Yuval Baruch and Gideon Avni

 The ancient city of Jerusalem, which is located within the area
of the walled Old City of today, was revealed to the archeological research
mainly because of the large-scale excavations carried out in the southern
and south-western areas of the Old City: at the Kotel, in the Jewish Quarter
and in the Armenian Quarter. In contrast with these areas, which were excavated
continuously for several years – the central and northern parts of the
Old City were researched only a little, due to the density of buildings
and lack of ability to carry out excavations in such a constructed urban
area. The few open areas at the site were not researched properly, since
the researchers naturally preferred to concentrate on the more attractive
areas for excavations, those that are located next to the Temple Mount.

 One of the last areas inside the boundaries of the Old City that
is still uncovered by dense urban construction is close to the north-eastern.
comer of the Old City, east to Herod’s gate. This area, that was an open
field since the beginning of the Ottoman rule, is known by the name “The
Stork Tower”, or in Arabic “Burj El-Laklak”, referring to the comer tower
on the Old City wall. In the 19th century and the first half of the 20th
century the small Gypsy community of Jerusalem lived there, in poor, shaky
buildings, Most of the area remained vacant until today. The area now is
flat, almost without of buildings. It looked quite the same in photos and
surveyor’s maps from the 19th – 20th centuries. It is remarkable that the
area inside the walls, cast to Herod’s gate, was used mainly for agricultural
purposes.

 The opportunity to carry out a systematic archeological examination
in the area came up in 1998, following the decision to designate part of
the area for construction. The test excavations were held in 2 areas next
to the city walls, in order to check out the continuity of the layers of
inhabitation and the depth of layering in this part of the Old City.

 The excavations went down to the level of the bedrock, in most
cases, and pointed out the ancient topographic structure of the area, sloping
from cast to west, towards the creek known as Bizita creek (Josephus flavius,
Wars of the Jews 5, 4-20), beginning west to where the Rockefeller museum
is now located and descending towards the Kidron valley, north to the Temple
Mount area. It seems as if during the years,

 and as a consequence of construction in the area, the creek was
filled up and became a plane, the way it looks now.

 The excavations were carried out in 2 areas, A and B, right next
to the City wall. A few layers of population were defined in them, starting
at the 1 ” Temple period until the end of the Ottoman rule.

 First Temple Period

 The remains of this period were discovered in 2 excavation squares
in area A next to the wall of the Old City. They included broken clay pottery
and no signs of construction. The broken clay pottery wer found in layers
of Terra-Rosa soil, on top of the bedrock on which the Medieval City Walls
were based (see below). Most of them were typical to the 8th – 6 th centuries
B.C.E., and included mainly jugs, storage jars and cooking pots. Among
other things, we found a handle of a jar with a one-wing stamp that read
1115n5″ (for the king), but the part with the name of the place was probably
ruined and disappeared.

 All these first Temple ceramics that we found, concentrated in
the lowest layers of earth right on the bedrock, match what we know from
other places that were excavated in the Christian and Moslem Quarters,
where we discovered findings from the I” Temple period in layers of red
TerraRossa soil right on top of the bedrock. It seems that these remains
are connected to the activity out of the City walls towards the end of
the I’t Temple period. This activity was characterized mainly by quarries
and burial caves carved in the rock, and was practiced in the whole area
up to the hills at the north of the City, including Bizita hill.

 The Hellenistic Period

 The same layers that contained findings from the I’t Temple contained
also Hellenistic findings. We found worn out clay handles and coins dated
back to the Hasmonaean kings. These layers covered, among other things,
the area of a quarry, of which stones were taken out, leaving their imprints
on the rock. It seems as if the area of this quarry extended further north
to the wall of today and it was ruined in the medieval period, during the
construction of the wall and the moat at its foot.

