Excavating Acncient Debris
Friday we sifted dirt from the Temple Mount, finding small pieces of pottery, bone, shell, metal, glass, mosaic tiles, and one silver coin.
A huge mound of debris awaits volunteers to sift it. After the amteurs wash and pick through each bucketful, an advanced archeological student or trained archaeologist looks throught it again, usually finding one or more tiny bits -- a piece of pottery or a bit of corrosion encrusted metal. Later all the volunteers' finds will be carefully examined and some will be rejected as ordinary stones. Yet the archaeologist who welcomed our family group said that without volunteers the work would never be done. He gave us an overview of the project. When our two hours were over, we looked at some of the already-catalogued finds and talked a little about what they told us.
When the Waqf sent its Jordanian archaeologist away on vacation, bulldozed deep into the hill, and trucked the dirt a few miles downt he Kidron Valley, they were diggin in an area that Herod filled in when extending the Temple and its grounds more than 2000 years ago. The area was disturbed again by Crudader builders. None of these had any idea of preserving the past. So while what was moved and dumped a few years back definitely came from the Temple Mount, it would have been impossible to say where on the hill the earlier items came from, even if the Waqf had not moved them.
Copyright 2011 Jane S. Fox
A huge mound of debris awaits volunteers to sift it. After the amteurs wash and pick through each bucketful, an advanced archeological student or trained archaeologist looks throught it again, usually finding one or more tiny bits -- a piece of pottery or a bit of corrosion encrusted metal. Later all the volunteers' finds will be carefully examined and some will be rejected as ordinary stones. Yet the archaeologist who welcomed our family group said that without volunteers the work would never be done. He gave us an overview of the project. When our two hours were over, we looked at some of the already-catalogued finds and talked a little about what they told us.
When the Waqf sent its Jordanian archaeologist away on vacation, bulldozed deep into the hill, and trucked the dirt a few miles downt he Kidron Valley, they were diggin in an area that Herod filled in when extending the Temple and its grounds more than 2000 years ago. The area was disturbed again by Crudader builders. None of these had any idea of preserving the past. So while what was moved and dumped a few years back definitely came from the Temple Mount, it would have been impossible to say where on the hill the earlier items came from, even if the Waqf had not moved them.
Copyright 2011 Jane S. Fox
Labels: archaeology
posted by Jane S.Fox at 2:03 PM
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