Archaeologists Bemoan Work on Temple Mount
CBNNews.com
August 28, 2007
CBNNews.com - JERUSALEM, Israel - Bar Ilan University archaeologist Dr. Gabriel Barkai and Dr. Eilat Mazar, an expert on the Temple Mount and spokesperson for the Committee against the Destruction of Antiquities on the Temple Mount, have issued the group's harshest criticism to date of the Israeli Antiquities Authority (IAA).
Last month, the IAA authorized Muslim officials to use bulldozers and other heavy equipment to dig trenches on the Mount purportedly to repair electrical lines.
The result thus far is a 5-feet deep, 330-feet wide trench on the northern end of the Mount, which independent Israeli archaeologists say has further damaged the ancient structure.
"This is a barbaric action on the most sensitive place in archaeology in the Jewish nation," Barkai said, adding that the presence of an IAA staffer on site exacerbated the situation.
"If this was done with Antiquities Authority supervision, it is even worse because the crime was done before our very eyes," he said.
Temple Mount expert Dr. Eilat Mazar, author of "The Complete Guide to Temple Mount Excavations" and granddaughter of Israel's beloved pioneering archaeologist the late Prof. Benjamin Mazar, said this most recent breach of the site is untenable.
"It is outrageous," Dr. Mazar began, "that the Antiquities Authority is taking part in an archaeological crime by pretending they are supervising the site while they are, in fact, witnessing the crime as it takes place," she said.
In November 1999, the Wakf (Muslim religious trust that supervises the day-to-day administration of the Temple Mount), dug up and dumped some 70 truckloads of Temple Mount "dirt" into the Kidron Valley.
Intimidated by the Wakf's threats, the IAA declined to intervene in what Dr. Barkai and his colleagues called an "archaeological disaster."
With a group of volunteers, Dr. Barkai began the painstaking work of sifting through the "rubble" dumped in the Kidron Valley, retrieving whatever artifacts survived the brutal destruction of relics evidencing the Jewish history on the Temple Mount.
The Temple Mount, site of the First and Second Jewish Temples, is the holiest piece of real estate in Judaism.
Muslims call it the third holiest site in Islam, believing it is the place from which the prophet Mohammad descended to heaven.
The Jerusalem Post contributed to this article.
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