Eilat Mazar is Right About This
Although Jewish Agency Chairman Natan Sharansky is developing a plan to construct an egalitarian prayer space at Robinson’s Arch – widely considered one of the most historic sites in the country – a Hebrew University professor of archeology said any changes to the area would be unacceptable.
And who is that? None other than Eilat Mazar.
According to Sharansky’s proposal, the Wall plaza would be expanded to encompass the additional prayer space – and the two sections of the plaza separated by the Mugrabi Bridge would share a common entrance. This would entail the construction of a 500-squaremeter wooden deck, suspended by steel beams several meters above the ground, to create additional space. However, Prof. Eilat Mazar, an archeology professor at Hebrew University, was up in arms against the suggestion.
“It’s absolutely not an option to build anything near Robinson’s Arch,” he [sic!!!!!] said this week. “It’s a sacred archeological site and it is the only place where visitors can get an accurate impression of the original Wall’s destruction during the Second Temple period.” Indeed, according to Mazar, any tampering with the area surrounding the remnants of Robinson’s Arch, located south of the Western Wall, would profoundly damage the unique historic integrity of the area. The professor said Robinson’s Arch is the only place along the Wall where people can see the remains of the pilasters that once decorated other parts, and that any construction there will minimize and obscure the way that part of the Western Wall is presently viewed.
And more- which do read in the Jerusalem Post. [It's kind of funny that the JP doesn't know Mazar is a woman... Kind of funny in the not humorous sense].
Discussing Gath
ALMMG announce hereby a critique event, taking place this Sunday, 19/05/2013, on the topic: TWO OR FOUR HORNED ALTAR? FROM TEL E-SAFI_GAT, following David Eitam observation.
People who want to take an active (and passive) part in the critique event are imitated to sign in as “guests”. The event will start on the earliest global Sunday morning and end in the latest evening.
It would be perfect if the answer will come directly from the ‘hour’s mouth’. Aren Maier and Louise Hitchcock, the people in concern, are invaded and most welcome to take the challenge and respond, in front of a professional (although not formal) global large forum.
Nevertheless scholars on Aren and Louise behalf, otherwise ALMMG members, involved in the various aspects of the subject are invited to enlighten us.
Hopefully, we will all gain the pleasure of a stimulated and inspired event.The admins
Join in!
If Deutsch and BAR Need To See An Example of The Destruction of a Site via Bulldozer…
Then here’s one, in Gaza.
Un chantier de fouilles archéologiques qu’on transforme en terrain d’entraînement militaire est tout sauf une bonne nouvelle. Que l’Unesco laisse défoncer au bulldozer, et sans broncher, un site historique qu’elle a inscrit au patrimoine mondial de l’humanité, cela mérite qu’on s’interroge. Connaissant les exigences de l’organisation pour sélectionner les sites figurant sur cette liste, on en reste confondu.
L’affaire concerne le site d’Anthedon (aujourd’hui Blakhiyya), dans la Bande de Gaza. Les brigades Ezzed-Dine al-Qassam viennent de raser au bulldozer une partie d’Anthedon, un carrefour des civilisations antiques.
Le port d’Anthedon a obtenu son inscription sur la liste mondiale il y a tout juste un an. Anthedon faisait partie des quelques cités, comme Césarée, Ptolémaïs (Akko ou Acre), Tyr et Sidon, qui jalonnaient la côte levantine durant l’Antiquité classique. La ville fut particulièrement florissante aux époques hellénistique et romaine, comme en témoignent les vestiges du temple et des fortifications.
Where’s the outrage of Simcha and Robert? Here’s an actual, and not a merely trumped up, example of destructive practices. Why aren’t Jacobovici and Deutsch screaming about this or taking out an advert in BAR now?
Or is their silence proof of the fact that their accusations against Goren are groundless? And that the real destruction of sites doesn’t concern them at all…
Israel Finkelstein’s New Book- Le Royaume Biblique Oublié
He writes
Le Royaume Biblique Oublié was published in Paris by Odile Jacob for the College de France. The book is an outcome of a series of lectures on the Northern Kingdom given by me in the College last February at the initiative of Thomas Romer.
He also suggests that it will be out in English in a year or so.
Jerusalem Archaeologists Discover Big Hole
A picture of the quarries. Photographic credit: Skyview Company, courtesy of the Israel Antiquities Authority
I know, but I’m sure it’s more important than it sounds.
