Temple History Lost and Found

On top of the Temple Mount the Muslims continue to destroy the Second Temple Artifacts. In order to stop the damage, the Committee to Prevent the Destruction of Temple Mount Antiquities petitioned the High Court of Justice yesterday to stop an excavation by the Waqf on the Temple Mount.

The Waqf says they are just replacing electric cables. But what they are really doing is "is causing irreversible damage to antiquities and archaeological artifacts of the greatest importance, and is being carried out illegally, without the requisite authorizations."

The petition, against Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, other cabinet ministers and the Israel Antiquities Authority, maintains that Temple courtyards were located where the dig is taking place, and that some 400 tons of dirt removed in the process contain priceless archaeological artifacts from various periods.

"The excavations were carried out in an area where the bedrock is sometimes at a depth of only half a meter," the petition stated. "Therefore, massive digging to a depth of a meter and a half entails damage to ground layers, some of which may have been in place since the first Temple stood there 3,000 years ago. Excavating with heavy equipment and tractors severely damaged the ground and directly caused the destruction of ancient stones and other artifacts." The petitioners charged the Israeli government is not meeting its obligation to uphold the Antiquities Law on the Temple Mount.

The petition to the supreme court is signed by some major Machers including...A. B. Yehoshua; former Tel Aviv mayor Shlomo Lahat; Malcolm Hoenlein, executive vice chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations; prominent archaeologists Ephraim Stern, Amihay Mazar, Ehud Netzer, Israel Finkelstein, Moshe Kochavi, Gabriel Barkai and Eilat Mazar; retired Israel Defense Forces generals Zvi Zamir, Yitzhak Hofi and Giora Eiland; attorney Shmuel Berkovitz; and The Jerusalem Post, which also claimed that the Mount is closed to media coverage.

Its not surprising that the Waqf has termed the committee's charges propaganda especially since they charge that a Jewish Temple was never located on top of the Mount.

On the good news side, more relics of the Jews that never lived in Jerusalem were found. As announced today

J'lem Canal Where Jews Hid from Roman Legions Found

by Gil Ronen

(IsraelNN.com) The Israel Antiquities Authority announced Sunday that it found the site which served as a backdrop for a famous scene in one of the great tragedies of Jewish history: the Great Rebellion against Rome which culminated in the destruction of the Temple. The Authority has uncovered a 70 meter long section of Jerusalem's main drainage duct. It was inside this drainage duct that Jerusalem's Jewish inhabitants hid from the Roman invaders when they sacked Jerusalem, according to historian (and Jewish turncoat) Josephus Flavius.

Jerusalem was conquered by Roman general Titus Flavius in the year 70 CE, after a prolonged siege. Unable to breach the city's defenses, the Roman armies dug a trench around the city's walls, and built another wall around that trench. Anyone caught attempting to flee the city was be captured and crucified. Tens of thousands of crucified bodies encircled Jerusalem by the end of the sie

ge.

Throughout the siege, many of the Jewish warriors' family members hid out in a drainage canal that carried rainwater from the Temple Mount to the Pool of Shiloach (Siloam, or Silwan). This is the duct that has been exposed by archaeologists. When the city fell, some of the Jews hiding in the duct managed to escape through its southern section.

Liberty or Death

By the summer of 70, the Romans had breached Jerusalem's walls, ransacking and burning ne

Throughout the siege, many of the Jewish warriors' family members hid out in a drainage canal. This is the duct that has been exposed.

arly the entire city. Contemporary historian Tacitus notes that those who were besieged in Jerusalem numbered more than six hundred thousand, and that men and women alike and Jews of all ages engaged in armed resistance, preferring death to a life that involved expulsion from their country.

Dig directors Professors Roni Reich of Haifa University and Eli Shukrun of the Antiquities Authority said that over the past 1,937 years, the valley which Jerusalem's main road was in, and the famous canal beneath it, was covered by a ten meter deep layer of sediment. Only after digging through this dirt were the ancient ruins exposed.

The canal, they told reporters Sunday, is made of hewn rock and pavement stones. It is three meters high and one meter wide in parts, and walking through it is easy. Pottery, parts of clay vessels and coins from the Second Temple period were discovered in it.

The northern segment of the canal, which has yet to be uncovered, apparently reaches the Kotel area.

It should be noted that while Josephus' accounts are the most detailed source for information regarding the Great Rebellion, the degree of their historical accuracy is a matter of dispute.