site located at an average height of 740 m above sea level, on the spine of the Judean range, 40 km (25 mi.) east of the Mediterranean coast (UTM map reference 7115 × 5183). The name of the city is derived from Canaanite, in which it means “the god Salem is its founder.” This god is well known from Ugaritic texts (fourteenth century BCE), in which he is one of the two “agreeable and handsome gods” Šaḥar and Šalem—the gods of day and night, respectively. Because the oldest occurrences of Jerusalem are as Urushalimun in the Egyptian execration texts (nineteenth and eighteenth centuries BCE) and Urusalim (Amarna tablets, Egypt, fourteenth century BCE), some scholars dispute the derivation and meaning of the name. Archaeologically, the site of ancient Jerusalem can be divided into three sectors: the biblical City of David (the hill of Ophel), its historical nucleus, located south of the Old City and the Temple Mount (UTM map reference 7117 × 5184); the Old City itself, encircled by the sixteenth-century Ottoman walls; and the areas outside the walls, which include the ancient Jewish cemetery on the Mount of Olives, the Kidron Valley below the City of David, and many Christian holy places. The ancient city is well defined by the Kidron and Hinnom valleys, which form the framework in which the city is engulfed from east, south, and west, leaving the northern side entirely exposed to attacks with no natural defense. The vulnerability of Jerusalem from the north is an important factor in its history. Another valley, named Tyropoean by Flavius, crosses the city from north to south, creating the western confine of the City of David as well as the Temple Mount.
History of Excavations.
The first archeological excavations in Jerusalem were those of Félicien de Saulcy, who in 1860 cleared the so-called royal tombs north of the Old City. These excavations mark the beginning of a long list of nineteenth-century explorations of the city and its topography by individuals working without religious bias or superstition, investigations that yielded information of enduring relevance. More methodical exploration of the city began with the survey directed by Charles Wilson in 1864 and the excavations directed by Charles Warren in 1867–1870, that followed, on behalf of the Palestine Exploration Fund (PEF). Warren explored sections of the hill south of the Temple Mount (the Ophel), not realizing that he was digging the biblical city. It was only in 1881, after Hermann Guthe's excavations on the hill, on behalf of the Deutscher Verein zur Erforschung Palästinas, that it was identified as the core of the ancient city. In 1894–1897 Frederick Jones Bliss and Archibald Campbell Dickie, also for the PEF, excavated sections of the Ophel, uncovering not only the city's “First Wall” (see below), but also the remains of one of its early churches. In 1911 a group of engineers headed by Montague Parker cleared the immediate vicinity of the only perennial spring, the Gihon, located on the eastern slope of the City of David. There they discovered a group of three Early Bronze I tombs, since dubbed the Ophel tombs, as well as an elaborate tunnel system fed by the spring. [See Palestine Exploration Fund; and the biographies of Saulcy, Wilson, Warren, and Bliss.]
Louis-Hugues Vincent thoroughly studied Parker's explorations, correctly identifying the results of the work and giving them scholarly significance. More advanced and archeologically reliable excavations on the Ophel began with the work of Raymond Weill in 1913–1914 and again in 1923–1924. His excavations provided a more thorough view because he revealed strata from various periods, thus placing the hill and its water installations in historical context. Weill was followed by R. A. S. Macalister and J. Garrow Duncan (in 1923–1925), who discovered partial remains of the city's defenses and residential quarters. They were succeeded by John W. Crowfoot and Gerald M. FitzGerald (in 1927–1929) who, under the auspices of the British School of Archaeology in Jerusalem (BSAJ) and the PEF, uncovered, among other remains, the Valley Gate, thus defining the western boundary of the City of David. Their original plan was to dig a trench that would extend across the hill, the deep valley that borders it on the west (the Tyropoean), and the city's western hill (known today as Mt. Zion). Technical problems created by the accumulation of enormous fills over the centuries prevented them from achieving their goal. [See British School of Archaeology in Jerusalem; and the biographies of Vincent, Weill, Macalister, and Crowfoot.]
From 1961 to 1968, Kathleen M. Kenyon, under the auspices of the PEF and institutions in France, Canada, England, and Australia, reexcavated the City of David. In 1978, another team, headed by Yigal Shiloh on behalf of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the City of David Society, initiated a new series of excavations on the hill. This project was concluded in 1985 and, together with Kenyon's excavation results, succeeded in giving the scholarly world a comprehensive view of ancient Jerusalem's history and archeology. [See the biographies of Kenyon and Shiloh.]
The earliest remains on the hill were found in Shiloh's excavation areas B, E1, and E3. The remains of the Chalcolithic period (late fourth millenium) consist mainly of pits dug into the natural bedrock and filled with debris and Early Bronze Age I (third millenium) pottery, which contributes important additional data for the period of the Ophel tombs (see above). In area E1 remains of a typical broadroom house were found; it had been built on bedrock, with its interior walls surrounded by stone benches. The later phases of the urban Early Bronze Age are not represented in Jerusalem. The Middle Bronze Age I (also designated EB IV), although not found in the City of David, is nevertheless represented by tombs dated to the period found by the Kenyon team, as well as by the nineteenth-century scholars who worked on the Mount of Olives and in the village of Silwan across the Kidron Valley from the City of David. (It is now also suggested that the grotto under the Dome of the Rock on the Temple Mount is also a burial cave that dates to this period [see Rivka Gonen, “On Ancient Tombs and Holy Places,” Cathedra 34 (1985): 3–14].)
The transformation of Jerusalem into a fortified city took place in the Middle Bronze Age II period (eighteenth century BCE), when the site was surrounded by a city wall some 3 m thick (found by both Kenyon in her section A and Shiloh in his area E). In the following MB phases, bastions were added to the wall; it is highly probable that a tower flanking a gate, found in Kenyon's section A also belongs to the MB fortifications. Because the tower was found at a point where the wall is above the spring, and because the buildings there had been in use when the Babylonian army destroyed Jerusalem in 586 BCE, many scholars believe that the gate is the biblical Spring Gate (Neh. 2:14, 3:15, 8:3, 16). The eastern slope of the hill above the spring is very steep, demanding a resourceful solution to make construction possible there: a system of terraces proved to be the answer. It is probable, as Kenyon suggested, that these terraces are the structures referred to in the Bible as the millô' (Heb., “fill”) built by David and repaired by Solomon and Hezekiah (Kenyon, 1974).
