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Abstract
Recent inspection by the Israel Antiquities Authority has shed light on several issues related to the history of the Temple Mount in Jerusalem:important data has been gathered regarding the character of the rock at the summit of the hill; knowledge of the drainage systems and the cisterns that have served the Temple Mount has been augmented; in several places ancient structures buried beneath layers of soil have been recorded; and several previously concealed architectural elements probably associated with the Second Temple period have been detected.
Notes
1 Work on the Temple Mount was carried out with the knowledge of the Waqf—the Islamic authority at the site.
2 The measurements were taken from Abd Rabu Citation2012: 266 and are based on data given to the IAA by the Committee for the Restoration of the Dome of the Rock.
3 These data are based on a report of the restoration work carried out in the Dome of the Chain in 1975, from which it emerged that the structure rested on a fill ca. 1.5 m thick (Avni and Seligman Citation2001: 24; Zweig Citation2009: 310).
4 The rock identified with the Foundation Stone has been documented on many occasions. Dalman’s work, carried out after thorough cleaning, is of particular importance (Citation1912: 110, Fig. 71).
5 The Cave of the Spirits was studied on various occasions and interpreted differently, both as to its purpose and the time it was hewn (see, e.g., Flood Citation1999; Ritmeyer Citation2006: 262–263).
6 The state comptroller submitted a highly critical report of the Israel Antiquities Authority concerning the laying of the electric cable project. In December 2010, the Knesset Control Committee voted to keep the report confidential and approve only limited public release. For a summary of the events, see Dorfman Citation2015: 169–190. In monitoring this work, we were assisted by the Israel Antiquities Authority’s Jerusalem district inspectors Ira Pasternak and Binyamin Dan Storchen.
7 A detailed report on the finds from the Temple Mount will be published in the future by Yuval Baruch and Débora Sandhaus, with the assistance of Donald Ariel (numismatics).
8 To avoid damaging this stratum, work was done by IAA inspectors only, with a portion of the trench ca. 1.5 m long excavated relatively thoroughly. Binyamin Dan Storchen assisted in this work.
9 The 14C tests were carried out by Elizabetta Boaretto on behalf of the D-Reams Radiocarbon Dating Laboratory, Weizmann Institute of Science.
10 Note that Hamilton had a clear agenda to publish Islamic finds only.
11 Previous work on the structure was carried out in the 1970s; on this matter see Burgoyne and Richards Citation1979: 52, n. 120.
12 Simon Gendler, Israel Antiquities Authority inspector for the Jerusalem district, took part in monitoring this work. Plans at the site were drawn by Yuval Baruch and were processed for publication by Dov Porotsky. The plans are somewhat schematic due to inspection conditions on the mount.
13 Recently, Dan Bahat proposed that the present-day structure of Solomon’s Stables had been restored by the Fatimid Caliph al-Tahar in 1034, immediately after the earthquake of 1033. Bahat suggested that the 11th century builders used original Herodian stones from the southern wall that had fallen out during the earthquake (Bahat Citation2012). St. Laurent and Awwad (Citation2013) suggested that the present-day Solomon’s Stables structure is based on an ancient Herodian engineering system, and that it was built early in the Umayyad period by Mu‘awiya Ibn Abi Sufyan between 640 and 660 CE). A similar date was given by Gibson and Jacobson (Citation1996: 279).
14 Another stone arch associated with the same Herodian architecture complex was documented in a structure known as ‘The cradle of Jesus’ within the southeast corner of ‘Solomon’s Stables’.
15 Conservation work on the outer walls of al-Zawiyat al-Hantuniyeh was accomplished in November, 2010. The upper parts of the structure were preserved by the Waqf, while the lower part was conserved by the IAA (engineering supervision, Ofer Cohen). The fragment in question was left in the wall.