Jerusalem

Temple Mount Dig Connects Jewish Past

By Chris Mitchell
CBN News - Jerusalem Bureau

CWNews.com – JERUSALEM - When the Islamic Waqf began construction in 1999 of an underground mosque on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, many Israeli archeologists tried in vain to stop the illegal digging that dumped tons of debris in Jerusalem's Kidron Valley.

But a salvage operation on the debris is recovering ancient artifacts and in the process rediscovering Israel's past.

What most people see as a pile of meaningless rubble can be a treasure trove for the archaeologists of Israel.

"Another one of the arrowheads is especially significant. This is a tiny but very nasty arrowhead," said Archeologist Gabriel Barkay, holding up the artifact. "This type of arrowhead was introduced by the armies of Nebuchadnezzar who destroyed the First Temple of Jerusalem and this is from the sixth century B.C."

Barkay, an archeologist from Bar-Ilan University deals with Jerusalem's past, from the armies of Nebuchadnezzar to the Knights Templar of crusader times. He directs one of the most unusual and yet important archeological efforts in Israel today. Barkay oversees the examination of the tons of discarded material from Jerusalem's Temple Mount.

"The Temple Mount is totally unknown archaeologically, so not even us single shard has ever been published from the Temple Mount," he said. "What we do is very significant because we can establish a history of the Temple Mount through the finds."

The finds provide a fascinating view back into the history of Jerusalem. It's ancient detective work, examining artifacts ranging from this flint - more than 3,000 years-old - to this Christian artifact from a more modern era.

"The figure of St. Christopher with the infant Jesus crossing the river. This was given to pilgrims on their hard, treacherous journey to the Holy Land in the 17th century," Barkay said.

The work is tedious and painstaking. Volunteers sift through 70 truck loads of debris brought from the Kidron Valley. From the tons of material, they've found treasures, needles in the haystacks of antiquity.

"It includes treasures of the past of Jerusalem, which is most important for the Judeo-Christian heritage which all started at the Temple Mount, which is the foundation rock around which the rest of the world was created by the Almighty," Barkay said. "The work we do here is at least I regard it as a sacred mission."

He believes the work is important to both Jews and Christians.

"The Temple Mount is the cornerstone of Judeo-Christian belief," Barkay said. "This is the place, which according to tradition, the binding of Isaac took place which is mentioned in the 22nd chapter of the book of Genesis. This is the place where David built the altar to stop the plague among the people. This is a place where Solomon built the temple. This is the place where the returnees to Zion built the temple. And the temple is the place where Jesus was presented. This is the place where Jesus chased away the money changers."

The most significant find to date is this first temple period "bulla." A "bulla" is a piece of clay used to seal documents.

"Upon it are Hebrew characters bridging the gap between us and people in the Temple Mount 2,600 years ago," Barkay said. "This is direct regards from the first temple period to us here. This is the first time that we have inscribed material from first temple period from inside the Temple Mount."

While the archaelogical work sifts through history, it takes on enormous significance in today's Israeli-Palestinian conflict. That's because some Palestinians say Jerusalem never was a Jewish city.

For example, during the Camp David negotiations in the summer of 2000, Yasser Arafat told President Clinton there never was a Jewish temple on the Temple Mount. Barkay believes alongside the five-year-old armed intifada, there's also an attempt to erase Jewish history and culture.

"We have parallel to this also a cultural intifada and from there is a new tendency which started in the 2000s of denial of the existence of the Jewish temple and upon the Temple Mount," Barkay said. "There is a denial of the Jews connection to the Temple Mount and one should be aware of that."

Despite any cultural intifada, this work seems to be laying a solid archeological foundation in the most excavated city on earth.

"For altogether we have a large amount of material which will be processed and studied to depth in order to establish for the first time a history of the Temple Mount which was untouched by the archeologists spade," Barkay said.

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