In the Late Bronze Age, Jerusalem is mentioned in the Amarna tablets (see above), which give the impression that the city was then quite prosperous and attempting to expand into the territories of the neighboring city-states. Excavations in the vicinity of the City of David seem to confirm this: in 1954, Sylvester J. Saller discovered a wealthy tomb on the Mount of Olives (Saller, The Jebusite Burial Place, Jerusalem, 1964, pp. 7–10). In 1935, on the Hill of Evil Counsel (south of the Hinnom Valley), D. C. Baramki discovered a cistern with a rich assemblage of LB finds (Baramki, “An Ancient Cistern in the Grounds of Government House, Jerusalem,” Quarterly of the Department of Antiquities in Jerusalem 4 : 165–167) and in 1933, a tomb rich with grave goods was found in the Naḥlat Aḥim neighborhood northwest of the Old City (published by Ruth Amiran in Eretz-Israel 6 : 28–37 [Heb.], 27* [Eng.]). [See the biographies of Saller and Baramki.] At the summit of the southeastern hill in the City of David itself, a monumental LB structure was found that constitutes a series of terraces built of small stones on various levels to create a huge artificial mound. No doubt the work of the Canaanite kings of Jerusalem, the structure created a podium on which a citadel or a royal palace might suitably have been built. Later, in David's time, the podium was covered with an enormous stepped stone structure, the best-preserved structure dated to the time of that king (c. 1000–940 BCE).
The remains of the period immediately preceeding the Davidic conquest of Jerusalem, found in Shiloh's areas D1 and E1, were too poor to cast any light on the “Jebusites” who then dwelled in the city (Jos. 15:63; Jgs. 1:21, etc.). Except for the podium (see above), remains in the city from the tenth century are quite scant. Area G, where the stepped structure was found (Kenyon's section A) is located at the northeast corner of the City of David. The structure served as the city's citadel then. Kenyon found, as its western extention, a city wall of the casemate type, which is typical of tenth-century BCE fortifications (her area H). Slightly east of the stepped structure Kenyon also found a palmette (“Proto Aeolic” type) capital, which is an indicator of “royal” architecture at other cities in the country as well (e.g., Hazor). All the indications therefore are that the stepped structure belonged to the citadel of David, as his palace and fort are referred to in the Bible (2 Sm. 5:7; 1 Kgs. 8:1). It was only in the time of his son Solomon that the city's civic and administrative center moved farther north to the Temple Mount. Because of its location, no archeological evidence of that center has yet been found. The condition of the stepped structure may be an indication of the process of erosion by millennia of winter rains. In the eighth-seventh centuries BCE, when the city reached its zenith, the stepped structure was utilized as an artificial hill on which some of the city's best-preserved private houses were built. Cult objects such as figurines representing various deities were found there—examples of the syncretistic religious inclinations of the city's inhabitants (Shiloh, 1984, p. 17).
An important feature of biblical Jerusalem is its water installations. The earliest are simple canals directing water from the Gihon Spring to pools—the Kings Pool and the Siloam Pool—farther down the Kidron and Tyropoean Valleys. The first installation, discovered by Warren in 1867, is known today as Warren's Shaft. The date of its construction is not clear because Warren destroyed its immediate archeological context. The shaft consists of three main parts: a tunnel that brings water from the spring toward the inside of the hill (22 m long); a vertical shaft (12.3 m long) to the tunnel that served as a well from which water could be drawn; and a long tunnel that begins at the lower part at the top of the shaft and ascends at first moderately (28 m long) and then steeply, necessitating steps (8 m high) to the surface (Shiloh, 1984, pp. 21–22, 24). Warren's shaft enlarged natural karstic cavities in the bedrock. It was designed for use when the city was under siege as an undisturbed and unseen source of water. Some scholars identify it as the ṣinnôr (Heb., “pipe”) the Bible says was the passage through which David's men entered Jerusalem in order to conquer it (2 Sm. 5:18; 1 Chr. 11:6). If, however, the water system should be dated to the time of Solomon, this identification is untenable.
The second water installations is Hezekiah's tunnel. During that king's reign, the city expanded westward, covering the hill west of the City of David. Hezekiah surrounded the newly settled environs of the city with a wall (see below) that included the Tyropoean Valley and the Siloam Pool within the city wall. These new topographic realities enabled Hezekiah to bore a water tunnel over half a kilometer long (because of later construction and quarrying on the hill it is impossible to be more precise, but 533 m is frequently conjectured). The tunnel slopes about 30 cm from the spring to the pool. At a certain point in Hezekiah's tunnel, an inscription (discovered by local children in 1880) was installed. It describes the moment when the two parties, hewing the tunnel from two ends, met. It is not a royal inscription, however, and the king is not even mentioned. The ascription of the tunnel to Hezekiah rests on the epigraphic dating of the inscription to the late eighth-century BCE and the biblical description of the deeds of that king. [See Water Tunnels; and Siloam Tunnel Inscription.]
The western limits of the City of David are still a matter of dispute because no substantial remains have been discovered. A section of a city wall about 8 m wide, in which a gate was incorporated was discovered by Crowfoot and Duncan in 1927–1928 (see above). They ascribed it to the biblical city, it is now dated to the second or first century BCE. North of the City of David, toward the Temple Mount, Benjamin Mazar and Elat Mazar excavated a large public building (some parts of it were first excavated by Warren and other parts by Kenyon) and a second structure. Benjamin Mazar has identified the first one as bēt millô' (2 Kgs. 12:21); Elat Mazar believes the second structure to be a city gate (Mazar and Mazar, 1989, pp. 58–60; many scholars prefer to interpret it as a royal storehouse, however). Although these remains are later than the Solomonic period, they nevertheless indicate the great works carried out by the kings of Judea (Judah) in the immediate vicinity of the Temple Mount. Of the Temple itself, there are no remains from the biblical period. The present Temple Mount and its retaining walls date to the first century BCE, the Second Temple period, and they have obliterated or conceal all earlier remains. [See the biography of Mazar.]
