Antonio writes
Veteran journalist Benny Liss releases movie he filmed of underground cave on Temple Mount where he found a mass grave. He believes the skeletons are the remains of Jews massacred by the Romans when they destroyed the Temple Mount, but urges the authorities to properly examine the area.
The report he cites continues
Remains of thousands of Jews massacred by the Romans on the Temple Mount at the time of the destruction of the Second Temple may have been uncovered in Jerusalem, according to a veteran archaeological journalist.
During a conference on Thursday at Megalim – the City of David Institute for Jerusalem Studies, journalist Benny Liss screened a movie recorded a few years ago that clearly shows thousands of skeletons and human bones in what appears to be a mass grave.
Liss, veteran archaeological correspondent for Israel’s Channel 1, told the amazed audience that the film had been shot in a spacious, underground cavern in the area of the Mercy Gate, near the eastern wall of the Temple Mount, but just outside it. Liss raised the possibility that the skeletons were the remains of 6,000 Jews, mostly women and children, killed on the Temple Mount when the Romans destroyed the Second Temple, as described in the writings of Flavius Josephus, who witnessed the destruction.
This may be an exceedingly important discovery.
Zwinglius Redivivus 
Be careful, first it’s outside the Temple Mount, secondly it may be a Moslem cemetery as I know someone who fell into a crypt there back in the 70’s-80’s while exploring the site, may even have been published in BAR.
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One look at the calendar will explains this to you. This weekend is Tisha B’Av.
Archaeological reports from Israel are never what they look like. This is clearly meant to reinforce political claims. Otherwise, they are angling for funds (Hazor, earlier this week). Or they are covering up failure (Megiddo, always that stupid treasure, while the aim of the excavation was to find organic material to once and for all settle the chronological disputes).
I would love to say something kind about the professional archaeologists I have met; but the publicity machine has taken away all credibility.
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No doubt. More ‘archaeology as politics’ from the Israeli far right.
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Currently all I can find about Liss is that he seems to be one of the names always reporting on Temple Mount stuff … this one will have both the Waqf and the Haredi to get through, I suspect
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There is essentially a more serious problem at stake. University people typically underestimate the people’s capacity to understand and learn. If they explain what they are doing, they present just facts. The hermeneutics, the models, the methods, the theories: they remain unexplained. This gives people the impression that historical research is simple: it’s just telling a story and referring to sources. That means that anyone can write history, and offers golden opportunities to quack historians and other dillitants.
Scholars must become more serious about the general audience. Explain the methods. Admit errors. The ONLY way to prevent dillitantism, is to explain how scholarship ought to work.
And here’s the benefit: the audience starts to understand what is going on, and people with different interests start making remarks. Many remarks will be useless, but there will also be remarks from which the scholar can learn. Educating the masses becomes a way to educate the scholars and overcome the tunnel visions of specialism.
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Jona you seem to be mixing your subjects up. Archeologist are not involved in this, so why are you complaining about them?
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Would anyone with the video of the remains/skeletons by the Temple Mount please post it on youtube or wherever else it can be easily accessed. Some of us would like to see it. Thanks.
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