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Excavation South of Tower of David, Old City, Jerusalem |
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IAA News Release: 17 August, 01 During the past year on behalf of the Israel Antiquities Authority, archaeologist Amit Re’em has directed the excavation of the area south of David’s Tower, in what is known as “The Kishle”. The dig precedes construction of an educational center for the Tower of David Museum. The excavation area is bound by a late 19th-century rectangular structure (50 x 9 meters) built by the Turkish governor for soldiers' living quarters, or Kishle, in Turkish. The structure served as a prison during the late Turkish and British Mandate periods, and prisoners' graffiti in English, Arabic and Hebrew is still visible. Below the floor of the Turkish building, nine Crusader-period plastered pools of various sizes were found. Based on their shape and the materials they contained, they were probably used for dying textiles or leather processing. Three meters below the floor, two massive north-south walls resting on bedrock were uncovered. The walls are about 50 meters long and 2 meters wide and the space between them was filled with earth and stones. Based on coins and pottery found on the site, the walls have been dated to the period of King Herod (-37 to –4 BCE). Large hewn stones belonging to a five-meter wide city wall of the Hasmonean period (2nd century BCE) were discovered west of the two walls. It is likely that the two massive walls supported the base of King Herod's palace, which has been described by Jewish historian, Josephus Flavius as being a very large, lavishly decorated structure, containing huge drinking halls, bedchambers, gardens and fountains. A seven-meter deep drainage channel, partly hewn and partly constructed, ran below the two walls. The channel collected wastewater from the palace and channeled it into the nearby valley at the west. Herod’s palace was destroyed at the same time as the Second Temple in the year 70CE and a few remains have been found in the area of the Armenian Seminary at the southern end of the site. In the last stage of excavation, a massive early wall was found and dated to the late Iron period, based on its building type and the archaeological finds. Jerusalem’s walled boundaries during the late First Temple period have long been a subject for debate amongst Jerusalem scholars. This new discovery serves as a valuable contribution to the understanding and research of Jerusalem’s history but only a continuation of the excavation will yield more viable information on the question. |