The cemeteries of the Iron II period (most of the eighth-seventh centuries BCE), have recently become subject to thorough study. David Ussishkin surveyed the cemetery in the village of Silwan across the valley from the City of David in 1968–1971. His survey revealed more tombs similar to the ones known from Charles Clermont-Ganneau's 1874 survey and subsequent surveys (altogether, some fifty burial caves). [See the biography of Clermont-Ganneau.] Gabriel Barkay has identified rock-cut tombs on the grounds of the École Biblique et Archéologique Française as being part of the large cemetery north of the present Old City. Amos Kloner and Amihai Mazar produced more information about the latter, describing an additional fifteen caves, including the Garden Tomb. In 1990 Ronny Reich found another section of that cemetery west of the Old City. This and another cemetery discovered by Barkay farther south, in his excavations on the grounds of the Scottish church from 1979 to 1988, reveal the extent of the burial grounds around the ancient city. (See Barkay, Kloner, and Mazar, “The Northern Necropolis of Jerusalem during the First Temple Period, in Geva, ed., 1994, pp. 119–127; Barkay and Kloner, “Jerusalem Tombs from the Days of the First Temple,” Biblical Archaeology Review 12 : 22–30; and Barkay, “Excavations at Ketef Hinnom in Jerusalem,” in Geva, ed., 1994, pp. 85–106.) Research into these cemeteries concentrates on two problems: does the diffusion of the tombs reflect the size of Jerusalem at the end of the First Temple Period, and can the size of the cemetery help to deduce the number of inhabitants then living in the city?
Many remains of the First Temple period have been discovered on Jerusalem's western hill (see figure 1). The Jewish Quarter, in the Old City, was excavated during the quarter's reconstruction and rehabilitation. Directed by Nahman Avigad from 1968 to 1978, the excavations recovered a 65-meter-segment of the “Broad Wall,” or Nehemiah's wall (Avigad, 1983). It forms a section of a 7-meter-deep city wall probably constructed by Hezekiah in the late eighth-early seventh centuries BCE. [See the biography of Avigad.] Many Judean refugees moved to Jerusalem at about that time, following the expansion of the independent pagan coastal cities; others were fleeing the Assyrian destruction of northern Israel. The expansion of the city, as well as the need to fortify the newly founded neighborhoods to its west, compelled Hezekiah to build the wall, which withstood the Assyrian siege of 701 BCE. The wall and adjacent remains of fortifications were surrounded by houses, some of which were demolished by the construction of the wall (cf. Is. 22:10). At the western edge of the hill more contemporary remains were uncovered at the Citadel, near the Jaffa Gate (by Hillel Geva, 1976–1980; and Renee Sivan and Giora Solar, 1980–1988; see Geva, “Excavations at the Citadel of Jerusalem, 1976–1980,” and Sivan and Solar, “Excavations in the Jerusalem Citadel, 1980–1988,” in Geva, ed., 1994) and on the southern slope of Mount Zion (by Bargil Pixner, Doron Chen, and Shlomo Margalit, 1977–1988; see Chen, Margalit, and Pixner, “Discovery of Iron Age Fortifications below the Gate of the Essenes,” in Geva, ed., 1994, pp. 76–81). All these remains indicate the city's expansion toward the end of the First Temple period, although many questions remain unanswered.
During the fifth century BCE, when repatriates from Babylon came to Jerusalem, some reconstruction work was undertaken. This activity continued until the time of Ezra and Nehemiah (Neh. 3:1–32). The latter even reconstructed the city walls, although there is no archaeological proof of that activity. On the southeastern hill of the City of David, a few poorly constructed walls were found by Shiloh in his area G that had been used as terraces to support the debris of collapse from the 586 BCE Babylonian destruction (stratum 10). In his area D1–2, more contemporary remains were found, constituting, among other things, a quarry, possibly an indication of the works carried out in the city as a part of its rebuilding by Nehemiah.
The period between Nehemiah (c. 445 BCE) and the second century BCE is one of the most obscure in the history of Jerusalem, although some literary sources that describe the city are available (e.g., the Letter of Aristeas). It seems that only after the Maccabean revolt against the Seleucids, when Jerusalem became independent again (164 BCE), does its expansion toward the western hill become its most prominent urban feature. From what can be deduced from the archaeological record, the city shrank during the Persian period to its earlier dimensions—when it was limited to the southeastern hill, the City of David. The remains of the biblical city were still prominent above ground on the western hill, however, and when the western hill was surrounded by a wall those remains were incorporated. Avigad's excavations (see above) defined the limits of the settlement of the western hill. It became, in the second century BCE, the center of the city, and remained so until the fall of Jerusalem in 70 CE.
The southeastern hill, the City of David, was surrounded by walls that partially reused the Bronze Age–Iron Age walls, but were modified by Nehemiah. His changes included removing the wall's eastern alignment from halfway up the slope to its summit, giving the city its smallest dimensions ever. Macalister and Duncan (see above) had excavated that city wall but misinterpreted it; Kenyon and Shiloh corrected the dating to the second–first centuries BCE. The remains include two towers and a section of a wall, along with other elements Macalister and Duncan had discovered on the eastern slope and by Bliss and Dickie (see above) along the southern slope of the same hill and on the southern slope of the western hill (Mt. Zion). From 1977 to 1988, Pixner, Chen, and Margalit reexcavated a small section in the wall examined by Macalister and Duncan, confirming their dating. In 1973–1976, farther north on the western slope of that hill, Magen Broshi excavated the entire length of the wall. He distinguished two phases: of the Maccabean period and of the Herodian period. The latter was a reinforcement of the earlier wall and was probably connected with the construction of the Herodian palace inside the wall at that point (Broshi, “Excavations along the Western and Southern Wall of the Old City of Jerusalem,” in Geva, ed., 1994, pp. 147–155). Between 1934 and 1947, C. N. Johns had found another section of the wall in the Citadel, along with three towers incorporated into it. Later excavators (Ruth Amiran and Avraham Eitan in 1968–1969; Hillel Geva from 1976 to 1980; Sivan from 1980 to 1988) confirmed Johns's results and refined his discovery of the two phases of construction, Maccabean and Herodian (Amiran and Eitan, “Excavations in the Jerusalem Citadel,” in Yadin, ed., 1975, pp. 52–54). It was in the latter phase that the Tower of David was constructed, still one of the city's dominant features (see figure 2). Avigad excavated the eastern extension of the wall above, and discovered a gate in it that, although irregular in form, still must be interpreted as a city gate—it is unarguably an opening in the wall. The entire length of the wall is, thus, now well understood. The first-century CE historian Josephus Flavius named it the “First Wall” (War 5.142–145).
