One Man's Trash...
This news bit from Christianity Today describes an archaeological effort “sifting tons of dirt removed in 1999 by Islamic work crews who were remodeling an underground area of the Temple Mount—known as Solomon’s Stables—to create the Marwani Mosque.”
The remodeling effort was done without archaeological oversight, so some 70 truckloads of dirt were removed from the site and dropped in various locations, including Jerusalem’s municipal dump.
CT reports that “Every period, from pre-history to the modern era, is represented in the dirt, from flint implements to beautiful figurines. Some discoveries, like thousands of pottery shards and several hundred coins, are easily dateable. Other items, like jewelry, are nearly impossible to date out of context.”
The Temple Mount itself is of course at the center of great political and religious controversy, as it is “the third holiest site in Islam and is known as Al Haram al Sharif, the Noble Sanctuary. It is also the holiest site in Judaism.”
I visited Israel in the summer of 1999, and remember a large amount of work being done around the outside of the Temple Mount. In the picture below, taken in 1999, the work would have been off the right side of the picture (east), around the northeast corner of the mount.
You can see the Wailing Wall in the center of the picture, and the Dome of Rock directly behind it.
The remodeling effort was done without archaeological oversight, so some 70 truckloads of dirt were removed from the site and dropped in various locations, including Jerusalem’s municipal dump.
CT reports that “Every period, from pre-history to the modern era, is represented in the dirt, from flint implements to beautiful figurines. Some discoveries, like thousands of pottery shards and several hundred coins, are easily dateable. Other items, like jewelry, are nearly impossible to date out of context.”
The Temple Mount itself is of course at the center of great political and religious controversy, as it is “the third holiest site in Islam and is known as Al Haram al Sharif, the Noble Sanctuary. It is also the holiest site in Judaism.”
I visited Israel in the summer of 1999, and remember a large amount of work being done around the outside of the Temple Mount. In the picture below, taken in 1999, the work would have been off the right side of the picture (east), around the northeast corner of the mount.
You can see the Wailing Wall in the center of the picture, and the Dome of Rock directly behind it.
The Temple Mount, Summer 1999
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