Excavations reveal King Herod didn't complete construction of Jerusalem's Western Wall
Israel Antiques Authority reveals discovery of mikveh alongside Jerusalem's ancient drainage channel.
By Nir Hasson Tags: Israel archeology Jerusalem Western WallRecent archeological excavations in Jerusalem show that, contrary to popular understanding, King Herod was not solely responsible for constructing the Western Wall.
Israel's Antiques Authority announced Wednesday that the discovery of a mikveh (ritual bath) alongside Jerusalem's ancient drainage channel challenges the conventional archaeological perception that Herod built the wall in its entirety, saying it is now evident that construction was completed at least 20 years after Herod's death (believed to be in 4 BCE).
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Coins discovered in excavations by Jerusalem's Western Wall, Nov. 23, 2011. |
| Photo by: Michal Fattal |
The excavations, directed by IAA archaeologist Eli Shukron with assistance from Professor Ronny Reich of the University of Haifa, revealed three clay oil lamps of a type that was common in the first century CE as well as seventeen identifiable bronze coins.
The clay oil lamps and bronze coins were found when archeologists sifted through soil removed from inside the sealed mikveh.
According to Dr. Donald Ariel, curator of the IAA numismatic collection, the latest four coins were struck by the Roman procurator of Judea, Valerius Gratus, sometime around 17 or 18 CE – about 20 years after Herod's death.
"This bit of archaeological information illustrates the fact that the construction of the Temple Mount walls and Robinson’s Arch was an enormous project that lasted decades and was not completed during Herod’s lifetime," said the IAA, adding that the find confirms descriptions by the Jewish historian Josephus, which state that it was only during the reign of King Agrippa II (Herod’s great-grandson) that the work was finished."
קראו כתבה זו בעברית: בניגוד לסברה עד כה || ממצאים חדשים מעלים: הורדוס לא בנה את הכותל המערבי
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Israel Antiques Authorities reveal excavations that show King Herod did not complete the construction of Jerusalem's Western Wall, Nov. 23, 2011. |
| Photo by: Vladimir Naykhin |
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From the beginning and during THE Spanish UInquisition and even the Jews In Medina never accepted muhammed's dictum (tho' they were friends of Muhammed before) In the end the (prophet of doom) Killed the Jewish males ,took their wives & children..(TYPICAL OF THE RELIGION OF PEACE HA) So whoever down there implied of Jews being a mixture /..Not at all My family can trace our residence in the holy land even before its rebirthIt can also trace our antecedents from the Spanish Inquisition. Oh there were some Jews called "conversos" in the true sense.. I know of some who live in the US by (name) After all 1600 years is not all that long ago.............
The Bible came from Arabia: Palestine was never ruled by Jews. The Temple was never built in Jerusalem - Palestine. Read Kamal Salibi's book.
according to the Muslims and their appeasers, Jews did not show up until 1948, what is this talk about Jews being there for centuries
The Romans gave Palestine its name after the last Jewish revolt , to wipe away any Jewish memory in Israel. who cares about who completed what and when, the Jews were there and are still there after the death of all of the ancient civilization , including the Romans. I guess if the Romans came back today at least one reaction would be , what the Jews are still here, unbelievable, we thought we wiped them out, they are stiff necked. Nah just smart, resourceful and resilient.