The city confined within the First Wall yielded a great many archaeological finds: from the City of David, an inscribed stone that probably was originally installed above the lintel of a synagogue served by at least of three generations of the same family. Although from Josephus's descriptions some of the city's most sumptuous structures were located in the city of David, excavation has not revealed any structures of importance (Shiloh, 1984, pp. 29–30). The lack of monumental remains on the southeastern hill can be ascribed cribed to the fact that in successive periods it served as a quarry. The remains of the Maccabean period on the western hill are better known from Avigad's excavations (see above). Although built over in the Herodian period, these survived—the lower parts of the houses revealed the lower parts of walls, cisterns, and baths, both for secular and religious purposes. In addition, many of the small finds indicate the character and size of the city in the Late Hellenistic period.
The Herodian period marks the apex in the development of the western hill (also called the Upper City and Zion by Josephus, War 5.137). Avigad's excavations revealed whole neighborhoods, including villas of great elegance—the Burnt House and the Western House—in the residential quarter, known as the Herodian Quarter, that occupied the entire western hill (see figure 3). Amiran and Eitan's excavation in the Citadel (see above) confirmed these findings. Two distictive strata were discovered in the Citadel representing the Maccabean and Herodian periods. From the small area excavated, the urban plan featured grids of crisscrossed streets flanked by houses, as was common in contemporary cities in the Greco-Roman world. This plan was also found in Broshi's 1972 excavations on Mt. Zion (see above), as well as in minor excavations on the lower parts of the eastern slope of the western hill (Bliss and Dickie in 1894–1897; Yitzhak Margovsky in 1969; Meir Ben-Dov in 1975–1977; See Margovsky in Revue Biblique 78 , p. 597; Ben-Dov, “Excavations and Architectural Survey of the Archaeological Remains along the Southern Wall of the Jerusalem Old City,” in Geva, ed., 1994, pp. 311–320). The houses on the western hill, which were built on a slope, all followed a similar plan: installations in their lower part—for storage, cisterns, and baths—supported the main floor. The main floor incorporated a central paved courtyard surrounded by rooms of various sizes. The houses were decorated with mosaic floors and frescoes. These adhered to the Jewish law forbidding human representation and display floral and geometric designs. Only one house was found in which the courtyard was surrounded by a colonnade (the Column House). Of special importance is the fact that furniture was found in some of the rooms, of which the most common type are stone tables in more than one design. The abundance of small finds includes terra sigillata ware, painted bowls, cups, trays, and beautiful glass and stoneware. The entire quarter was destroyed by the conflagration of 70 CE, whose traces were dramatic and ubiquitous (Avigad, 1983).
According to Josephus (War 5.176–183), Herod built a sumptuous palace on the western hill. In excavations carried out on its supposed site (by A. D. Tushingham from 1962 to 1967 and Dan Bahat and Broshi in 1971–1972) its foundations were exposed. The palace was large (130 × 330 m) and raised on an artificial platform constructed on a crisscross pattern of retaining walls that created compartments filled with earth to a height of more than 8 m. Some fragments of painted plaster found in secondary use in the Citadel may have belonged to the upper part of the palace.
Another city wall, which Josephus called the Second Wall (War 5.146), surrounded the northern quarter of the city. Dated to Herod's reign, some scholars believe that it may be earlier. Because the alignment of this wall underlies the present Old City, there is very little chance that archaeology will reveal traces of it. Its course has been a matter of dispute since the beginning of scholarship on Jerusalem. Avigad discovered a city gate in his excavations in the Jewish quarter (see above) that may be the Gate of Genneth Josephus mentions as the starting point of the Second Wall; Josephus maintains that its final point was at the fortress named Antonia (see below). The only clear trace of the wall is a small fragment of a thick wall, built of typical Herodian ashlars discovered by R. W. Hamilton (1949) while excavating the Damascus Gate in 1937–1938. Warren uncovered other remains in 1867–1870 in the so-called Muristan Quarter of the Old City he ascribed to the Second Wall. They were found to belong to the Late Roman period (see below). They were excavated under the nearby Church of the Redeemer by Ute Lux and K. Vriezen in 1971–1972. The same is true of the ancient remains exposed by N. Khitrowo in 1874 in the Russian Hospice east of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. Moreover, Kenyon's excavations in the Muristan (her area C) found that the entire area had been used as a quarry, probably also in the Herodian period, as well as a burial ground. (In the Church of the Holy Sepulcher at least six burial caves were found, including the traditional tomb of Jesus.) No vestiges of the city's domestic quarters surrounded by the Second Wall have ever been found.
The city's northernmost extension was defended by another wall, the Third Wall (Josephus, War 5.147–148). Many sections of this wall were found forming a long (about one kilometer) east–west curtain. The remains of the wall were still visible in the nineteenth century and were described by Edward Robinson (in 1838; see his Biblical Researches in Palestine, 2 vols., Boston, 1841; for this wall, see vol. 1, pp. 465–467) and then by Wilson (in 1864). In 1925–1927 and again in 1940, Eleazar L. Sukenik and L. A. Mayer (1930) excavated a long section of the wall and some towers bonded to it. Because most of the stones were robbed in antiquity, only a few details are known of its construction. It was about 4.5 m wide and built with stones dressed with typically Herodian margins and bosses. The towers protruded northward for more than 7 m from the wall's northern face. The wall's foundations were a packed earthwork—whose remains are in many cases the only indication of the wall's existence. [See the biographies of Robinson and Sukenik.]