 End of 2″d Temple Period Most of the remains from this period
were discovered in area A but a few pieces of broken clay pottery were
discovered in the debris in area B. in area A we discovered remains of
2 massive buildings made of stone, parts of them were preserved to the
height of 1.5 meters. It can be possibly associated with the process of
the extension of the City out of the 1″ and 2 nd walls, and building the
“new City”. Yosef Ben Matityahu (Josephus Flavius) describes this process
while describing Jerusalem (War of the Jews against the Romans, 5 4-20):

 ” Since the City is too small to contain all its inhabitants and
step by step broke out of the walls its people annexed to it the slope
of the hill north to the Temple Mount, expanded the City a great deal and
built the 4′ hill called Bizita (Btzita), towering above the Antonia fortress
and a deep moat separating between them. The newly built part of the City
was called Bizita by its inhabitants, and maybe we have to translate it
from Greek, meaning ‘The New City’ “.

 The process of building and extending the boundaries of Jerusalem
towards the north and cast of the 2d wall started probably in the days
of the Hasmonaearis but reached its peak in the days of King Agripas the
I”. (44-41 CE), who also started to build the 3 rd wall, including Bizita
hill inside.

 In some other excavation sites north and east to the Old City,
remains of old residential buildings were discovered, testifying of the
northern expansion of the City, e.g. the areas north to Damascus gate up
to the 3 rd wall and lately also in excavations carried out east to the
Golden gate, in the steep slope going towards the Kidron river.

 The 2 buildings that were discovered in area A were built in terraces
and were based directly on the bedrock. A high rock elevation separates
between them, and seems as if the homes in this area were built on terraces
or rock elevations in the slopes of the Bizita creek.

 We discovered a 6-meter segment of a wall, next to it an infrastructure
of a floor covered with mosaic. Under the floor level we discovered a great
amount of 2 d Temple findings.

 In the Western part of area A, on the lower rock elevation, we
discovered o comer of a building made of big, coarse stone bricks. It seems
as if the building extended north to the Ottoman wall, and while building
this wall and the moat at its base – most of this building was rained.

 The earth around these walls contains many broken pottery pieces,
mostly cooking pots of the end of the 2nd Temple period, Some of the pieced
had holes punctured in them- During the excavation a stone was pulled out
of the wall and we discovered that the building is also full of clay pottery
pieces, mostly of cooking pots. We also found coins from the Days of King
Agripas the 1 ” and the Roman governors.

 It is not the first time that in excavations in Jerusalem we find
cooking pots which were deliberately punctured. In the Excavations of the
Herodian Quarter in the Upper City we found a pool, at the bottom of which
were many cooking vessels, punctured exactly the same way. Professor Nachman
Avigad suggested that the pots were cast in that pit after getting impure,
but he could not find a proof.

 Among the broken clay pieces we found one jug that its handle
was deliberately removed and instead of it – someone wrote in 2nd Temple
lettering: “Sfeka” (doubt). We suggest that it meant a middle situation,
between pure and impure. Finding this piece with the punctured ones points
out that those vessels probably contained foods that became impure or became
impure themselves and had to be damaged. This was done by puncturing or
breaking them, and then putting them together at a certain spot in the
house or outside of it.

 In the Jewish Halachic literature we find many discussions regarding
foods that were suspected to become impure, and the Halach instructs to
treat them as impure.

 Based on the above findings, we assume that this was the custom
in Jerusalem – to damage clay pottery, especially cooking pots after they
became (or were suspected to become) impure, and keep them together at
a certain place. Discovering this kind of findings in several layers shows
that this was the custom for a very long period of time.

 The Late Roman Period

 There is little evidence of this period. It seems as if following
the Roman conquest of Jerusalem and destruction of the Temple (70 CE) the
whole area, including 2 d Temple buildings, was totally deserted. In area
A we discovered a wall with white mosaic and mosaic factory debris, possibly
of the late Roman Period. On the eastern step in the same area we discovered
a pit, lined with flat stones and dug into a 2 d Temple period wall- Inside
we found a typical cooking pot of the 2′d century CE, containing remains
of cremation burial. Similar evidence of cremation burial in cooking pots
and jars were found in nearby places north to the City walls (Damascus
gate, 3′d wall excavations and Tombs of the King) and other places in Jerusalem
(Flank of Ifinom).

 Bizantine Period

 In area B, next to the Ottoman wall, we discovered a segment of
an ancient wall which is continuous to the recent one that is placed right
on it. According to the levels inhabited next to this wall there is no
doubt that this is the Bizantine period City wall. This matches what we
know from other excavations out of the wall, carried out in the 1930′s
by Harrulton.

