Unearthing Jerusalem: 150 Years of Archaeological Research in the Holy City

512 Pages·2011·0.38 MB·English

by  Katharirina Galor and Gideon Avni

Unearthing Jerusalem

Unearthing Jerusalem
150 Years of Archaeological Research
in the Holy City
Edited by
Katharina Galor and Gideon Avni
Winona Lake, Indiana
Eisenbrauns
2011
© 2011 by Eisenbrauns Inc.
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America

www.eisenbrauns.com
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Unearthing Jerusalem : 150 years of archaeological research in the Holy City / edited by
Katharina Galor and Gideon Avni.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-57506-223-5 (hardback : alk. paper)
1. Excavations (Archaeology)—Jerusalem—History—Congresses. 2. Excavations
(Archaeology)—West Bank—History—Congresses. 3. Antiquities, Prehistoric—
Jerusalem—Congresses. 4. Jerusalem—Antiquities, Roman—Congresses.
5. Jerusalem—Antiquities, Byzantine—Congresses. I. Galor, Katharina. II. Avni,
Gideon.
DS109.9.U54 2011
956.94′42—dc23
2011040274
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the American Na-
tional Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials,
ANSI Z39.48-1984. †Ê
Contents
Unearthing Jerusalem: 150 Years of Archaeological Research. . . . . . . . . . ix
Gideon Avni and Katharina Galor
Where Three Roads Meet: Jewish, Christian, and Muslim
Pilgrimage to Jerusalem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Frank E. Peters
Part 1
The History of Research
British Archaeological Work in Jerusalem between 1865 and 1967:
An Assessment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Shimon Gibson
The German Protestant Institute of Archaeology
(Deutsches Evangelisches Institut für Altertumswissenschaft
des Heiligen Landes) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
Ulrich Hübner
The American Archaeological Presence in Jerusalem:
Through the Gates of the Albright Institute. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
Joan R. Branham
The École Biblique et Archéologique Française:
A Catholic, French, and Archaeological Institution. . . . . . . . . . . . 95
Dominique Trimbur
The Archaeology of Jerusalem and the Franciscans
of the Studium Biblicum. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
Michele Piccirillo †
The Israel Exploration Society (IES) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
Ronny Reich
The Departments of Antiquities and the Israel Antiquities Authority
(1918–2006): The Jerusalem Experience. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
Jon Seligman
Part 2
From Early Humans to the Iron Age
Prehistory of the Jerusalem Area . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
Ofer Bar-Yosef
v
vi Contents
The Archaeology of Early Jerusalem: From the Late Proto-Historic Periods
(ca. 5th Millennium) to the End of the
Late Bronze Age (ca. 1200 b.c.e.) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171
Aren M. Maeir
Jerusalem in the Iron Age: Archaeology and Text; Reality and Myth. . . . . . 189
Israel Finkelstein
Part 3
The Roman Period
The Location of the Second Temple and the Layout of its Courts,
Gates, and Chambers: A New Proposal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205
Joseph Patrich
Has the Adiabene Royal Family “Palace” Been Found in the City of David?. . 231
Doron Ben-Ami and Yana Tchekhanovets
The Pool of Siloam in Jerusalem of the Late Second Temple Period and
Its Surroundings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241
Ronny Reich and Eli Shukron
A Domestic Quarter from the Second Temple Period on the Lower Slopes
of the Central Valley (Tyropoeon) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 257
Zvi Greenhut
Coins from Excavations in the Domestic Quarter of the City of David,
Jerusalem. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 294
Donald T. Ariel
On the “New City” of Second Temple Period Jerusalem:
The Archaeological Evidence. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 299
Hillel Geva
Aelia Capitolina: A Review of Some Current Debates about
Hadrianic Jerusalem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 313
Jodi Magness
Part 4
The Byzantine Period
The Urban Layout of Byzantine-Period Jerusalem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 327
Oren Gutfeld
Epigraphic Finds Reveal New Chapters in the History of the
Church of the Holy Sepulchre in the 6th Century . . . . . . . . . . . . 351
Leah Di Segni
The Hinterland of Jerusalem during the Byzantine Period . . . . . . . . . . . 361
Jon Seligman
Contents vii
Part 5
The Early Islamic and
Medieval Periods
From Hagia Polis to Al-Quds:
The Byzantine–Islamic Transition in Jerusalem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 387
Gideon Avni
Jerusalem and the Beginnings of the Islamic City . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 399
Donald Whitcomb
Early Islamic and Medieval City Walls of Jerusalem in Light of
New Discoveries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 417
Shlomit Weksler-Bdolah
Ayyubid Jerusalem: New Architectural and Archaeological Discoveries . . . . 453
Mahmoud Hawari
Mamluk and Ottoman Jerusalem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 475
Robert Schick

Unearthing Jerusalem:
150 Years of Archaeological Research
Gideon Avni and Katharina Galor
Israel Antiquities Authority Brown University
Early Beginnings
On a cold winter morning in January of 1851, a small group of people ap-
proached the monumental façade of an ancient rock-cut burial cave located north
of the Old City of Jerusalem. The team, consisting of two Europeans and a num-
ber of local workers, was led by Louis-Félicien Caignart de Saulcy—descendant of
a noble Flemish family who later was to become a distinguished member of the
French parliament. As an amateur archaeologist and a devout Catholic, de Saulcy
was attracted to the Holy Land and Jerusalem in particular and was obsessed by
his desire to uncover some tangible evidence for the city’s glorious past. However,
unlike numerous other European pilgrims, researchers and adventurers before him,
de Saulcy was determined to expose the evidence by physically excavating ancient
sites. His first object of investigation constitutes one of the most attractive and
mysterious monumental burial caves within the vicinity of the Old City, from then
onward to be referred to as the “Tomb of the Kings” (Kubur al-Muluk). By conduct-
ing an archaeological investigation, de Saulcy tried to prove that this complex rep-
resented no less than the monumental sepulcher of the biblical Davidic Dynasty.
His brief exploration of the burial complex in 1851 led to the discovery of several
ancient artifacts, including sizeable marble fragments of one or several sarcophagi.
It would take him another 13 years to raise the funds for a more comprehensive
investigation of the site. On November 17, 1863, de Saulcy returned to Jerusalem
with a larger team to initiate what would later be referred to as the first archaeologi-
cal excavation to be conducted in the city (Silberman 1982: 66–72).
From de Saulcy’s report, we know that he encountered the same obstacles that
numerous modern and contemporary scholars experience. Obtaining an excava-
tion permit from the local authorities was notoriously complicated. Furthermore,
he had to conduct his work under the pressures of the local neighbors, who were
extremely suspicious of these strangers digging on what they rightly considered to
be their territory. Finally, he had to overcome the fierce objections against the dig-
ging up of ancient burial places expressed by the local Jewish ultra-orthodox com-
munity (de Saulcy 1853, 1865). These difficulties and pressures, however, did not
prevent de Saulcy from proceeding with his ambitious project, because he was de-
termined to uncover evidence of the Judean royal sepulchers and to provide physi-
cal proof for the biblical narrative. Soon after he began his exploration, however,
ix