Another excavation, by Emmett W. Hamrick in 1965, yielded coins dating from the 50s CE found in the wall's foundation layer, suggesting that the wall was built near the time of the First Jewish Revolt against Rome (67–70 CE), exactly as described by Josephus (War 5.148). In 1972–1974, Ehud Netzer and Sarah Ben-Arieh uncovered a house adjacent to the wall, finding evidence of the wall's destruction during the revolt (“Excavations along the ‘Third Wall’ of Jerusalem, 1972–1974,” IEJ 24 : 97–107). Excavations along the line of the wall were resumed between 1990 and 1992 by four teams, who found signs of quarrying activity as well as a hoard of tools at the site and in some sections of the wall (see V. Tzaferis, N. Feig, A. Onn, and E. Shukron, “Excavations at the Third Wall, North of the Jerusalem Old City,” in Geva, ed., 1994, pp. 287–292). In the area defended by the wall, a few contemporary remains were uncovered by Conrad Schick in 1879 and 1893 and by Netzer and Ben-Arieh in 1977: some partial remains of houses, one of which was excavated by Netzer and Ben-Arieh (see above) and a round structure, built in the opus reticulatum technique. The function of the round structure is unclear, although it is most likely a decorated tomb, possibly the one Josephus (War 5.108, 507) describes as Herod's Monument. [See the biography of Schick.]
Since the beginning of archaeological exploration in Israel the Temple Mount has been a focus of scholarly attention, both in survey and excavation (see figure 4). Of the Temple itself, however, practically no remains have survived. The present Temple Mount is essentially the one built by Herod the Great during the last two decades of the first century BCE. The first excavations along the outer face of the Temple Mount's retaining walls were carried out by Warren (in 1867–1870), who was following the lines of Wilson's 1864 survey. The next major studies were by Kenyon and Roland de Vaux in 1961–1968 (they reached the Ummayyad layer only in their area J) and then by Benjamin Mazar (see above), who excavated the western part of the southern retaining wall of the Temple Mount and the southernmost section of the western wall. [See the biography of Vaux.] In addition, Mazar's expedition investigated the tunnel that the Ministry of Religious Affairs had bored along the length of the Western Wall (the Kotel). Work in that tunnel was resumed in 1985 under Bahat's supervision. These excavations and surveys have, in combination, provided clear details of the Temple Mount: it is a large, irregular rectangle (488 × 320 × 280 × 470 m), 740 above sea level. The Herodian construction destroyed that of Solomon and of the temples built by the repatriates from Babylon and the Maccabeans. The Herodian foundations, which reach bedrock, thus conceal any earlier remains. The Herodian walls are built with bossed ashlars incised with double margins. The Herodian additions to the Temple Mount were installed along its north, west, and south sides. To construct the new areas level with the existing Maccabean platform, enormous fills became extensions on the south and north. The hill that held the Antonia fortress was partially cut away, and the valleys between it and the existing hilltop were also filled in. Some stones in the wall weigh as much as several hundred metric tons, making the Herodian walls one of the marvels of the ancient world. Geoelectric analysis has revealed the thickness of the wall to be 4.60 m. Streets paved with large stones abutted the western and southern sections of the artificial hill. The street at the northernmost point of the Temple Mount was flanked by columns, although they were found in too limited an exposure to permit conclusions as to their purpose.
The platform's two southern gates, today called the Double and Triple Gates (erroneously named the Hulda Gates) and the four western gates (named after their discoverers—Robinson, James T. Barclay, Wilson, and Warren) were initially studied in the nineteenth century. The Double Gate still retains its Herodian decorated domes over the ancient passageway. Warren's expedition (see above) discovered subterranean passages under the Triple Gate, whose function is not yet clear. Two broad staircases, opposite the western gate (65 m wide) and eastern gate (about 15 m wide), explored by Mazar (see above), suggest the monumentality and beauty of the Herodian structures. The entire area just south of the southern wall was dotted with ritual baths, indicating an ardent need to preserve the laws of purity for the Temple. On the southern street many fragments of decorated stones were found that probably came from the magnificent royal stoa Herod built along the southern retaining wall of the Mount. Mazar's expedition cleared the majestic staircase that descends from the southern gate in the western wall and the pier supporting the large arch over which the stairs were installed (Robinson's Arch). Farther north, Barklay (in 1854) described another passage (5.60 m wide and about 8 m high) to the Temple Mount platform that still carries his name. Another gate even farther north was named as homage to Warren by Charles Wilson, who examined it from inside the passageway. During work in the tunnel along the western wall in 1985, Bahat studied its outer side (Bahat, “The Western Wall Tunnels,” in Geva, ed., 1994, pp. 181–182). Between these two gates, a bridge was discovered by Titus Tobler in 1853 and investigated by Wilson in 1864. The existing easternmost vault (Wilson's Arch) is dated to the Umayyad period (eight century CE); it replaced a Herodian vault. Warren investigated the entire system of the bridge, which he called the Great Causeway (Conder and Warren, 1884, pp. 193–209). It consisted of a series of small vaults, all dating to the same period. The arch (or rather the bridge of which it formed a part) was rebuilt over an older one that had not only facilitated the walk from the western hill across the central valley (the Tyropoean) but supported the aqueduct conveying water from “Solomon's Pools” south of Bethlehem to the Temple. [See Aqueducts.] Under the bridge, a large room—which Warren called the Masonic Hall—is one of the country's best-preserved examples of Herodian architecture, although its function is not yet clear. At the northern end of the tunnel that was bored along the western wall, excavation revealed that Herod did not finish constructing the western wall: it ends in the partially cut away Antonia hill. Because the hill itself was left intact, some earlier pre-Herodian remains are preserved, including another aqueduct. (Warren had originally discovered that aqueduct in 1868, but it was subsequently forgotten.) Cisterns and the remains of foundation trenches for walls were also preserved—the last remains of the fortress built by the Maccabean rulers as a palace called Baris (see Bahat, in Geva, ed., 1994, p. 187). No traces of the Antonia fortress have hitherto been found in the tunnel. Many scholars have studied the rocky pinnacle on which the Antonia fortress was built. Vincent and, later, Marie Aline de Sion (in 1955) attempted to reconstruct the fortress from remains of the natural rock, which had been carved by Herod's workmen from four sides to create defensive scarps (de Sion, La Fortress Antonia à Jérusalem et la question du Prétoire, Jerusalem, 1955). On the northern side a deep moat was excavated in which Herod installed a large pool, still visible in the monastery of the Sisters of Zion. Farther east, another contemporary pool was found, the one known as the Sheep Pool or, in the Christian tradition, the Bethesda Pool. Originating in the First Temple period, it is really two pools, separated by a thick wall (50–60 × 95 m). The pools were partially excavated most recently (in 1981) by Marie-Joseph Pierre and Jourdain-Marie Roussée (“Saint Marie de la Probatique: États et orientations de recherche,” Proche Orient Chretien 31 : 23–42). Another pool of the same date, adjacent to the northern wall of the Temple Mount, was filled in in the 1930s. It is known today as the Pool of Israel. Its ancient name is unknown, but it was the largest of the city's pools (110 × 38 m). The aqueducts that provided water to the city from Solomon's Pools were still in use in the twentieth century. [See Pools.]
