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ords may have been fabricated by a
writer, or, at the very least, modified
by bis personal bias. Ultimately, the
best means of check:ing up on a
writer of antiquity is by what is
found in the ground.
Archaeology fulfills a further
valuable role in supplementing and
completing written accounts.
It
can
clarify, with vivid material details,
generalízations made in writing, or
reveal previously unrecognized facts
glossed over by ancient writer and
modero reader alike.
There are also occasions in quite
recent times where written records
bave been absent. In those in–
stances, archaeology resumes its role
of being the sole source of informa–
tion.
Excavations in Jerusalem
The archaeological excavations in
Jerusalem near tbe Temple Mount
are an example of how
material
re–
mains supplement a rich written his–
tory. These excavations began in
1968 and are directed by Professor
Binyamin Mazar ofHebrew Univer–
sity. The staff is daily testing and
supporting the historical accuracy of
the New Testament, various ac–
counts in rabbinic writings and es–
pecially Flavius Josephus' historical
description of the city of Jerusalem
at the time ofJesus and tbe apostles.
For centuries, these were the pri–
mary sources of information on the
last few centuries B.C. and the first
few centuries A.D. The New Testa–
ment only mentions physical de–
scriptions or details in passing, while
sections o f the Talmud , other
rabbinic writings and Josephus are
devoted to describing what the city
- including the Temple, the Temple
Mount, and the surrounding area -
looked like.
Jerusalem's Early History
One of the greatest builders of the
Roman world was King Herod, in
whose reign Jesus was born. The tre–
mendous scope of bis building
projects even affected the nature of
PLAIN TRUTH September 1973
the remains from the periods before
bis time. With the exception of sorne
tombs dated by Professor Mazar to
the eighth and seventh centuries
B.C., the only finds near the Temple
Mount from periods prior to Herod
the Great consist of broken pot–
sberds. These sherds, intermixed
with Herodian pottery, have been
uncovered primarily at the bottoms
of fill deposits, pits, and cistems.
Only a few small, undisturbed de–
posits have been found.
Herod the Great, beginning in his
fifteenth year, expanded the Temple
Mount to its present size. The actual
reconstruction of the Temple began
near the close of Herod's eighteenth
year - 20-19 B.C.
Previously, the site bad been
rebuilt by the Jews who had re–
turned from Babylon, under the su–
pervision of Zerubbabel. Tbat
reconstruction was substantially
smaller in area.
It
was, however,
probably the same size as the origi–
nal platform constructed by Solo–
mon for the first Temple.
In effect, Herod's structure of the
Temple Mount covered the earlier
area, and it added sorne of the area
surrounding it to the south and
west. There is more than a mere
possibility that sorne artifacts dating
from the Solomonic or post-exilie
periods could be preserved inside
the Temple Mount , but its unique
political and religious situation pro–
hibits digging within its confines.
At the same time that he ex–
panded the Temple Mount, Herod
completely rebuilt the areas adja–
cent to it to accommodate the needs
of the many pilgrims who carne to
worship. In the process, the top of
the ridge of Zion, the old city of
David to the south of the Temple
Mount, was scraped clean as He–
rod's engineers sank massive foun–
dations and waterworks into
bedrock. Similar quarrying opera–
tions had been carried out by the
Maccabees (second century B.C.).
The Romans, after Herodian Jeru-
salero was destroyed, continued the
process.
The end result is that very little
early material is left for the archae–
ologist. However, the edges of the
old city of David hold out the prom–
ise of discovery because much of the
old debris was deposited there. In
the future, the excavation will be
expanded to sorne of these areas.
Meanwhile, the scraps of evi–
dence presently being uncovered do
contribute toward understanding
one of the most difficult problems in
the archaeology of Jerusalem - the
history of her topographic expan–
sion.
A Closer Look at
Herodian Times
Arcbaeological excavation at Je–
rusalem began in 1867 with the ex–
pedition led by Sir Charles Warren.
Using tunneling methods, be ob–
tained much information which in
turn encouraged further excavations
and also a flurry of hypothetical re–
constructions of the city during the
time of Jesus. In the process, the
descriptions of Josepbus were tai–
lored to fit new ideas or were simply
set aside. Generally speak:ing, all of
the written sources were severely
"criticized," in keeping with the ra–
tionalistic spirit of the latter half of
the nineteenth century.
The recent excavations in Jerusa–
lem have dramatically shown that
such criticism is invalid. The written
descriptions of first century eye–
witnesses are accurate.
Josepbus gives a vivid portrayal
of the southern end of the Temple
Mount in
Antiquities
15:11:5. In
mentioning the southernmost gate
of the western side of the Temple
Mount he writes, "Tbe last [gate]led
to the other city [i.e., the lower city
of Zion, the city ofDavid] wbere the
road descended into the [Tyro–
poeon] valley by a great number of
steps and thence up again by the
ascent [to the upper city on the west-
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