Slipshod scholarship has mislocated the Jewish Temples, whose true location was to the South of the so-called “Temple Mount” (TM): (1) 6th century Byzantine Historian Procopius stated that Western "Wailing Wall" was not Herodian, but built by Justinian to broaden the foundation for his massive Hagia Sophia, soon destroyed by the Persians, and rebuilt to 1/2 scale by the first Caliph of Jerusalem as a mosque to entice Jerusalem`s Christians. (2) Agrippa`s testimony of a clear view of the Temple from the Hashmonean Palace locates a spot just to the South of the TM, which would have been too high to have permitted such a view. (3) Historical documentation from the first 6 centuries demonstrates that the Temple location was well known, and conforms to the location in (2), near the Gihon Spring temple water source. The rubble excavated from the basements of the Waqf on the TM proves the TM was built well after the 2nd century CE. http://www.biblemysteries.com/lectures/builtwailingwall.htm http://www.templemount.org/sagiv2/index.html http://www.templemount.org/sagiv2/drawing20.jpg The Temple Mount location was well known up to the 7th century, and conforms to Herod Agrippa`s sighting of it, south of the current "Temple Mount", reared by Emperor Justinian as a platform for his Hagia Sophia in Jerusalem. However, this site neglects the other evidence in my post, which completes the true historical picture. http://www.askelm.com/temple/t991001.htm (4) The Waqf basement excavations on the Temple Mount PROVE that both First and Second Temple debris were swept up from the broad environs of the Temple Mount area and used as FILL by the Temple Mount builder, who could ONLY HAVE BEEN JUSTINIAN, AND NOT HEROD, BECAUSE HEROD WOULD NOT HAVE PUT SECOND TEMPLE DEBRIS DEEP WITHIN HIS ALLEGED TEMPLE MOUNT. Also, these debris have contained Roman coins and artifacts clearly decades after the completion of the Second Temple. The fill of the Temple Mount clearly dates it after Herod the Great. (5) The Temple Mount was the location of the Roman fortress of Antonia, and the seat of the Roman government of Jerusalem and Judea. The Hashmonean architectural features which may be authentic would have served the prominent and politically central Antonia fortress, and not the Temple Mount. Robinson's and Warren's Arches in the Temple Mount could just as well have been Justinian's handiwork. http://www.biblediscoveries.com/content/view/22/38
If Josephus already makes the statement about the Temple project, then this additional piece of archeological confirmation is not particularly significant. In addition, Herod had the overall design made and started the building project, so he can be rightfully credited with the whole thing.
Now we most likely knoe the subject of the speech Agripa gave that the people yelled the voices of a god and he was struck dead for by God.
Upon Israel's "victory" in 1967 (it was a celebratory time to have the remanent of the Temple in Jewish hands, but in the aftermath, the conflict wasn't resolved with the Palestinians and the Arabs). Nevertheless, my parents took my brother and I to see the Western Wall in Jerusalem after the Six Days War. He finished grade 2 and I just finished grade 1 in Ramat Gan. In the blistering heat of summer weather and absolute thirst every five minutes in Jerusalem at the time, we trekked as a family to the Old City to view the recently captured Temple wall. When my father finally announced that we had arrived at our destination, my brother points to the Western Wall and questions, " We came all this way to see this?"... Indeed the most Holy site to Judaism. We've all been back a number of times since.
And its significance to the Jews Why was the Merneptah Stele a significant archaeological discovery? Merneptah was a Pharaoh who ruled over Egypt in the late 13th century B.C. The son of Ramesses the Great (Ramesses II), Merneptah was the fourth Pharaoh of the 19th Dynasty. The “Merneptah Stele” is the name given to a stone slab engraved with a description of Merneptah’s military victories in Africa and the Near East. It was discovered by renowned British archaeologist Flinders Petrie at Thebes in 1896. The Merneptah Stele is significant to biblical archaeologists because it is the earliest extra-biblical reference to the nation of Israel yet to be discovered. The mention of Israel is very short; it simply says, “Israel is laid waste, its seed is not.” Nevertheless, despite its brevity, the reference is very telling. It indicates that at the time the inscription was engraved, the nation of Israel was significant enough to be included by name among the other major city-states which were defeated by Merneptah in the late 13th century B.C. This implies that Israel was a major player in the region during the late 13th century, serving to corroborate to a degree the biblical narrative.
