[Archport] Fwd: First Temple-era seal discovered

[Graca Cravinho <graca@hermite.cii.fc.ul.pt>]

Title: Fwd: First Temple-era seal discovered

>
> First
> Temple-era seal discovered
> Etgar Lefkovits
> Sep. 27, 2005 / www.jpost.com
>
> A First-Temple period seal has been discovered amidst piles of
> rubble from Jerusalem's Temple Mount, an
> Israeli
> archaeologist said Tuesday, in what could prove to be an historic
> find.
>
> The small - less than 1 cm - seal impression, or bulla, discovered
> Tuesday by Bar-Ilan University archaeologist
> Dr. Gabriel
> Barkay amidst piles of rubble from the Temple Mount would mark the
> first time that an written artifact
> was found
> from the Temple Mount dating back to the First Temple period.
>
> The 2,600 year old artifact, with three lines in ancient Hebrew, was
> discovered amidst piles of rubble discarded
> by the
> Islamic Wakf that Barkay and a team of young archaeologists and
> volunteers are sifting through on the
> grounds of a
> Jerusalem national park.
>
> The seal, which predates the destruction of the First Jewish temple in
> 586 BCE, was presented Tuesday night
> to the press at an archaeological conference at the City of David
> sponsored by the right-wing Elad organization.
>
> Barkay said that the find was the first of its kind from the time of
> King David.
>
> He has not yet determined what the writing is on the seal, although
> three Hebrew letters -- thought to be the
> name of its
> owner -- are visible on one of its line.
>
> The seal was found amidst thousands of tons of rubble discarded by
> Wakf officials at city garbage dumps six
> years ago, following the Islamic Trust's unilateral construction of an
> mosque at an underground compound of
> the Temple
> Mount known as the Solomon's Stables.
>
> After the Antiquities Authority voiced disinterest in thoroughly
> sifting through the rubble discarded by the Wakf,
> Barkay
> applied -- and eventually received ?a license from the Antiquities
> Authority to sort through the piles of
> earth thrown
> into the garbage dump in search of antiquities, and has since found
> scores of history-rich artifacts,
> from the
> First Temple Period until today amidst the rubble, including a large
> amount of pottery dating from the
> Bronze Ages
> through modern times, a large segment of a marble pillar's shaft, and
> over 100 ancient coins, among
> them several
> from the Hasmonean Dynasty.
>
> While inexact, the ongoing sifting project, which is now being
> sponsored by Elad, has being called virtually
> unprecedented since archaeological excavation has never been
> permitted on the Temple Mount itself.
>
> Meanwhile, in a separate major archaeological development in
> Jerusalem, a Jewish ritual bath, or mikva, dating
> back to the
> Second Temple period, and a First Temple Wall have been found in an
> underground chamber adjacent
> to the
> Western Wall tunnels, the Antiquities Authority's Jerusalem regional
> archaeologist Jon Seligman said during
> a tour.
>
> The site is part of a new state-of-the-art tourist center at the
> Western Wall tunnels, which will be open to the
> public
> in two
> months' time.
>
> The impressive site, which incorporates ancient and modern Jewish
> history in an attempt to reach out to Israeli
> youth,
> includes an elaborate audiovisual show, and nine magnificent glass
> sculptures, which serve to highlight
> both recent
> discoveries of artifacts and infrastructure dating back thousands of
> years, including one of the world's
> oldest
> aqueducts, as well as modern day Jewish history, such as the Holocaust
> and Israel's fallen soldiers.