Zachi Zweig gives his perspective on the “Material from First Temple Period found on Temple Mount” story. Zweig works with Barkay on the Temple Mount Debris Sifting project and his website on The Temple Mount Archaeological Destruction has done the most to make the issues known to the public.
Lake Huleh is located north of the Sea of Galilee. Most of the Huleh basin was drained in the 1950s, but a small portion of the lake was preserved to become Israel’s first national nature reserve. This is the beginning of an article from KKL-JNF (link to specific article down at time of writing):
Cranes have become familiar guests at Hula Lake. During Israel’s autumn and winter months—October to March—there are an average of 10,000—30,000 cranes at the lake every day. Recently, a new daily record was set at Hula Lake—41,600 cranes in one day, as compared to last year’s record of 32,000, a 30% increase!
Watching the cranes is indeed a magnificent sight but besides the food placed for them in the lake area, they also eat seeds in nearby fields and cause a great deal of damage to local agriculture. With the increase of cranes remaining in the region, the importance of the crane-feeding project also increased, including leaving them food in agricultural areas earmarked for this purpose.
Zamir Carmi, field crops coordinator for Upper Galilee, noted that the crane-feeding project is a joint endeavor of Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael-Jewish National Fund [KKL-JNF] and other green organizations, but there is a budget deficit of 400,000 shekels [US $103,000], and the farmers have to chase the cranes away from the fields by running after them, playing loud music and waving brightly colored flags.
Cranes on Lake Huleh
I have updated the “Muslims Recognize Temple’s Existence” post with a link to a scanned copy of “A Brief Guide to al-Haram al-Sharif,” published in 1925. Thanks to Sean Q for finding and sharing the book.
- Tagged Jerusalem, Temple Mount
I’ve updated the post about this below, listing the differences with it and The Sacred Bridge. Eisenbrauns skipped the Evangelical Theological Society conference in San Diego last week, so I didn’t get to see the book myself. I hope this doesn’t mean that Eisenbrauns is losing interest in the evangelical market.
- Tagged Resources
Those interested in the goings-on at the ASOR meeting in San Diego should look at the LMLK Blogspot of George Grena. In his first post, he discusses some of the scholars he met and the first session which was on Ramat Rahel. I’m in town for another conference but opted to not to go the ASOR meetings because of the high admissions fee (and the Biblical Archaeology Society conference was even more outrageously priced). You can see the ASOR program schedule here. Other highlights of the day that Grena noted in a posting to the ANE-2 list are:
2) Interesting ruffling of feathers between attendees at Chang-Ho Ji’s paper on Khirbat ‘Ataruz (Ataroth?) regarding the interpretation of 2 male figures (homosexual deities?) on a cult statue.
3) A heated exchange between the excavators of Beth Shemesh & Yosef Garfinkel & Saar Ganor of the IAA after their consecutive papers. The former pointed out the lack of evidence for an 8th-century earthquake, but suggested that a burnt layer relates to 2Kings 14:11-2; the latter identified Khirbet Qeiyafa as Biblical Azekah.
4) A 6-line ink-inscription ostracon found at Tall Jalul, presented by Randall Younker–note that this was a surprise change from the topic originally planned–you won’t find it in the abstracts program book.
5) A strong protest by Aren Maeir following the Zayit Abecedary session.
- Tagged Lectures
From today’s Jerusalem Post:
The remains of an ancient terraced street dating back to the Roman Period have been uncovered in the Western Wall tunnels, the Israel Antiquities Authority announced Wednesday.
The street, which likely led to the nearby Temple Mount, dates back nearly 2,000 years to when the city was called Aelia Capitolina, during the second to fourth centuries.
The site, which was uncovered in archeological excavations over the past year, is a side street connecting two major roads in the area, said Jon Seligman, the Antiquities Authority Jerusalem regional archeologist.
The ancient street is paved with large flagstones and is amazingly well-preserved. It is demarcated on both sides by walls built of ashlar stones.
The recent finding is the latest indication that even after they destroyed the Second Temple in 70 CE, the Romans continued to value the Temple Mount as one of the main urban focal points of activity in the city.
Various artifacts were discovered in the excavations, including pottery, glass vessels and dozens of coins that all date to the construction of the street and the period after it was abandoned.
Update (11/16): Link above updated. Reuters also has the story with photos.
- Tagged Discoveries, Jerusalem
