FFOZ Blogs : Second Temple Walls Discovered

FFOZ Blogs

Keep in touch with what is happening
behind the scenes at First Fruits of Zion.

Teaching Team

Second Temple Walls Discovered

By Brian Reed | Comments (2) | Posted on September 10, 2008

In a recent archaeological dig which began over a year ago on Mount Zion in the land of Israel a wall dating to the Hasmonean era was discovered. A part of the expanded sourthern city wall, which was part of Jerusalem when it was at its largest, is approximately 2,100 years old.

Also discovered was a Byzantine era wall (342-640 CE) which was built on top of the older Hasmonean wall. The Byzantine wall appears to have been built on top of the Hasmonean era wall after the older was mostly destroyed during the Jewish Revolt between 66-70 CE.

The original wall which measure over 10 feet tall and part of a 3.5 mile-long fortified perimeter was constructed like other Second Temple structures without the use of mortar or the like. The Hasmonean wall predates the various construction projects implemented by King Herod including the Western Wall.

According to Israel National News, "The lines of the wall that delineate Mount Zion from the west and the south were first discovered and excavated at the end of the 19th century (1894-1897) by the Palestine Exploration Fund, under the direction of the archaeologist Frederick Jones Bliss and his assistant, architect Archibald Dickie. For the excavation, the team excavated vertical shafts linked by subterranean tunnels running along the outer face of the city walls."

Israel National News continued by saying, "Among the items discovered in the recent excavation were 'souvenirs' left behind by the British excavators, including one of the laborer's shoes, the top of a gas light which was used to illuminate the tunnels, and fragments of beer and wine bottles from 120 years ago. One of the beer bottle fragments was marked with the word "Jerusalem," and, in addition to the artifacts from the British, a bowl shard was found dating from the 3rd-4th century C.E."

Further information as well as pictures of the excavation from which the information in this blog was taken can be found here.

About the Author: Brian Reed is a staff writer and researcher specializing in Messianic apologetics.

Visitor Comments

It wasn't a bottle of Goldstar was it? ;)

Posted by: jay | September 10, 2008 10:18 PM

Brian,

Great article! This is somewhat related, I read it on Israel National News the other day:

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/127428

It seems an older muslim document from the Muslim Authority confirms that the Temple Mount belongs to the Jews.

Shalom,
Jeff

Posted by: Jeff | September 10, 2008 11:41 PM

With this all new Hebrew learning resource you can get started in learning Hebrew and drawing ever nearer to the Jewish Messiah as you master the Hebrew alphabet

FFOZ Blogs

Teaching Team

Second Temple Walls Discovered

Visitor Comments

Post your comments...

Name

Email Address

Comments

Search in blogs...

Feeds

Browse Entries

Select a Blog

Most Recent Entries

Select a Previous Month