Considerable scholarship has been focused on the city's many surrounding cemeteries, as well as its water systems. It is possible that almost a thousand burial caves have been found in those cemeteries from the Herodian period and described by scholars since the nineteenth century. The hills surrounding the city were once pockmarked with caves for a distance of about 3 km (2 mi.) from the city limits in all directions. Some won fame because of the great beauty of their facade decoration (Avigad, 1954; L. Y. Rahmani, “Ossuaries and Ossilegium (Bone-Gathering) in the Late Second Temple Period,” in Geva, ed., 1994, pp. 191–205). Most of the tombs date to the first centuries BCE and CE. [See Burial Sites; Tombs.]
Following the period of Roman oppression and the First Jewish Revolt against Rome in 63–70 CE, the city was almost entirely destroyed. Only a few remains, such as the western section of the city wall and the Temple Mount, were preserved. It was only after the emperor Hadrian's visit in 129 CE that the decision was made to reconstruct the city. [See First Jewish Revolt; Bar Kokhba Revolt.] Most of the important remains of the Roman city date, therefore, to the second century CE. Under Hadrian (r. 117–138) a typical Roman city was planned—a plan that is retained in the Old City to the present.
The camp of the Tenth Roman Legion stationed in Jerusalem was installed in what is today the Old City's Armenian Quarter. Excavations in the Citadel (by Johns in 1934) and in the Armenian Garden (by Kenyon and Tushingham from 1962 to 1967) produced some evidence of the camp, namely many roof tiles bearing seals of the legion (which were also found in the Jewish Quarter, although not in situ). In the Citadel some fragments of walls were also found, but none that permit the reconstruction of any installation. In 1949, a workshop that had produced similar tiles was discovered by Michael Avi-Yonah about 3 km (2 mi.) northwest of the Old City that was recently (1992) excavated entirely. A considerable amount of information about this period has been gleaned from the inscriptions found in the city, all of them in secondary use in later installations, mostly epitaphs of legionnaires.
The city's fortifications in the Roman period pose a problem because there is no concrete evidence for precise archaeological dating; all hypotheses for dating the walls must therefore rest on historical evidence. Hamilton's excavations at the Damascus Gate in 1937–1938 revealed the city gate and its later abutting walls (Hamilton, “Excavations against the Northern Wall of Jerusalem,” Quarterly of the Department of Antiquities in Palestine 10 : 1–54). On the east, the gate has the typical configuration of a large central gate with two smaller flanking gates. A fragment of an inscription mentions the name of the city then, Aelia Capitolina. No precise date could be obtained for this gate's construction, but it seems that it should be assigned to Hadrian's reign. Recent excavations (M. Magen, “Excavations at the Damascus Gate, 1979–1984,” in Geva, ed., 1994, pp. 281–286) along the northern city walls suggest two possibilities for dating: either the walls were built toward the end of the third century, when the Tenth Legion left and the city was defenseless, or they were built in the first third of the fourth century, when, with the triumph of Christianity, Jerusalem became a central city within the framework of the Byzantine Empire. Archaeologically, the finds associated with the walls are conclusive. The Roman Damascus Gate may simply have been a triumphal arch if no wall was attached to it for at least 150 years. There were three more such arches in the city: two at the entrance to either of the fora that existed in Jerusalem (see below), and one about 400 m north of the Damascus Gate. Some contemporary streets have also been located. The city's main street, the cardo, was found, including a piazza, adjacent the Damascus Gate, by Menahem Magen in 1979–1984. Farther south, a small segment of pavement and a column belonging to the flanking portico were found by Margalit in 1978. Still farther south, Avigad, in the framework of the excavations in the Jewish Quarter (see above), located the extension of the cardo, constructed in the sixth century. Another, eastern cardo was found during development work in 1978 by Magen and Emanuel Eisenberg. Another street, today the main street in the Christian Quarter, was excavated for its entire length by Margalit in 1977. No remains of the decumanus, the east–west main street, that probably once existed, have been found, however, in spite of the deep trenches excavated in 1986 along its supposed line.
Altogether it seems that the Roman city had two distinctive features: a northern civil administration sector and a southern military sector occupied by the army. The present Jewish Quarter is still problematic regarding its function during the Roman period. Avigad (see above) discovered many fragments of tiles and other contemporary finds, but none in situ. It is thus assumed that the legion's camp was installed farther west, in the present Armenian Quarter. No definite line for the camp's western limits has ever been found. As already pointed out, a street grid was found for the northern half of the city, along with its two fora. The eastern forum was located north of the Temple Mount during construction of the monastery of the Sisters of Zion in 1868–1874. Although Vincent and Marie Aline (see above) misinterpreted the remains (believing them to belong to the Herodian Antonia fortress), in 1971, Pierre Benoit proved that they were a forum with a beautifully paved piazza, surrounded by various installations (columns, incisions on the floors, etc.) and a rocky scarp, all artificially hewn. A triumphal arch was erected on the west, toward the city. It was identified in the late medieval period as the Ecce Homo arch, where Jesus was taken from the Antonia fortress by Roman soldiers to be crucified. The entire complex had been erroneously identified as the Praetorium, where Jesus was tried by Pilate (Mt. 27:11–14; Mk. 15:2–5; Lk.23:3–12). Part of the western forum has been excavated. In 1874 Khitrowo excavated the triumphal arch and a section of its pavement. Kenyon uncovered other sections of the pavement (her area C), and Lux and Vriezen (see above) excavated more under the Church of the Redeemer. North of this forum, the Temple of Aphrodite was built in Hadrian's time; during the Byzantine Empire, it became the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. The two superimposed edifices were excavated and studied between 1960 and 1969 by Charles Coüasnon (The Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, London, 1974) and later by Virgilio C. Corbo (Il Santo Sepolcro di Gerusalemme, Jerusalem, 1982), revealing that very few remains of the Roman temple are preserved. What is preserved are the retaining walls of the temple precinct, a large wall under the present facade of the church (the southern retaining wall), and wall remains in the nearby Russian Hospice, which include the enclosure's eastern facade. Broshi and Barkay discovered some of the temple's foundation under the church in 1975–1976 (Broshi and Barkay, “Excavations in the Chapel of St. Vartan in the Holy Sepulchre,” IEJ 35 : 108–128). These scant remains do not permit a clear picture of the temple to be drawn. [See the biography of Corbo.]
