A huge quarry, one of the largest ever exposed in Jerusalem, dating from the end of the Second Temple period, has been uncovered over the past few weeks in an excavation run by the Israel Antiquities Authority in the Har Hotzvim industrial area in Jerusalem. The excavation is funded by the Bethany company.
The excavated area covers approximately 3,500 square meters and is part of a large quarry field, where stone vessels were found which, according to Jewish halacha, do not receive tum’ah (spiritual impurity), and were therefore popular with the Jewish population.
Michael Tcharnin and Lara Shilov, excavation managers on behalf of the Antiquities Authority, said that during the excavation, archaeologists uncovered dozens of building stones of various sizes, as well as quarrying and carving trenches, which indicate the size of the rock blocks that were quarried on the spot.
In one of the corners of the quarry, the archaeologists were surprised to discover an intact stone vessel which had been hidden in a corner for two thousand years and was discovered almost by accident by archaeologist Alexander Pechuro. “This is a stone purification vessel of the type that was used by the Jewish community during the Second Temple period,” says Lara Shilov.
Most of the building stones that were carved there were huge slabs of rock, reaching a length of about 2.5 m, a width of 1.2 m, and a thickness of about 40 cm. The weight of each carved block was about 2.5 tons. These impressive dimensions may indicate that they were intended to be used as building stones in one of the many state construction projects that took place in Jerusalem at the end of the Second Temple period, beginning with the days of King Herod (who reigned between 37-4 BCE).
According to historical sources, Herod’s construction projects in Jerusalem included, first and foremost, the expansion of the Temple Mount compound and the Temple itself. He also erected many large public buildings, both palaces and fortifications, throughout the city, which required a huge amount of high-quality construction stones.
Monumental construction projects were carried out under Herod’s successors, the most important of these being the construction of the third wall around the city by Herod’s grandson, King Agrippa I (37-44 CE).
“It can be assumed, with a great deal of caution, that at least some of the building stones that were carved here were intended to be used as paving slabs for the streets of Jerusalem of that time,” say Tcharnin and Shilov. “In another excavation by the Antiquities Authority, which has been going on for the past few years in the City of David, the archaeologists discovered a paved street (the Pilgrims’ Road) which also dates back to the end of the Second Temple, the era of the Roman commissioners. Amazingly, it turns out that the paving stones of this street are the same size, in thickness and geological composition, as the stone slabs that were carved in the quarry now being exposed on Mount Hotzavim.”
