Israel Museum Archaeology Collection

Although the Hebrew tours usually have more depth, we took the English tour for its timing. The guide (Rachel) was excellent. Wide knowledge. The collection starts with hand axes from 1,500,000 years ago. And a pleasant but loud voice. We whizzed past the alphabet room. I've been there. If you go to the museum, don't miss it.

Copyright 2015 Jane S. Fox

Archaeology and the Bar Kokhba Rebellion

Tuesday's lecture at Beit Shmuel on the contribution of archaeology to to research into the Bar Kokhba rebellion, reminded me both of the contribution of coins to our knowledge of the past and of the difficulty of interpreting the meaning of the presence of any artifact in a particular place.

For dates after the invention of coins, they can be better than pottery for dating a location. That coin showing Hadrian's likeness didn't get there before Hadrian became emperor.

But coins are easier than pottery to carry from place to place. The presence of a Bar Kokhba coin in Hungary does not make anyone think that the rebellion spread that far. I suppose you could write an article about the likelihood of a Roman soldier carrying the coin there versus the possibility that a string of itinerant traders brought it there. Or even that a refugee carried it as a reminder of the hope that faded in so few years.

This makes it difficult to interpret the four Bar Kikhba coins found in the north of Israel as a sign that the rebellion spread that far.

Here in Jerusalem, even in a popular lecture on archaeology you hear of very new findings. Tuesday we heard about a village in the north that showed the same signs of destruction at about the same date as the places the Romans definitely destroyed farther south as they put down the rebellion.

Copyright 2012 Jane S. Fox

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

Jerusalem Weekend Pass

• Hamshushalaim (or khamshushalayim, or h.amshooshalaim or some similar transliteration) can be loosely translated "Weekend Pass in Jerusalem."
• This annual event, three weekends at the end of November and beginning of December, consists of free or greatly reduced admission to attractions plus special walking and bus tours.
• http://www.jerusalem.muni.il/Humshsh/all.htm has the details. http://www.jerusalem.muni.il/jer_main/defaultnew.asp?lng=2 is the English version of the Jerusalem website.

Copyright 2007 Jane S. Fox

More for Kids

• Children like many of the same Jerusalem sites that adults do, thogh often for different reasons.
• Kids into role-playing games will like both tunnels from Rehavia to the Valley of the Cross, especially (until about age 12) if you call them mysterious. These tunnels are wide and short enough that claustrophobes do not mind them. The monastery(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monastery_of_the_Cross and http://members.bib-http://www.md.huji.ac.il/vjt/98.htmlhttp://www.md.huji.ac.il/vjt/98.html ) is not only a monastery, but it looks like one -- tall walls, banners flying. You can climb the hill and walk behind it with the kids making up their own adventure stories, or with you telling them about Queen Helena (http://ancienthistory.about.com/od/helena/Helena_Mother_of_Constantine.htm ) and about the building's history, which is full of intrigue.
• Up toward the Israel Museum you will come upon one of the fantastic animals (http://jerusalemblog.blogspot.com/2006/07/fantastic-animals.html ).
• Of course they will like the cable-car museum http://jerusalemblog.blogspot.com/2006/05/jerusalem-cable-car.html ) and the windmills (http://jerusalemblog.blogspot.com/2006/06/windmills.html ).
• If you can play recordings of songs that relate to what you are seeing, and tell them what the words mean, even better. One of the shops selling CDs can, for example, sell you a copy of the wonderful song about Montefiore (sung by Yehoram Gaon, lyrics by Chaim Chefer, music by Dov Seltzer), and there are several songs about Jerusalem's walls (though they refer to walls built 1500 to 2500 years before the current walls) suitable for playing if you gather courage to take well-behaved children onto the walls (http://jerusalemblog.blogspot.com/2006/08/on-walls.html ).
• See http://www.hebrewsongs.com for links to songs about Jerusalem with words and where to buy them on the Internet. But I think it is more fun to go into the little CD shop near Agripas on Mahaneh Yehuda in the Shouk and, by sign language and key words, sample music.
• The Davidson Archaeological Garden has much to delight cildren and adults, including the movie (which alternates a Hebrew version with and English version). In the garden you can go up onto a short section of the wall. Plan on spending at least two hours. The audio tour has some excellent sections, and can really get you into being on a Herodian street or in an Ummaid palace.
• At Ir Daveed (http://www.cityofdavid.org.il/index.html is a beautiful but frustrating website), the City of David (http://jerusalemblog.blogspot.com/2006/11/city-of-david.html ), you can arrange a tour specially for children. This manages to be interesting for adults, too. In summer, you can go through the water tunnel with kids who are tall enough. All year you can go through the dry tunnel. Do not go through the tunnel if the child dislikes enclosed spaces, or if you do!