In Mazar's excavations along the southern and western walls of the Temple Mount (see above), remains of at least three large public buildings, tiles of the Tenth Legion, and some inscriptions were also found that are attributed to the activity of the legion in this part of the city. Because the Roman city was built north of the City of David, it appears that the city's ancient core was used as a quarry where many of the stones needed to construct the new city were cut. At the southern end of this hill, the Romans rebuilt the Siloam Pool, transforming it into a square pool surrounded by colonnades (Bliss and Dickie, 1898, esp. pp. 132–177); a contemporary adjacent street was also found there, descending the valley from the city lying farther to the north. Tombs of the period were found surrounding the city, but no single burial ground has so far been discovered. On Salah edh-Din Street Hamilton and S. A. S. Husseini excavated some contemporary tombs in 1934. Netzer and Ben-Arieh also found tombs along the Third Wall (see above). At Naḥal Raqafot, about 3 km (2 mi.) west of the city, L. Y. Rahmani found some of the best-preserved tombs in 1972 (Rahmani, “Roman Tombs in Naḥal Raqafot, Jerusalem,” ῾Atiqot 11 : 77–88). Some Roman tombs were found among the Iron Age tombs discovered between 1975 and 1994 at the Scottish Church. The only other temple discovered in Jerusalem was that of Aesclepius, excavated by the White Fathers on their property at the Church of St. Anne inside St. Stephen's Gate (the Lion's Gate) within the walls of the Old City.
The ascendancy of Christianity made Jerusalem a central city in the Byzantine Empire. Many clergymen, pilgrims, and others flocked to the city, which grew immensely in the fourth and fifth centuries and reached its apex in the sixth (see figure 5). Church building was the city's main area of development and the churches are the prominent features in the archaeology of the period. Foremost is the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, built by Emperor Constantine in the 320s. Built above the pagan Temple of Aphrodite, it has the same dimensions (see above). The church is divided into four parts: a central round structure regarded as the tomb of Jesus; the Holy Garden, an open courtyard with porticoes on three sides that incorporates the hill of Golgotha in the southwest corner; the basilica, which was actually the temple in which the Christian cult was practiced; and the atrium, or forecourt, which gave access to the church from the east—from the cardo, where the church's three gates were located.
Another church (fifth century), excavated by Bliss and Dickie (see above), was built at the Siloam Pool, incorporating the pool itself. In the excavations in the Jewish Quarter, Avigad partially exposed the “Nea” Church, revealing its immense size. The identification of the remains with the church, which is mentioned in contemporary literary sources, was further confirmed by the discovery of a building inscription in subterranean vaults. The vaults served to level the site for construction and as cisterns for the church and its numerous dependencies (e.g., hospices). The inscription mentions the founder, Emperor Justinian, and a date of about 549 CE (Nahman Avigad, “A Building Inscription of the Emperor Justinian and the Nea in Jerusalem,” IEJ 27 : 145–151). The Church of Holy Zion, a fourth-century structure, was first discovered in 1898–1899 by H. Renard and then investigated by Eisenberg in 1983. The building had a basilical plan with five naves. The traditional tomb of King David is incorporated in it.
A church was discovered at a site where tradition locates a miracle—that of the healing of the paralytic (Jn. 5:2–9). The church, a typical basilica in plan was built on the large wall that divides the two Bethesda pools (see above), on 13-meter-high pillars that reach from the bottom of the pool to the surface. (C. Mauss in 1854, the White Fathers in 1914, and Rousée and Pierre in 1956).
The church of St. Stephen was built by the empress Eudocia in the fifth century. It was excavated by Marie-Joseph Legrange from 1885 to 1893 and entirely reconstructed for use by the Dominican fathers. On the Mt. of Olives, the emperor Constantine built a church named Eleona (Gk., “of the olives”) that was discovered in 1910–1911 by Vincent and partially cleared and restored. Other churches on the slopes of the mountain have also been excavated, including the Dominus Flevit (probably the Late Byzantine Church of Gethsemane) by J. T. Milik and Billarmino Bagatti in 1955; the Church of Gethsemane built by Theodosius I in 385 and excavated by Gaudence Orfali from 1910 to 1919; two chapels on the site of the present Russian Church of the Ascension, investigated from 1870 to 1893 that include the tomb of the Virgin, even though the remains are mostly from the Crusader period; and two unidentified churches on top of the mountain, investigated by Bliss and Dickie in 1894. Many contemporary tombs have also been discovered on the mountain's slopes. Barkay found a church on the hill of the Scottish Church during his 1975–1989 excavations. To this repertoire belong burial chapels: one decorated with birds in a mosaic pavement found by Dickie in 1894 north of the Damascus Gate; the “Orpheus mosaic” found in the same area studied by Vincent in 1901; and the chapel recently discovered by Reich in his 1992 excavation in the Mamilla area west of the Old City (Reich, “The Ancient Burial Ground in the Mamilla Neighborhood, Jerusalem,” in Geva, ed., 1994, pp. 117–118). [See Churches; Mosaics.]
The Byzantine period's primary contribution to Jerusalem's fortifications was the empress Eudocia's addition, in 446 CE, of a new southern city wall—actually a reconstruction of the First Wall (first century BCE). The empress, a resident of the city, rebuilt the wall to enclose the newly built churches of Siloam, Zion, and Peter in Galicantu, as well as the nearby residential neighborhoods. Bliss and Dickie excavated most of this new city wall in 1894–1897; Kenyon, Warren, Broshi, Macalister and Duncan, and others excavated more of it. Some evidence of the network of streets in that part of the city was revealed in every excavation that took place there (see Broshi, “Standards of Street Widths in the Roman-Byzantine Period,” IEJ 27 : 232–235). A fragment of the city wall was also discovered in Sivan's excavations in the Citadel (see above). Evidence of the density of the residential quarter that wall encircled can be deduced from the excavations on the southeastern hill of the city of David by Macalister and Duncan in 1923–1925 and Crowfoot and FitzGerald in 1927 and from Mazar's 1967–1978 excavations along the southern wall of the Temple Mount. A well-planned residential quarter was revealed in which the streets were flanked by well-built houses in which a central open courtyard was the main feature. Only in Mazar's excavations did the location of the houses seem to be unplanned, although their embellishments reveal that the inhabitants were well-to-do. In the Jewish Quarter the extensions of the Roman cardo was found to belong to the Byzantine period. It was apparently built by the emperor Justinian to connect the Church of the Holy Spulcher to the newly built Nea church, probably for religious processions. Fragments of the eastern cardo may well belong to this period (see above).