But thousands remained & why we (JEWS) have had a presence in thwe HOLY LAND,As for Jesus: He was not a good Jew who taught his deciples from the Jewish bible NEVER deviated from it. What is more (if we rad the NT ) He was supposed to come FOR THE JEWS not the Gentiles (he despised) There goes tony with his long waffling post giving us the History of the Jews.at the time spoke mainly ARAMAIC (Jesus spoke in both aramaic & hebrew )
... and not return void. It is this blessing that is despised and taunted by the evil one but which will endure and overcome. Israeli archaeology will lovingly reveal the beloved past of the City of Jerusalem, one of world renown, and the Lion of the Tribe of Judah will lovingly reveal her future, as the center of world renown, when her name is changed to "My Delight Is In Her".
... and not return void. It is this blessing that is despised and taunted by the evil one but which will endure and overcome. Israeli archaeology will lovingly reveal the beloved past of the City of Jerusalem, one of world renown, and the Lion of the Tribe of Judah will lovingly reveal her future, as the center of world renown, when her name is changed to "My Delight Is In Her".
Muslims hate when you dig in Israel cause all you find is Jewish evidence and nothing on palestine
Ahh, so it all comes down to some petrified piece of shit dug out from beneath the rubble. It's all about it, isn't it?
It is common knowledge that the Palestinians finished the Western Wall!
They also were responsible for the Blarney Stone, Bunratty Castle and the High Street in Limerick. Really reaching this time are you Joe. How frustrated you must be in your lifelong Jew hatred that this is the best that you can do. Common knowledge indeed just like the Protocols that you so avidly believe in.
And taking in consideration the Western Wall is a part of the Jewish Temple it can only mean that real Palestinians are Jews. Those who accuse the Jews of the stealing the Arab land omit the fact that Jerusalem is the heart of the Jewish Religion.
Impossible since Palestine did not exist at the time.....and in any case everyone knows that construction work to last centuries is not their forte. That belongs to the Egyptians, the Israelites, the Hasmoneans, the Romans, perhaps the Umayyads, Fatimids, the Crusaders, Ayyubids (did they build much?) Mamlukes and Ottomans....none of whom were Palestinian.
Your right I was watching it on tv there were brass bands playing, children were given the day off school to come and watch as the most famous Egyptian since Pharoah, Arafat ( a former engineer ) personally laid the final stone and dedicated the wall to all palestinians.
How right you are. All Jews did not leave Israel.They stayed and were converted by Christins and later by Islam. The Palestians have just as much right to the land as European Jews who ancesters are European and converts to the Jewish relegion.
there are no Jews anywhere there never was. everything everywhere at all times is Palestinian.
Solomon lived a thousand years before Herod and the temple built by Solomon was completely destroyed by the Chaldeans (Nebuchadnessar).
To learn more - excellent suggested reading: HIDDEN HISTORIES - PALESTINE & THE EASTERN MEDITERRANEAN by Bassem L. RAAD.
Beetween 63and 120 the romans kills 2 millions jewsout of a population of 3 millions before(1,1 in revolt of 63-70; 500 000 in the kotios war; 400 000 in bar kojva revolt) And after these big masacres most of them were exiled, unless a tiny comunity of no more than 50 or 100 thousand. And during the cristian roman empire they were again atacked. The worst was some years before the arab invasion when the byzantine emperor after dreaming that a circumsed would overtrown his empire decide to exterminate all his jews, mostly in Israel. And he nearly arrives to, if it was not thanks to the arab conquest. After his masacres most of the israeli jewish comunty fly to egypt. It was a very tiny comunity of some hundreds that were still in Israel. And is weel known that they keep their culture but no arabized more than normal sefaradic jews. So no palestinan is from jewish ancestry.
It is universally acknowledged that the Beduin are the nearest to Semites you can get. Anthropologists know for certain that jewishness is not a race. It is a collection of proselytised people from all around Palestine, when the jews were in their conversion period. Hence the mixture of colours amongst jews.
