here: 

Cleaning the Western Wall

“We do this so that there’s room for people who come in the future to place their notes,” explained the caretaker of the Kotel, Yehoshua Rachamim. “We also do it so the wall is Kosher for Passover and there are no traces of chametz between the stones.”

Rachamim added that the cleaning staff does not look at the contents of the notes under any circumstances.

“We don’t look at the notes,” he emphasized. “We only clean, gather the notes, place them in a bag, and take them for genizah.”

In addition to removing the notes, professional engineers are also working at the site, using a crane to ensure that the stones remain stable and that there is no fear that they could break and fall on the worshipers.

The work is being carried out by the Western Wall Heritage Foundation, and is being supervised by the Kotel’s rabbi, Rabbi Shmuel Rabinovich.

 

Lecture on “Re-excavating Jerusalem” in Oxford

A great reason to visit the “city of dreaming spires”

This drawing shows the excavation results of the fortified area in the City of David. The earliest remains are stone filled terraces from the Jebusite period, which were excavated by Kathleen Kenyon. Yigal Shiloh excavated the rest of the area, which he called Area G.

The Department of Antiquities at the Ashmolean Museum (University of Oxford) is pleased to invite friends and colleagues to:
The Seventh Annual Roger Moorey Memorial Lecture:
Dr Kay Prag, University of Manchester, “Re-excavating Jerusalem: A Review, Fifty Years On”

Saturday 28 May 2011, 2.30pm, at Wolfson College, Linton Road, Oxford, OX2 6UD

Summary: May 2011 marks the 50th anniversary of the start of the large-scale excavations undertaken by Dame Kathleen Kenyon in Jerusalem. The huge archive contains a remarkable record of finds from the earliest occupation through to the Islamic centuries – but did Kenyon achieve her aim – to put the archaeology of Jerusalem on a sound scientific footing for the first time?

***Entry to this lecture is free but seat reservation is essential***
Please contact: Ilaria Perzia, Department of Antiquities, Ashmolean MuseumE-mail: antiquities@ashmus.ox.ac.uk     Tel: 01865 278020 www.ashmolean.org

HT: Jack Sasson

2nd International Temple Mount Awareness Day

In the Book of Exodus we read about the construction of the Tabernacle. On the first day of the first month (called ‘Rosh Chodesh Nisan’ in Hebrew) of the second year after coming out from Egypt, the Tabernacle was put up (Exodus 40.1) and on the same day God’s glory filled the Tabernacle (Exodus 40.34).

The entrance to the open Court of the Tabernacle was via a curtain of fine linen interwoven with blue, purple and scarlet and supported by four pillars (Exodus 27.16). © Leen Ritmeyer

Tomorrow, on the 5th of April, the Jews celebrate Rosh Chodesh Nisan (which is also the beginning of the Sacred New Year) and the Temple Institute of Jerusalem is organising the 2nd International Temple Mount Awareness Day with a program that will be live broadcast from 2.00 – 8.00 pm Israel time. Click on the picture below to see a video that gives a brief description of what they are planning:

2nd International Temple Mount Awareness Day. © Temple Institute

Participating are:

  • Yitchak Zweig – archaeologist, founder and director of Temple Mount Sifting Project
  • Dovid Louis – researcher into the original music of the Holy Temple
  • Reuven Prager – expert on the restoration of Levitical garments
  • Baruch Ben-Yosef – legal scholar on Temple Mount issues
  • Yisrael Medad – Temple Mount activist

 

The 70 books

If there was an award for Most Timely Blog, it should be awarded to Todd Bolen for his post yesterday called Early Christian Lead Books Discovery: Some Problems.

With claims such as have been made for this discovery, ones’s in-box gets flooded with enquiries and it takes time to set out the facts. Time is in short short supply here at the moment, so I can do no better than refer you to his incisive post.

Todd concludes:

There may be something to this discovery, but first the artifacts must be confiscated by the officials and assigned to reputable scholars.

It may be April Fool’s Day, but let us take the advice of wise Solomon:

“He who answers a matter before he hears it, it is folly and shame to him” (Proverbs 18.13, NKJV).

Discovering the Water Systems of the City of David in Jerusalem

The Jerusalem Post has an article called “Mythical Water Pipe Discovered”. In the accompanying video, tour guide Danny Herman explains the various components of the water system in the City of David and how it developed over the ages. If you haven’t been in the City of David for a while, you may find this video interesting.

Over the last 150 years or so, researchers have attempted to understand the water systems in Jerusalem and the City of David in particular. During the 19th Century, illustrious researchers, such as Wilson, Warren, Conder, Schick, Weill and others have discovered and recorded parts of underground water channels and tunnels, which were all connected with the Gihon Spring in one way or another. The discovery of a vertical shaft from inside the so-called Hezekiah’s Tunnel by Charles Warren, has since 1878 been identified with the ‘tsinnor’ by which Joab presumably climbed into the City of the Jebusites, so that David could capture it, according to the account in 2 Sam. 5. This has now been discounted by the latest excavators.