An Enormous Quarry Dating to the Second Temple Period was Exposed in the Ramat Shlomo Quarter of Jerusalem
Tools used by the quarrymen and a 2,000 year old key were also uncovered at the site. The huge stones that were quarried there were presumably used in the construction of the city’s magnificent public buildings
An enormous quarry from the time of the Second Temple (first century CE) was exposed in recent weeks in excavations the Israel Antiquities Authority is carrying out prior to the paving of Highway 21 by the Moriah Company. A 2,000 year old key, pick axes, severance wedges etc are also among the artifacts uncovered during the course of the excavation.
According to Irina Zilberbod, excavation director on behalf of the Israel Antiquities Authority, “The quarrying phenomenon created a spectacular sight of bedrock columns and steps and craters of sorts that were the result of the rock-cuttings. What remained are rock masses in various stages of quarrying, and there were those that were found in a preliminary stage of rock-cutting prior to detachment. Some of the stones that were quarried are more than 2 meters long. The giant stones were probably hewn for the sake of the construction of the city’s magnificent public buildings”.
I hope they find an inscription on the key that says – in translation – ‘of the kingdom of heaven’. THAT would be awesome.
The Sad State of ‘Biblical Archaeology’ in Germany
What if Biblical Archaeology went extinct in your native country? More than twenty years ago I left my native Germany to get a Ph.D. at Tel Aviv University and to work for the Antiquities Authority in Israel. But when I returned in 2009, the situation I found in Germany came as a shock. Biblical Archaeology is an endangered species and may never recover.
So says Martin Peilstöcker in a new essay at the ASOR blog. Take a look.
The Latest From Oded Lipschits
In Tel Aviv Journal (40, 2013, pp. 99–116): “The yršlm Stamp Impressions on Jar Handles: Distribution, Chronology, Iconography and Function”, by Oded Lipschits and Efrat Bocher.
Abstract:
It is interesting to note that the yršlm stamp impressions are the final link in a long chain of a Judahite – Yehudite – Judean administrative tradition of stamping handles or bodies of storage jars. With its cessation, the system that functioned for 600 years under Assyrian, Babylonian, Persian, Ptolemaic and Seleucid rule from the 8th century BCE through to the establishment of the Hasmonean kingdom, fell into obsolescence.
In this paper we present an updated corpus of the yršlm stamped jar handles, and discuss the following issues: distribution and chronology of the finds; their connection to the late yhwd stamp impressions; the reason why the administrative system in Judea began using iconographic symbols hundreds of years after employing only script on the stamped jar system; the meaning of the pentagram symbol utilized in these seals; and the function of the stamping system in the Hasmonean kingdom in the 2nd century BCE.
Get hold of a copy if the subject is of interest.
Archaeology in Jerusalem, Once More
Raphael Greenberg’s new piece in Bible and Interpretation summarized:
When you are digging 20 or 100 yards away from the Temple Mount you are in the heart of politics, not above them. When you take money from settlers you are in the heart of politics. When you excavate in the midst of a Palestinian population that is under constant surveillance and deprived of its civil rights you are in the heart of politics. When your excavation and research concern only the ancient history of Jerusalem while remaining oblivious to 1000 years of history in Silwan you are in the heart of politics. Now, when you are in the heart of politics, yet state that you are above politics, you are in denial.
Good stuff here.
Ha’aretz on the Ilan v. BBC Debate
Ha’aretz writes
Israeli-born filmmaker Ilan Ziv is slamming the BBC for pulling his documentary on the Jewish exodus from Jerusalem in 70 A.D. The documentary “Exile: A Myth Unearthed,” which theorizes that many Jews did not leave Jerusalem after the destruction of the Temple, and that many modern-day Palestinians may be in part descended from those Jews. Ziv slammed the BBC for bowing to ‘political naivete’ and ‘subconscious political pressure’. http://htz.li/Yg1G8H
As a reminder – you can watch the film for a nominal fee here.
Related Articles
- More On Ilan Ziv’s “Exile: A Myth Unearthed” (zwingliusredivivus.wordpress.com)
- BBC Yanked Israeli Film on Jewish Exodus from Jerusalem (video) (jewishpress.com)
- Why Did the BBC Pull Ilan Ziv’s Film? (zwingliusredivivus.wordpress.com)
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