Only due to the defeat of the Jews by the world power Rome did the marauding Arab-Islamists not meet the ancient Israelite Defense Force guarding the Land of Israel's borders. The Islamists came charging on horses with arms swinging swords in ultimatums to establish their Caliphate, not sitting down to reason together in peace to convert people to their self-proclamation that Islam, a supposed religion of peace, has superseded both Judaism & Christianity & is the final religious solution for all mankind. The conquering Arabs that came from Arabia had no significant interest in the area and only inquired as to where the Jews' holy Temple Mount area was so they can squat religiously on it as a physical demonstration of Imperial Islam's superiority 1000 miles from home, having their main centers of worship back in Mecca & Medina. It took the Jews with their vision of a G-d given promised Land and a G-d chosen City, not fading even in the distant diaspora, to return and rebuild their ancient homeland with fervor in such a way that Mark Twain Would eat his words of "Palestine sits clothed in sackcloth and ashes, over her broods the spell of a curse", if he was to visit the area today.
Or should I say Mohammad's fiction.
Nonsense. After the Jewish revolts most of the population remained in place, only banned from Jerusalem. The whole diaspora story is nothing but a myth. Before the Roman Wars, Jewish population outside Israel was larger than inside, due to proselytism.
... credit must always be given to the actual author (in this case me), or else this is calle "plagiarism". As the Mishnah says (Pirkei Avot 6:6): "kol ha'omer davar b'shem omro, mevi geula la'olam - whoever says something in the name of the one who said it [first], brings redemption to the world."
Josepheus, who was alive at the time wrote about a pretty unimportant incident about when a wall was finished. Archaeologists in their wisdom decided he was lying. Now they have been proved wrong and josepheus has been proved right. Surprise.
some say that while people where in the mikvah someone came in and robbed their pants, while fleeting the coins fell out of the pants pockets
Historians seem to agree that historical Palestine was occupied most of the time by Egyptians, Babylonians, Greeks, Romans, Arabs, Turcs, Crusaders and what have you. Jewish independent entities only existed at times of their neighbors' weakness. Hence, rather than believing in promises which only exist in some peoples mind, it is about time to find a realistic solution to today's problems which keep too many people suffering.
Jericho holds the remains of Noah's Ark, a well-known fact prior to the Inquisition and Dark Ages. Jericho's pronounciation in Semitic languages is not unlike Ararat. Armenia, Albania, Anatolia... These area encompassed much of what is Israel and northward. Remember that R and L along with T and D are sometimes interchangeable. Jericho is home to the oldest civilization in that part of the world, the lowest point on Earth, and the ruins are fortified dwellings to survive a flood. They buried there dead in their homes because they had to for a while. Antediluvian, pre flood era, is Atlantian. The above 'A' names are related to the survivors of Atlantis. They worshipped Athena. Aka Ianna. Aka Athene. Aka Palas Athena. Palasathene=Phillistine=Palestine. Ianna's semetic name is Ishmail. Probably the same as Israel as their backstory is metaphorically similar to Jacob's. The Atlantean's are pre-flood people. They are the Aryans, the sun children. Mayans are Man, the moon people. The tribes of Manasseh and Dan are not Israelites. Manasseh means good man or positive man. The Atlanteans lived with them. There were random pockets of deluge survivors elsewhere. The Aztecs among them. This is so elementary and obvious, there is way more to it then my generalization. This is the forbidden knowledge. The second temple is the current age. Pre-flood is Solomon's Temple. The deluge was part of a reconfiguration of the Earth caused by rebellious Atlanteans. This is the age of the son of man. We are all assimilated now but there are still those who fight over these bloodlines.
to call you brainwashed would be an understatement
No but the coins do have Yasser Arafats head on one side surrounded by the words Minted in Palestine.
Ancient Hebrew is not the same thing we speak in Israel today.
Not only you have a problem with Islam but also palestinians......your lousy argument won't change anything. The palestinians belong to that land and your opinion is irrelevant.