Excavations that began in 1990 north of the Old City have revealed monasteries and chapels along the Third Wall (first century CE.) Similar structures were found in previous excavations along this wall—by Sukenik and Mayer (1930) in 1929 and by Netzer and Ben-Arieh in 1972–1974 (see above). The last of the Byzantine construction projects was the Golden Gate. It was built in 629 by the emperor Heraclius as a triumphal arch when he brought True Cross back to the city after its captivity among the Persians, who had conquered Jerusalem in 614.
The Arab conquest of Jerusalem in 638 did not alter the city appreciably, but there were some alterations in its landscape as the Nea church had been destroyed. The period is characterized by considerable building activity on and around the Temple Mount. It was under the Umayyad dynasty (661–750) that the focus of the sanctity of the Holy City moved from the Church of the Holy Sepulcher back to the Temple Mount. The Dome of the Rock and the al-Aqṣa mosque were built in 691 and 711–713, respectively, along with other, minor structures on the Mount (see figure 6). An administrative compound was built south of the Temple Mount. It is unique of its kind because, although literary documents from the period reveal that similar compounds were constructed in all the main cities of Islam, the one in Jerusalem is so far the only one to survive. Excavated by Mazar between 1967 and 1978, it comprised six large palaces organized along the west and the south walls of the Temple Mount. Wall paintings, stucco, and vast dimensions are their main aesthetic features.
During the period earthquakes struck the country, creating decisive destruction in the city. The 747 or 749 quake left the Umayyad structures in ruin. Only the Dome of the Rock survived it. There are almost no architectural remains from the ῾Abbasid period that followed. The earthquake of 1033 also created major devastation in the city. It was during the reconstruction that followed it that the present southern alignment of the city wall was created. In his excavations in the Jewish Quarter, Avigad recovered a small section of this eleventh-century wall with a postern. The present northern city wall was repaired then and some fragments of that reconstruction have been found in excavation (by De Groot in 1979). J. Basil Hennessy's excavations at the Damascus Gate revealed two cisterns flanking the gate's entry that he ascribes to the Umayyad period (see G. J. Wightman, The Damascus Gate, Jerusalem, Oxford, 1989). As a result of the repairs after the 1033 earthquake, the southern part of the city was left outside the walls, and the inhabitants of that part of the city moved into the port city, which was included by the new walls. Other contemporary building projects include the repair work of the Temple Mount retaining walls and the installation of the so-called Solomon's Stables under the Temple Mount esplanade. The Byzantine neighborhood on the southeastern hill (the City of David) existed into the Arab period, but the architectural renovations they underwent were of inferior quality.
The Crusaders conquered Jerusalem on 15 July 1099. The alignment of the city walls then remained through subsequent repairs in the ῾Ayyubid (1187–1250) and Ottoman (1517–1917) periods. It was during those periods that Jerusalem acquired its Oriental character, still apparent to the visitor. The Muslims made conscious efforts to change the city's Crusader/Christian features. [See Crusader Period.]
In the last few decades, many excavations have been carried out in the city to obtain a better understanding of the Late and post-Medieval periods: for example, the Citadel (by Geva in 1976–1980 and Sivan in 1980–1988); the Churches of St. Julian (by Bahat in 1972) and St. Peter in Vinculi and the Crusader southern market (by Avigad from 1969 to 1982); the Churches of St. Thomas of the Germans (by Bahat and Reich in 1976) and St. Mary of the Germans (by Asher Ovadiah and Netzer in 1968); the Holy Sepulcher (by Corbo, Coüasnon, Christos Katsimbinis from 1960 to 1969); the foundations of the chapel of St. Egidius (by Bahat in 1985); the cloister of St. Mary Magdalene (by Bahat in 1978); the Crusader royal palace (by Bahat and Broshi in 1970–1971; see their “Excavations in the Armenian Garden,” in Yadin, ed., 1975, p. 56); the Templar wall, south of the Temple Mount (by B. Mazar from 1967 to 1978); and the Damascus Gate (by Hennessy in 1972).
Some ῾Ayyubid remains have been uncovered as well. Many vestiges of this period are preserved in the city and are responsible for its special character. In 1961–1967, in the Armenian Garden, Tushingham found a large building in his area L that he interpreted as a caravanserai, although its plan may be better explained as an administrative structure. The building's centrality was underscored by the discovery of strong towers in the contemporary western and southern city wall built by the nephew of Salah edh-Din (Saladin) between 1202 and 1212. These towers (excavated by Broshi in 1971–1972, Avigad from 1969 to 1982, Margowsky from 1969 to 1972, and Ben-Dov from 1973 to 1977) were incorporated in a city wall of which only small sections are preserved. However, Bliss and Dickie (from 1894 to 1897) discovered a city wall crowning Mt. Zion that can be identified with a wall the literary sources report was built by Salah edh-Din, who also excavated a moat in front of it. The northwestern corner of the Old City preserves the remains of a tower and a section of the medieval city wall (explored by Bahat and Menashe Ben-Ari in 1972). Between 1968 and 1983 Michael H. Burgoyne did a survey of Mamluk buildings in the city for the BSAJ. The greatest change in the character of the city took place in the sixteenth century under the Ottoman sultan Süleiman the Magnificent. The city walls of Jerusalem (demolished by Saladin's nephew in the thirteenth century) were reconstructed, as were six fountains built by him in addition to the reconstruction of the aqueducts from Solomon's Pools south of Bethlehem. Public buildings were also added to the city and its present Muslim character was thus secured.
[See also Biblical Temple.]
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