Copyright 2007 Jane S. Fox

Private Guides

• If you've done a guided tour of Israel and discovered that your choices for the next guided tour cover much the same ground, you can go around on your own, or hire a guide.
• Many sites offer English tours: for example, Ir Daveed (http://jerusalemblog.blogspot.com/2006/11/city-of-david.html ), the Israel Museum (http://jerusalemblog.blogspot.com/2006/11/model.html ), the Municipality (http://jerusalemblog.blogspot.com/2006/12/valley-street.html ). Egged's Line 99 around Jerusalem (http://www.egged.co.il/Eng/main.asp?lngCategoryID=2773 ) provides commentary in English as do the other tours run by Egged and United Tours (http://www.unitedtours.co.il/map.html ).These tours let you come to Israel on your own and pick where you want to go.
• Although you can find licensed guides on the Internet, I recommend contacting Beit Shmuel and asking to be put in contact with one of their English-speaking guides.
  972 2-620 3461 or Doron_yosha@wupj.org.il
• Yad Ben Tzvi has excellent guides, but I don't know whether the organizaiton will set up private tours. You can try them at 972 2 539 8855 or had@ybz.org.il
• Tell them what interests you: architecture, art, bakeries, crusaders, literary references, neighborhoods, nineteenth-century history, prophets, travelers to Jerusalem ...; or list things you want to see and learn about. Tell them how much you want to walk or climb and how sure-footed you are or are not.

Copyright 2007 Jane S. Fox

Valley Street

• Valley Street runs down from the Damascus Gate straight through the Muslim Qarter to the Western Wall Plaza. In Arabic the street is called el-Wad and in Hebrew Ha-Gai, which all mean the same. (The Hebrew name is confusing because eMap lists Ha-Gai Street to the west of the Givat Ram Hebrew University campus. I think that street is actually named for Hagai, as it appears on the Carta paper map, the prophet. eMap is weak on street names within the Old City, but Carta has them on paper.)
• In Roman times Valley Street was Cheesemakers' Way, and Olive Merchants to the Crusaders.
• Near the Dung Gate (Ashpah in Hebrew, Mugrabi in Arabic) you can walk on the Roman Street and see a mural of what the street probably looked like when Romans controlled the city as much as anone ever has.
• At ten am AM Staturdays, groups of people chat in several langrages under the palm trees at Kikar Safra, in front of City Hall. Follow as the group coalesces around two guides. One will give a welcome in Hebrew, but you will soon hear English from the other. Although the Hebrew and English tours take different routes, through the year most routes are covered in both languages. This week's English along Valley Street was the best English-language tour I've been on.
• Even by yourself you can ring the bell at the Austrian Hospice and climb to the roof for an excellent comprehensive view.

Copyright 2006 Jane S. Fox

Angry Archaeologist

• Friday we heard a lecture by an archaeologist who has been sifting dirt trucked by the Temple-Mount wakf a few years ago from the Temple Mount to nearby valleys after they bulldozed an entrance to the new mosque in "Solomon's Stables."
• "Bulldozed" is a word archaeologists dislike intensely. Archaeologists work with trowels, spoons, and sieves. The lecturer said that the wakf sent away its own archaeologist before bringing in the bulldozers.
• Finding any remnants of the First Temple on the Temple Mount would disprove the revisionist view that there were no Jews, nor yet Children of Israel, 3000 years ago.

Copyright 2006 Jane S. Fox

Model

• Tuesday we had a 2.5 hour guided tour of the Jerusalem model (photo at http://www.israelimages.com/files/11879.htm ) designed by Michael Avi-Yonah for outside the Holyland Hotel and now outside the Israel Museum. There's lots more to learn about it (http://jerusalemblog.blogspot.com/2006/08/time-well-spent.html ).
• Miniatures have been built in various places (for example, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madurodam and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mini-Europe ), but building a model of something that existed, but of which we have only partial descrptions poses difficulties.
• Our guide, who had been a student of Avi-Yonah's, described how the archaelogist decided what to put in the city and where to place each building. Avi-Yonah, he said, made changes in response to archaeological discoveries, but there is still controversy over whether to change the model as more is discovered.
• The neighborhood with red-tile roofs, the guide said, represents the homes of the wealthy, above the flat-roofed houses of the poor. But, he added, further research indicates that there were no tile roofs in Jerusalem at the time. Making tile requires heat,and heat required trees. Until the Romans entirely took over the country entirely, the government conserved trees. And until someone decided to bring tiles eastward as balast on ships sent to bring grain back from Egypt, there were few imported tiles.
• So the guide said (but http://jerusalemblog.blogspot.com/2006/07/even-licensed-guides.html ).

