At the southern end of the Temple Mount built on a man-made plateau was a massive, impressive structure called the Royal Stoa. The staircase led to one of the main entrances to the Temple Mount, originating from the well-preserved Herodian road that visitors can still walk on today, and was supported by the 17-meter-high Robinson’s Arch. Reconstruction of ancient Jerusalem’s Keshet Robinson, as found in the Tower of David Museum. One cause has probably been the general oblivion, or want of knowledge, that any such bridge ever existed.” How they can have remained for so many ages unseen or unnoticed by any writer or traveller, is a problem, which I would not undertake fully to solve. Robinson writes in “Biblical Researches in Palestine,” “The existence of these remains of the ancient bridge, seems to remove all doubt as to the identity of this part of the enclosure of the mosk with that of the ancient temple. Robinson saw it as a clear identifier of the spot of the ancient Jewish Temples. One riddle, left over from the campaign of American Bible scholar Edward Robinson was the meaning behind an arch he discovered in 1838 while charting Holy Land sites for his landmark book, “Biblical Researches in Palestine.” Then, the arch jutted out of the wall about a meter above street level and was most used as a bench. Benjamin Mazar present the Jerusalem excavations to the Japanese Ambassador. These were heady times for Israeli archaeology. Yigael Yadin called Mazar’s excavations there “the greatest archaeological enterprise Jerusalem has witnessed.” Numerous questions of Jewish identity and heritage that had been left unsolved began to receive answers. According to Mazar, remains from as early as the Iron Age and as late as the Arab period have been uncovered at the site. Benjamin Mazar began his large-scale excavation alongside hundreds of workers and volunteers. In 1968, head of the Hebrew University Prof. What archaeology is there exactly in this crown jewel?
Today, as the Israeli government pushes forward with a construction plan designed to bridge gaps with Diaspora Jewry, archaeologists fear that the evidence that preserves a previous time of destructive Jewish factionalism is set to be erased from history.Īhead of Tisha B’Av, the Jewish day of mourning over the destruction of the two Temples, The Times of Israel spoke with archaeologists about what exactly is currently being “destroyed” at the Robinson’s Arch prayer area, and, after getting a glimpse of still unfinalized plans for the new expanded permanent platform, what other evidence of Judaism’s historical past may be “desecrated” - or even potentially better preserved. Jewish tradition states the Second Temple was destroyed because of “ sinat chinam” - baseless hatred and infighting among the Jewish people. What you see today is really how everything ended.” “There is nowhere else where you can so clearly see the results of the 70 CE Roman conquest. The Davidson Archaeological Park, said Bahat, is “the pearl in the crown” of ancient Jerusalem archaeology. But they are the ones who are undertaking the work of destruction,” he said.
“The IAA should be on my side not to touch the place.
“This is not protection, it is a desecration of the site,” said Bahat.