Do the coins show the face of Hertzl ou Ben Gurion ? keep trying to find your own identity in denying another people, that's what you're best at.
the dead sea scrolls is written in hebrew we speak today and those are 2000+ years old
During that time according to Historical Research and Analysis mostly done by Israeli Jews, most Palestinians were Jewish. Later on they converted to Christianity and then to Islam. The spoken language in Palestine at that time wasn't Hebrew, it was Aramaic and the country wasn'ty independent, but was under Roman Occupation and was open to all Romans. I don't see what message your are trying to convey, but people mix, and you can hardly find any pure decendant from 300 years great great ancestor, with all the wars, rapes, consented mix relations. Now imagine going back 2000 years. That would make a nice fairy tale, but no bases for displacing people and gathering others to occupy their place because you share the belief of those who lived here during this ancient history.
and what exactly is your point again ? palestinians speak Arabic and they call themselves 'palestinian'. Are you palestinian ? NO. Goodbye PeterSM. Deal with your identity and/or existential issues and leave us alone. Thanks in advance.
I can't see why that would be relevant. If the new state declared in 1947 had been called Judea, Judah (root = Jew) or Ivria (root = Hebrew), would that have made any difference in your mind?
, Lets be clear about one thing:During the Roman expultion of the Jews in the Holy land NOT ALL JEWS left en mass.Many stayed and why we have had a continuous PESENSE IN ISRAEL
Tony how about the writings of Josephus Flavius talks all about Israel or Judea as it was known then being Jewish. Judea was a province of the Roman Empire when Herod was on the throne. Then you have the New Testament and not forgetting of course Jesus and his followers were all Jews who were born and grew up in Judea ( not Palestine ) There you go not a single mention of the Torah or any other Jewish sources and you have evidence of Jews being there 2000 years ago. If though you feel you need more evidence then why not look at archeological evidence like the Dead Sea Scrolls or things like coinage found there which were minted under the various Jewish kings. There was no Palestine until after the Bar Kochba revolts when the Romans renamed Judea Philistina which is a name that stuck for 2000 years until it was finally done away with in 1948. Then in 1964 an Egyptian engineer by the name of Yasser Arafat decided to start calling the arabs Palestinians for political purposes.
The land belongs to whoever works the ground and flourishes the land. Emiliano Zapatta Just try to understand the meaning of "Green Line". Israelis worked the land to grow trees and orchards, Arabs (you call Palestinians) just let the desert grow !!!
The coins were found in mud which was accumulated over time at the base of the wall; not right under it. These coins could find their way there in a later period too, during maintenance works or even with dirt that washed in with rain water. Such a dramatic conclusion need more sustainable evidences.
Both your argument and the ones of the IAA have logic. Yes itts true the coins could have rolled into the mud and found its way down there especially considering that they didn't exactly keep the place clean and tidy for tourists back then. It is also possible though that Herod started the building and it was finished by his grandson the Kotel is just an outer wall of the basic Temple area complex and had no holy significance back then so I think its possible that the complex was built with priorities Temple, walls closet to the Temple and further out etc in which case it could have taken a very long time for them to get round to the Western Wall. If it was built with priorities on which areas were most important I doubt the Kotel would have been very high on the list because there was nothing holy about it and the thing is far from where the main Temple would have been. Idon't think that it matters though at the end of the day if the thing was finished by Herod or his grandson the thing was still built in the same basic time frame might have just taken a few years longer than originally thought.
I agree with your study insinuating that the project was completed after Herod's days. With that said, before the top was finished by the successors, the base of the wall had to be built. According to all sources, Herod began the work, and I have no doubt (...) that he started form the bottom. The base of the wall, where these coins were found, was built in Herod's days. The coins were dropped down there later.
but of course, this logic does not apply to relations between neighbours such as Israelis and Palestinians are in the region. It's better to build coexistence between the two peoples as a matter of priority. But this breaking news about the Western Wall excavations is just amazing revelation which makes one proud of our Jewish ancestry and continuity as a people of thousands of years of history.
The western wall is one of 3 walls that were added to southern part of the temple plato. They are not only retaining walls but also a frame to the pillars and arches which support that part of the temple's court. In order to start the landfill, they had to build these walls first, or at least, the first few rows of stones. Herod was the builder of those.
Absolutely! This is basic statistics!
maybe the coins came where they were found floating with the rain water