Copyright 2006 Jane S. Fox

City of David

• Far older than the Roman water tunnel (http://jerusalemblog.blogspot.com/2006/10/haas-and-goldman-promenades.html ) is the tunnel Hezekiah had built to divert the Gihon Spring -- back when Rome was a recently-founded Italian town.
• Diversion of the spring denied the invading Assyrians a water source and ensued one for Jerusalem.
• This Jerusalem, The City of David (http://www.cityofdavid.org.il/index.html is a beautiful, but a bit annoying, Website), lies downhill from the current city and outside its walls ((http://jerusalemblog.blogspot.com/2006/08/on-walls.html ) and is more than a thousand years older. It predates David, though its claim to fame is the connection with him and his descendents. That his descendents ruled there is clear from the inscription in Hezekiah's tunnel and from bulae -- the impresions of seals. Archaeologists date parts of the city to David's more ancient time, and parts to before that.
• A wood-on-metal-mesh walkway took me over the excavations of Phonecian style walls. Hiram, says the Bible, sent supplies and experts to build for David. Hiram was a Phoenecian -- not proof, but a bit of possibly supporting evidence.
• Down the stairways go, past courtiers' apartments, down to a tunnel the Jebusites used.
• That tunnel leads to Hezekiah's water tunnel (http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2003-09/huoj-dok090903.php ). If you have a flashlight and water shoes, you can go through it to the Siloam Pool.
• The inscription that identified the engineering marvel is now in Istanbul.

Copyright 2006 Jane S. Fox

Haas and Goldman Promenades

• The Peace Forest adds oxygen to Jerusalem below Armon HaNatziv (the UN headquarters in the building that once housed the British High Commissioner http://www.jerusalem.muni.il/jer_sys/picture/atarim/site_form_atar_eng.asp?site_id=16&pic_cat=4&icon_cat=6&york_cat=9 ) down to Gai ben Hinnom and the Kidron Valley.
• The Sherover (http://jerusalemblog.blogspot.com/2006/10/sherover-promenade.html )is the walled walk with a good view.
• Down from it to the left, the Haas continues as a path towards Aub Tor, a walk on my schedule for Sunday.
• The Goldman goes to the east of the Sherover, around Armon HaNatziv. The Goldman family gets my gratitude not only for the beautifully-landscaped promenade but also for pressuring the municipality not to allow develpers to build along the ridge. So far, the view belongs to everyone.
• It would fit the Bible story if it was somewhere along this ridge that Abraham saw the mountain on which he was to set up the sacrifice of Isaac.
• Across the street from Armon HaNatziv, stepped plazas provide an excellent view of Herodion (http://www.abu.nb.ca/courses/NTIntro/images/Herodifortress.htm ). It's the hill that looks like a volcano. The shape is Artificial. Herod wanted it to stand out.
• In the top plaza a modern mosaic depicts the water system built by the Romans. A guided tour took me here, down steps and more steps, and more and more to the locked entrance to a tunnel that is partof the system. I gather that the water came by aqueduct from near Gush Etsion. The drop is 20 meters over 20 kilometers through the Judean hills. Aqueducts meandered to this point, gravity moving the water along a 1:1000 slope.
• Here Roman engineers had their slaves (I assume) tunnel through. A guard saw us in. We walked the 200-meter distance, sometimes sideways, sometimes bent over a bitThe Ottomans did some maintenance on the tunnel and added a supplementary water channel, but eventually the system fell into disuse.
• You can only get in with a licensed guide. Women more than five-months pregnant would have a hard time getting through, and it is not for claustrophobes. An acrophobe on the city wall can find ways down at intervals (http://jerusalemblog.blogspot.com/2006/08/on-walls.html ), but once in this tunnel, you can go back only if everyone behind you does, and there are no other exits. There are regular signs saying how far to the end. The kids in the group liked it. One of the adults was not happy with another adult's questions about whether anyone had every been left in the tunnel. It'd have to have been the last in the group.
• At the other end, another guard sat in the shade. We climbed and climbed and climbed and climbed, back to the parking lot next to Armon HaNatsiv. The last natsiv left over 60 years ago, but in this part of the world that is a very short period of time indeed.

Copyright 2006 Jane S. Fox

Stuff

• We're told they plan to close the Israel Museum for two years for renovations. We cannot find out what collections will be accessible during that time.
• This museum is a 20-minute walk from the apartment. It is on the 9, 17, 17alef, 24, and 24alef bus lines.
• The archaeology section starts with things made longest ago. An archaeologist complains that organizing by chronology keeps visitors from nderstnding the development of pottery or tools, but I like seeing how much "stuff" people accumulated 5000, 10,000, 15,000 years ago and more.
• How much decorative stuff. As soon as people started making clay pots, it seems they decorated them. And, as far as I know, no one has labeled them "cultic objects."
• It's not a museum that says much about how people lived before they could leave us messages in writing. But we can guess that tens of thousands of years ago, they already liked "stuff."

Copyright 2006 Jane S. Fox