Jerusalem has been excavated for a century or more, but the most exciting and rewarding digs have been in recent years. An area that has never been excavated before only became accessible in 1967, as a result of the Six-Day War, when the Jewish Quarter of the Upper City came into Israeli occupation.
The city authorities decided to reconstruct much of this area, but, before the builders moved in, opportunity was deliberately made for archaeologists to make a thorough investigation. Nahman Avigad led his team ahead of the builders and did a magnificent job. For nearly ten years they dug, and discovered an amazing wealth of material. The first report was published in 1980 in Hebrew. The English version has only just become available, published in the U.S.A. It is very well produced and is illustrated with many photographs and drawings.
This must have been one of the most rewarding excavations ever made. The excitement of the team as they unearthed the hidden history of this part of the city comes through in the text and infects the reader. It is indeed fortunate that the authorities were so understanding of the importance of the site, and the team so enthusiastic in their labours, and the leader so well able to convey the results in this remarkable book.
Obviously, the excavators unearthed the later periods of occupation first, and the earliest periods last. Avigad has wisely arranged his record so that each chapter covers a specific period of history. He begins in chapter 1 with the first occupation of the western hill of Mount Zion, usually known as the Upper City. This appears to have begun in about 800 B.C., and continued until the destruction of the city by Nebuchadnezzar. A very short chapter comes next, which deals with the period when it was unoccupied for the time of the 70 years’ exile.
Chapter 3 is perhaps the most interesting, as well as the longest, covering an occupation of about two centuries of the Hasmonaean and Herodian periods up to the destruction of the city in A.D. 70. Amazing discoveries were made of objects that must have been in regular use right up to the time of that holocaust. The artefacts reveal that the Jews living in this part of the city lived in opulence, had mosaic floors, plastered walls, beautifully crafted tables, bowls and jars, and glassware. Indeed, the remains of a glassworks was found, with evidence that both blown glass and moulded glass objects were made in the city.
The following chapter is an account of the reoccupation by the Romans, when the city was known as Aelia Capitolina. This area only housed barracks for the 10th legion. At this time Hadrian refused to allow any part of the city to be occupied by Jews. Chapter 5 describes the three centuries when the city was nominally Christian. Among the discoveries in this Byzantine period was a church built by the Emperor Justinian, with an inscription that includes his name. The next chapter then covers the occupation period of the Crusaders and the Moslem Arabs; this layer, of course, being the topmost
The book finishes with a summary of the occupation zones that have been discovered. Altogether, it must be one of the finest records of the archaeology of Jerusalem, with great detail expressed in a most readable manner by the man who was actually responsible for organising the whole unique operation.
Review of “The Early Earth” by John Whitcomb (1972)