Category Archives: Ancient Architecture

King Hezekiah and King Menashe of Judea – the archaeology

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If you’ve been following my podcasts recently you might know that I’ve been talking mainly about King Hezekiah and his son Menashe of Judah. Hezekiah lived around the same time as the Assyrian Emperor Sennacharib 705-681 BCE. There is a clay prism in the British Museum which chronicles Sennacharib’s life. It mentions Hezekiah too. It describes Sennacharib’s conquest of Judea and siege of Jerusalem.

(If you are looking for the podcasts scroll to the bottom of the page)

The Taylor Prism viewable in the British Museum

The British Museum used to have a complete transcript available online. It got removed, I will update this page with any further resources.

In addition to the Prism there is also a display  in the British Museum of a wall frieze of the  siege of Lachish, a town in the foothills of Judea. This siege is both mentioned on the Prism depicted above and the Bible, namely in the book of Kings (II Kings 18) and Chronicles (II Chronicles 32).

The Frieze includes:

A depiction of Sennacharib sitting on his throne at the gates to the city:

Source : Wikimedia Author : User:oncenawhile

Depictions of the battle:

Photograph by Mike Peel (www.mikepeel.net)

And, as mentioned in the podcast the capture and punishment of enemies, possibly a cruxifiction, possibly a flaying, what do you think?

Source: Wikimedia Author: Zunkir

Fairly recently an archaeologist called Eilat Mazar found an official Bullae or clay stamp of Hezekiah in an archaeological park called the City of David. I have also sketched my observation of the stamp. Note that the lettering is “Proto – Canaanite script and the “logo” of Hezekiah is a sun with wings and an Ankh.

If you listen to the podcasts posted at the bottom you will hear that this is part of the evidence confirming both Hezekiah (podcast 8) and Menashe (Podcast 9) as historical actors.

Source: Wikimedia Author: Rubén Betanzo S.

“Artist”‘s impression of Hezekiah’s official stamp

Similar “logos” were found on numerous jug handles from the same era possibly for the collection of money or produce for the King, in fact “for the King” was written on many such handles.

More stylised sun with wings logo common to the jug handles.
Author: Hanay
Source: Wikimedia

In addition to this we have a 533m long tunnel outside the Old City of Jerusalem amongst other building projects that as you will hear in podcast 8 Hezekiah and later Menashe (Podcast 9) build structures that include the tunnel depicted below.

IMG_1056

On Tour at Hezekiah’s tunnel, City of David

Podcast 8 : Hezekiah

Podcast 9 : Menashe

As of March 25th 2020 I have been furloughed from all tourism related work, due to COVID-19 all tourist flights have stopped.

If you want to help: please share this article.

In order to produce more articles and podcasts I need to pay bills, contributions will be happily recieved by clicking on the coffee mug below.

Building the Temple – a work in progress

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A work in Progress

A visit to the Roman Engineering exhibit at the Davidson Center

It is believed that the Herodion Temple Mount took much longer to build than Herod actually lived for. Consider how long it must have took to even build the machinery and work out the engineering to build the entire massive structure.

The Temple Mount had 140,000 square meters surface area. The Western Wall is 488 meters in length alone. The largest stone is well over 280 tonnes (some say 570 tonnes). According to the Christian Scripture it took more than 46 years to build (John 2:20).

It is highly likely that , not unlike this blog, there were many starts and stops!

Stay tuned for more interesting and entertaining blogs, podcasts and videos!

 

Old City Caves

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Known today as 'Zedekiah's Caves'

A new Library of Congress addition.

This is just one picture of a recent addition to the Library of Congress. The collection was recently reported on by Lenny Ben David in a Jerusalem Post article. In the article Lenny Ben David recalls how a settlement of American missionaries came to Jerusalem and recorded the many astounding features of their new lives in Israel in photo form, this is known as the American Colony Collection. This collection in particular documents the discovery of a quarry from the time of King Herod. The mine has been thought to be from a number of different eras from the Solomonic era to the time of Zedekiah. It was the site of cultic activity, a rubbish heap and a curiosity at various different times of history.

One thing that should be noted is that since most of the building from ancient times to the present day are made out of Jerusalem limestone, known as ‘Jerusalem stone’ (that wonderful sandy / pinky / off whitey stone that shines gold in the Jerusalem sunset. The British even made an ordinance that all buildings, by law, had to be made out of this stone. It is sure that this quarry and many like it saw much use. This quarry is responsible for the way the Holy City looks today.

You too can request to see this on one of my Old City Tours !

(My first of many new blog posts since my vacation after my wedding, watch this space for more!)

Torah Portion: Chayei Sarah: the Caves of the Patriarchs

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The Cave of Machpelah, burial site of the Patriarchs at Night

“Isaac and Ishmael buried Abraham in the Cave of Machpelah in the Field of Ephron the Hittite” (Genesis: 25:9)

This appearance of both Isaac and Ishmael at the funeral of Abraham is seen expressive of a situation where both Isaac and Ishmael were living in peace with one another. It is interesting to note that after burying Abraham in the place where Abraham buried his wife Sarah, Isaac then goes and lives in ‘Be’er Lehai Ro’i’ (The Well where Ishmael was saved by an angel). Seemingly Isaac actually dwelt with his brother and they operated with as a family unit (possibly including Hagar).

If one were to visit the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron, commonly identified as Machpelah. One would also see Jews and Muslims (traditionally thought of as the descendants of Isaac and Ishmael respectively) sharing the same building for prayer.

Haftarah for this Week: ‘Like a booth in a field of Gourds’.

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A Shomera in Wadi Jinan near road 443 (Watch this space, I am going to upload a better picture of a Shomera that I saw)

“The Daughter of Zion is left like a (sucah) booth in a vineyard, like a (melunah) shed  in a field of gourds” (Isaiah Chapter 1:8)

This week is part for the 9 days of mourning leading up to the 9th of Av which commemorates the destruction of both Temples and the various tradgedies of the Diaspora. There is a tradition to read on the Sabbath before the 9th of Av from the first prophecy of Isaiah. In his prophecy he predicts the downfall of Judah and anthropomorphises her and explains how she is abandoned like a special type of building described as a ‘booth’ (a sucah) or some kind of lodging place (a melunah). Both are types of ‘Shomera’ which is a concept which has existed since ancient times and is used in arab agriculture.

The Shomera

A Shomera is used as a watchman’s booth in harvest time. During the harvest the harvester lives in a little hut next to his field until he has finished his harvesting and no longer has any more produce to protect.

So What’s So Bad about being abandoned like a Shomera?

A few weeks ago I was hiking in the beautiful hills of Sataf, which is an old abandoned village just West of Jerusalem. There is a wonderful trail that I can recommend called the ‘trail of the Shomerot’. Where you follow a trail of such booths up the hillside. It was just after midday and incredibly hot, my companions and I were forced to seek refuge inside an ancient Shomera. It certainly is not luxury accommodation, its a dank crampt little stone hut that you hide in from the scolding midday sun.

A mixture of Protection and Abandonment

The image here is stark, the ‘daughter of Zion’ is fleeing from the Sun; the harsh judgement that has been meted out to her and her only protection is a dank hut on a mountainside. Yet she does have some protection even though it is rickety and unsafe. The Shomera is a symbol of both the oppressive situation of the Jewish people and their ability to ‘cling on’ and survive in the oppressive heat of history. It is not the ideal situation but it is survival.

(These words of Torah are dedicated to the speedy recovery of Zlata bat Sima, please include her in your prayers)