A Menorah, a shofar, a Torah scroll...the essence of our people, no description could be more concise.

"This is a remarkable discovery you come across only once in a lifetime," Mazar said on Monday. "You don't get to see the menorah on the footsteps of the Temple Mount every day; such a medallion was never discovered.

Photo credit: Lior Mizrahi

Yori Yalon/Shlomo Cesana..
Israel Hayom..
10 September '13..

A breath-taking discovery just off the Temple Mount: a medallion featuring reliefs of the menorah (the historic seven-branched candelabrum used inside the temple), a shofar (a ram's horn used during Rosh Hashana) and a Torah scroll was unearthed recently along with a trove of gold and silver artifacts.

The unusual find -- apparently dating to the Byzantine era in the 7th century C.E. -- was unearthed by a team excavating the area below the southern wall of the holy basin (an area that is believed to be the biblical Ophel). Dr. Eilat Mazar, an archeologist from the Hebrew University, has been in charge of the operation.

The cache was found hidden inside two fabric bags underneath a limestone floor in a Byzantine-era structure. One bag contained dozens of gold coins and artifacts used for trade. The excavators believe the medallion, found in the second bag, was used to adorn torah scrolls, which, if proven accurate, would make it the oldest such ornament ever discovered.

The latest phase of the Ophel excavations ran from April through July. This project is run jointly with the Israel Antiquities Authority, which has been tasked with preserving the area, the Israel Nature and Parks Authority and East Jerusalem Development Ltd. The area is part of the national park that surrounds Jerusalem's Old City.

"This is a remarkable discovery you come across only once in a lifetime," Mazar said on Monday. "You don't get to see the menorah on the footsteps of the Temple Mount every day; such a medallion was never discovered. The fact that a Torah scroll is featured alongside the seven-branch candelabrum is just as amazing. This probably means that the medallion was used to adorn a Torah scroll in a synagogue."

Jerusalem Dig Yields Another Historical Gem

Jonathan Tobin
Contentions/Commentary
12 July '10

Does it matter whether Jerusalem was a major city 3,500 years ago? Surely, nothing that happened that long ago could mean much today, especially since the Israelite Kingdom of David and Solomon — from which Jewish claims date — did not come along until a few centuries later. But the recent find of a clay fragment at the site of the City of David from this long ago actually has a great deal of meaning for the debate over both the Davidic kingdom’s significance and the depth of Jewish ties to the holy city.

The fragment, found in the Ophel area, in a dig carried out by Dr. Eilat Mazar of the Hebrew University Institute of Archeology and funded by New York philanthropists Daniel Mintz and Meredith Berkman, is a small piece of what appears to have been a larger tablet. What makes it important is that it contains writing in ancient cuneiform symbols. This makes it the oldest written document ever found in Jerusalem. That alone is fascinating but what makes it truly significant is the high quality of the writing that seems to be the work of a highly skilled scribe who was probably part of a royal household. Analysis of the writing by Hebrew University experts shows that it may well have been part of a message sent from a king of Jerusalem to the pharaoh in Egypt.

This matters because many influential archaeologists, as well as Palestinian propagandists, have dismissed Jewish ties to Jerusalem by claiming that the Kingdom of David mentioned in the Bible was an insignificant entity and that its capital in Jerusalem was nothing more than a village. These people scoff at the notion that the effort to restore Jewish sovereignty to the area is based on historical precedent rather than biblical romance.

The lesson of this most recent find is that if Jerusalem were already an important walled city in the centuries before David, it is very difficult to argue that it was a backwater only when the Jews took over, some 3,000 years ago. Since anti-Zionists wish to claim that King David and his kingdom never really existed and that the great city from which he ruled it is a myth, this evidence of the city’s significance even before his time is more proof of the falsity of anti-Israel historical polemics.

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Hebrew U. archaeologist discovers Jerusalem city wall possibly built by King Solomon

The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
News release
IMRA
22 February '10

Jerusalem, February 22, 2010 - A section of an ancient city wall of Jerusalem from the tenth century B.C.E. - possibly built by King Solomon -- has been revealed in archaeological excavations directed by Dr. Eilat Mazar and conducted under the auspices of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

The section of the city wall revealed, 70 meters long and six meters high, is located in the area known as the Ophel, between the City of David and the southern wall of the Temple Mount.

Uncovered in the city wall complex are: an inner gatehouse for access into the royal quarter of the city, a royal structure adjacent to the gatehouse, and a corner tower that overlooks a substantial section of the adjacent Kidron valley.



The excavations in the Ophel area were carried out over a three-month period with funding provided by Daniel Mintz and Meredith Berkman, a New York couple interested in Biblical Archeology. The funding supports both completion of the archaeological excavations and processing and analysis of the finds as well as conservation work and preparation of the site for viewing by the public within the Ophel Archaeological Park and the national park around the walls of Jerusalem.

The excavations were carried out in cooperation with the Israel Antiquities Authority, the Israel Nature and Parks Authority, and the Company for the Development of East Jerusalem. Archaeology students from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem as well as volunteer students from the Herbert W. Armstrong College in Edmond, Oklahoma, and hired workers all participated in the excavation work.

"The city wall that has been uncovered testifies to a ruling presence. Its strength and form of construction indicate a high level of engineering", Mazar said. The city wall is at the eastern end of the Ophel area in a high, strategic location atop the western slop of the Kidron valley.

(Read full article)
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