 Tt is possible that some of the stones of the wall are secondary
use of older ruins, some, which still have the typical stone dressing that
looks like a frame, may suggest that the stones date back to 2d Temple
times. The part of the wall preserved is 5 meters high. By the construction
type this segment matched other fortification ruins along the northern
wall of Jerusalem and also in the citadel and Mt. Zion and are definitely
of the Bizantine period. The same techniques were used in the Holy Sepulchre
Church (4th century CE). We can’t be more definite as per the dating of
the wall, it could me either late Roman or Bizantine.

 In area A we didn’t find any remains of that wall, neither did
we find it out of the Ottoman wall. We suggest that the wall made a turn
by the Beit Zeita creek, somewhere between areas A and B, until it met
the eastern part of the City wall,

 Early Moslem Period

 The remains of this period include a residential quarter with
some poor buildings discovered in area A. Since the excavation was in a
small area we can’t point out an urban planning, but pieces of clay pottery
found in the remains, segments of walls and floors, and even 2 rooms under
the

 ground level, suggest that the buildings were in use until the
Ottoman period.

 The Crusaders and Ayubi Periods

 In the areas we excavated we found very little architectural evidence
of the crusaders period. According to the famous detailed descriptions
of the Crusaders conquest of Jerusalem, this was the place where Godfri
of Bouyon broke into the City in the summer of 1099. What we found in the
areas we excavated, were some iron arrowheads that may suggest that there
was a war in the area. No evidence of Crusader building or destruction.

 There is an evidence of reconstruction of the City walls and fortifications
daring the medieval period, remains of which were found 50 meters east
preserved until the beginning of the 20 th century and used by the C

 Typsics who lived in Jerusalem at the time. The same type of remains
were found also 20 meters west to area B. All these remains are closely
associated with the line of the ancient wall, are dated back to the same
period and constructed during as parts of the same building project prior
to the Ottoman period, According to similar findings in other parts of
the City wall (along the southern wall and northern wall we may assume
that they were a pert of the Ayubi raler Almalck Alinuazarn Issa who fortified
the walls in the beginning of the 13t” century and afterwards destroyed
them by himself, fearing of the crusaders advancing towards the City.

 The Mamlouk Period

 There are many remains of private residential building of the
Mamlouk period, testifying that the area was, in the 14th and 15th centuries
one of Jerusalem’s residential quarters.

 In area A we excavated a building based on ruins of the early
Moslem period and 2d Temple period. The area was full of findings dated
until the Mamlouk period. Another room in area B was fall of unbroken vessels.

 We learn that the Beit Zeita river, being a deep valley in the
2d Temple period, became full of debris during the medievals until it turned
into a plane, as it is today. The Bizantine City wall was partly rained
and its stones were used for building by the Mamlouks. It is only during
the Ottoman period that the new City wall, existing until today, included
these areas inside the fortified City.

 The Ottoman Period

 The whole area underwent an extreme change after Suliman the Magnificent
built the new City walls. For building the walls they had to dig canals,
destroying earlier Mamlouk buildings. The canals got filled up with debris
covering everything underneath. When the walls were completed, all the
area at their feet turned into a leveled area.

 In this part of the wall they built an observation tower with
rooms and an open balcony, meant to be a memorial od This project by Suliman
the Magnificent.

 Summary

 The new excavations east to Herods gate enabled us, for the first
time in the history of the archeological study of Jerusalem, to study the
sequence of layers in this part of the City. Although this is one of the
most distant parts of the ancient City. We learned that since the times
of the I’t Temple there was activity of quarrying, construction and residential
use, which became more and more abundant towards the end of the 2′d Temple
period and the circling the hill of Bizita by the 3 d wall in the I’t century
CE. It was probably one of the new residential quarters of Jerusalem, and
Josephus Flavius mentioned it in his writings. Since then and until today
this area was surrounded by a wall, its route quite similar to the one
of the Ottoman wall that exists until today, the area inside the wall serving
as the north-eastern residential quarter of Jerusalem.

This entry was posted on Friday, May 18th, 2001 and is filed under history.