The Siloam Pool and Reservoir at the southern end of the City of David. © Leen Ritmeyer

The first scientific recording of this water system in the 20th Century was done by Vincent, who accompanied the Parker Mission in 1911. He published very valuable plans and sections in ‘Jerusalem Sous Terre’ (1912). Later researchers, such as Kathleen Kenyon and Yigal Shiloh did further exploration of these tunnels and channels, but the most extensive research was done from the end of the 20th Century up till now by Ronnie Reich and Eli Shukron. Despite all their investigations, it is not altogether clear how all the different channels, pools and reservoirs work together, but we are a lot closer to understanding the water systems now than ever before.

 

GLO for Mac, iPad and iPhone

As a dedicated Mac user, I am pleased to announce that GLO is now available for Mac owners.

Glo is an interactive Bible with a world of media, resources and tools – HD video and documentaries, high resolution images, zoomable maps, 360-degree virtual tours and much more – to help you get closer to the Word of God. The Bible comes to life through Glo, allowing you to experience and explore the biblical world in ways never before possible. And it’s easy to use with Glo’s unique browsing lenses.

The main website gives information about GLO for various platforms, such as PC, Mac, iPad and iPhone. FAQs are answered on this site.

Earthquake preparedness in Israel

I used our new CD-ROM, The Seven Churches of Revelation – Walking among the Lampstands, to teach part of a course on The Archaeology of the New Testament yesterday.

Having read this article in Arutz Sheva on Israel’s earthquake preparedness, a few hours earlier, the promise to the overcomers in Philadelphia came home with more force than usual. It quotes from the State Comptrollers’s report this month, which paints a bleak scenario, expecting a 7.5 quake to kill 16,000 people and leave 377,000 homeless. Comptroller Micha Lindenstrauss’ wrote that:

“Most earthquake experts feel that the eventuality of an earthquake in Israel that is liable to exact thousands of victims and cause significant damage to property and buildings is almost certain, and that such a quake will definitely come sooner or later…”

“A quake of 7.5 on the Richter scale in northern Israel is expected to cause 16,000 deaths, 6,000 seriously injured, 83,000 lightly injured, 377,000 evacuated from their homes…

“Though it is vital that hospitals continue to operate after an earthquake, many northern hospital buildings are very old and not built according to contemporary standards. A Health Ministry survey found that most of them are liable to collapse during an earthquake.”

The frequency of earthquakes in the volcanic area around Philadelphia was such that it was called Catacecaumene, the “Burnt Land". Photo: © Leen Ritmeyer

Part of the promise to believers in the sixth of the Seven Churches to receive a letter from Jesus Christ was : “He who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the temple of My God, and he shall go out no more” (Revelation 3.12).

As we read in the CD captions, temples in Asia in antiquity were always supported by pillars, making them the safest structures in the city. This message, therefore, would have resonated deeply with people living in this notoriously earthquake-prone area. In terms of earthquake preparedness, it is fascinating to read Pliny’s account of the construction of the Temple of Artemis in Ephesus (the first of the Seven Churches):

“It was built on marshy soil so that it might not be subject to earthquakes or be threatened by subsidences. On the other hand, to ensure that the foundations of so massive a building would not be laid on shifting, unstable ground, they were underpinned with a layer of closely trodden charcoal, and then with another of sheepskins with their fleeces unshorn” (Natural History 36.95).

Far-sighted planning indeed!

More pics of Fake Arab tombs near the Siloam Pool in Ancient Jerusalem

My son Nathaniel Ritmeyer was in Israel last month and took these photographs of the location of the fake tombs at the southern tip of the City of David, above the stepped Siloam Reservoir and King’s Garden.

The fake tombs are in the foreground above the Siloam Reservoir and King’s Garden, looking south. Photo: Nathaniel Ritmeyer 20 Feb. 2011
The fake tombs are located above the high stone wall at the southern end of the City of David, looking north. Below the stone wall is the northern cliff of the Siloam Reservoir. The exit is near the grey car and the steep road beyond it leads up into the City of David. The road on the very right, where the white car is parked, runs through the Kedron Valley toward the Gihon Spring. Photo: Nathaniel Ritmeyer 20 Feb. 2011
This photograph, looking east, was taken on 14th June 2010, showing that the tomb stones have been there for almost one year. Photo: Nathaniel Ritmeyer
Only a tiny bit of concrete holds up this tomb stone, which is clearly not attached to any grave. Photo: Nathaniel Ritmeyer 14 June 2010
This picture was taken on 28 May, 2009, looking south over the Siloam Reservoir and King's Garden. No fake tombs are visible. Photo: Nathaniel Ritmeyer.