Mount Scopus

The display giving us the overview of the Temple
Mount and the sifting project

Learning how to be archeologists for the day

What an awesome day...we discovered another activity that I wish everyone who comes to Israel could experience. The Temple Mount sifting project. A little background...although Israel has control of the Old City of Jerusalem, there is an agreement which allows the Muslim leadership (Waqf) control over the Temple Mount, where the Dome of the Rock and Al Aqsa mosque are. For the most part, this arrangement works pretty well. However, in 1999-2000, the Waqf undertook a building project to build  an entrance to an underground mosque in Solomon's Stables on the Southern end of the Temple Mount.  The project was illegal, because in Israel all excavating must be done with the supervision of an archeologist, in case important finds are unearthed. This excavation had several negative consequences. First, it weakened the Southern Wall of the Temple Mount to the point where it was in danger of collapsing (which likely would have led to the collapse of Al Aqsa mosque). The wall needed to be repaired, but neither the Jews or the Muslims would allow the other group to do the work. The Muslims felt that allowing Israel to do the work would acknowledge their sovereignty in Jerusalem, and Israel did not want the Palestinian authority to do to the work because they currently have no authority in that area.  The eventual compromise was to have a third party (a team from Jordan and Egypt) do the work. They did a shoddy job and now you can see a big "patch" in the southern wall of the temple mount. Amazing how even fixing a wall is a majorly politically laden issue!

Sylvia selecting a "lucky" bucket to sift

Another negative consequence of the illegal excavations was the huge archeological destruction. You can imagine if you can't even build a parking garage without the oversight of an archeologist, how much moreso this should be true for the Temple Mount. Thousands of years of the most central history of three major world religions were dug up by bulldozers and thrown into the dump.

Eventually, a team of archeologists got permission to sift through the earth that had been removed and try to salvage whatever archeological artifacts they could. And now volunteers from all over the world can help with this amazing project.

Jonah is going to tell you about our experience volunteering with this project:

"So when we got there the person in charge told us some history about the Temple Mount. then he told us what to do. What we did was chose a bucket full of rocks and water. Then we put it on a platform with a screen in it that only water and mud could get past. Then you would dump you bucket on the platform and use a hose to wash the rocks. Some really special things that I found were a large roof tile, a crusader water pipe, a pice of painted glass and a painted mosaic tile. Those objects that I just listed were putt on the display table along with things that other people found. One family found two coins. No one else did. That's the gist, bye."

So, to add some detail to that excellent description. The opening presentation was terrific. They gave a really clear overview of the history of the Temple Mount and all of the various groups that have controlled it over time. This helped give a sense of the time periods of the things we might find. The main time periods were First Temple, Second Temple, Late Roman, Byzantine, Early Islamic, Crusader, Mamluke/Ayyubis, Ottoman, and State of Israel.  He also told us about some of the key finds so far from the project. For example, they found a clay seal from a Kohen family mentioned in the Bible from the First Temple period (I think), and a coin from the time of the Hasmoneans marked Year 1 (or something like that). It was from the brief time when the Hasmoneans got control of Jerusalem back from the Romans. Most of those coins were destroyed by the Romans after the failed Bar Kochba revolt, to indicate that the Jews had lost all power.

Then, as Jonah said, they taught us how to sift. We separated our finds into 6 categories: pottery (by far the most common), glass, mosaic tiles, bone, special stones including flint and marble, and metal. The rest of the regular stones we dumped into a wheelbarrow after a staff member made sure we hadn't missed anything. Putting stones in the wheelbarrow became Sylvia's special job and she did it very well! At the end of the sifting time (about an hour), the head staff member did an amazing summary where he showed everyone some of the key finds from that
morning. Ella and I were a team and we found the oldest piece of the morning -- a piece of clay pottery from the first Temple Period. One group found a handle of an oil jug from the Second Temple period. Mosaic tiles were found from the Islamic and Crusader periods (one from the Islamic period which Jonah found was bright green). A piece of roof tile was found from the Ottoman period, which was imported from France (the Ottomans would import any type of French tile except those with crosses on them). Jonah also found a piece of clay water pipe from the late Roman period. The 2 coins found by one of the other families were from the Crusader period (it had a very faint cross on it) and the Hasmonean period (he could tell because it had one edge chipped off, which happened because of the way they made coins in a mold at the time). The kids absolutely loved sifting and we might just have to go back and do it again while we are here (we are hoping to find the lucky bucket with a coin, or maybe the ark of the covenant in it!)

Highlighting some of the key findings from the day

Afterward, we hiked up the hill to Mount Scopus to walk around Hebrew University. Either our memories are very faulty, or the campus has changed a lot -- or both! For the first hour or so that we walked around, nothing looked the slightest bit familiar. We did find a great cafeteria where we enjoyed shnitzel sandwiches with delicious salads on top (if you can pickle it, Israelis will eat it as a sandwich topping!). We finally found our way to the amphitheater (where Abe remembers seeing his grandfather receive an honorary PhD from Hebrew University in 1991). The view was unreal. We could see a small city to the east of Mount Scopus (Ma'ale Adumim maybe?), and then the hills that are now in the West Bank, and beyond that Jordan. We also read some really cool displays about all of the graduates of Hebrew U. who have gone on to win Nobel prizes and some of the incredible scientific innovations

A short rest on the walk up Mount Scopus

of the faculty there.

Finally, we decided to walk down the hill to where we remembered the Hyatt hotel being when we were students there. That used to be a place we would sometimes go to just enjoy the air conditioning and sitting on the comfortable couches. As we started down the hill we were so glad to finally see something we recognized! We found the building that used to house the Rothberg School International Students where we spent most of our time (it has now been converted to something else, and the Rothberg school moved to a new building more in the middle of campus). We were so relieved that our memories were not completely faulty! We walked around there briefly, then continued down the hill to the hotel (now the Dan Jerusalem). From there, we took our first official ride on the light rail to Machane Yehuda to stock up on fruits and veggies and from there the bus home. It was definitely a small victory over a complex public transport system.

Triumphant climb to the roof of the amphitheater!

For dinner at home, we made Malawach, a Yemenite kind of bread, that they sell here frozen. The whole family LOVED it (especially Sylvia) -- what's not to love, it's basically like eating funnel cake for dinner!