From Arutz-7:

A recent report by engineers says that the condition of the Mugrabi Gate is continuously deteriorating and that a few incidents of rocks collapsing from it were recently reported.
The Mugrabi Gate is the only entry point for Jews and other non-Muslims to the Temple Mount.
Jerusalem District Archaeologist Yochanan Zeligman recently addressed a letter to Israel Antiquities Authority Director-General Shuka Dorfman, in which he warned that “a danger exists to the crowd in the women’s section of the Western Wall Plaza, as well to those who walk on the temporary bridge, should stones fall from above.”
The temporary bridge to which Zeligman referred is a wooden pedestrian pathway to the Temple Mount which was constructed in 2007 after a landslide two years earlier made the earthen ramp leading to the Mugrabi Gate unsafe and in danger of collapse. Zeligman’s letter was based on a report he submitted which determined that since the construction in the Mugrabi Gate has not yet been completed, there are sections which are unsupported and could endanger visitors to the site.
Archaeologist Dr. Gabi Barkai, Jerusalem Prize Winner, member of the Committee for the Prevention of the Destruction of Antiquities on the Temple Mount, and lecturer at Bar Ilan University, spoke with Arutz7 on Thursday and expressed his sorrow that the Mugrabi Bridge is not being maintained for illogical political reasons.

The story continues with Barkai giving the background to the ramp.  The Temple Mount was closed to non-Muslims until 2003, not 2008 as stated in the article.

New and old ramp to Temple Mount at Western Wall, tb042605549

New temporary ramp (left) alongside original ramp leading to Mugrabi Gate.  Al Aqsa Mosque and the Mount of Olives are visible in the background.
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Approval of massive renovations at the Western Wall prayer plaza bodes ill for any who like a place for quiet reflection.  On the other hand, the changes will better accommodate the increasing crowds visiting the site.  From the Jerusalem Post:

A new plan to completely renovate the Western Wall Plaza was approved by the Jerusalem Local Planning and Building Committee on Monday, paving the way for the most drastic changes to the layout of the area since the plaza was created after the Six Day War.
“The goal of expanding the entrances and exits of the Western Wall plaza and will give us a solution for allowing large numbers of worshipers and visitors to enter at once, as well as emergency exits,” Rabbi Shmuel Rabinovitch, the chief rabbi of the Western Wall, told The Jerusalem Post.
[…]
The new plan, which is still in the very initial stages of approval, calls for a large underground plaza to replace the current main entrance, located at Dung Gate. A new visitor’s center will replace the current police building, with areas for educational programming, additional bathrooms, an auditorium, lecture halls, and an exhibition space for the archeological discoveries in the area.

The full article is here.  Other stories about the decision can be found here.

Western Wall plaza, tb010910251

Western Wall prayer plaza
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From the Jerusalem Post:

A gag order is being maintained on a sensitive state comptroller’s report believed to blast the lack of Israeli oversight on the Temple Mount, but most of the report is expected to be cleared for publication before the Knesset reconvenes in mid-October, The Jerusalem Post was told Tuesday. The report, which discusses Israel’s authority on the Temple Mount, including governmental oversight of excavations and construction on the site, is viewed as highly sensitive for diplomatic and security reasons, and the first Knesset debate on the report was held Tuesday behind closed doors. The report probes, among other bodies, the performance of the Jerusalem Municipality, the Antiquities Authority, and the Israel Police in enforcing laws and regulations pertaining to the site, as well as the roles of the attorney-general and respective prime ministers in confronting and shaping policy in the face of the challenges posed by the site in recent years. MKs who read the report described it as “all-encompassing” and “very serious”, but noted that the report only concerns the performance of governmental bodies covered within the mandate of the State Comptroller’s Office. The report does not examine the activities of non-governmental bodies, except regarding official bodies’ responses to their actions. “The report revealed many problems that cannot be accepted in a democratic state that tries to prevent – by law – the destruction of a cultural site that is significant, as a world cultural site and a Jewish one,” said MK Otniel Schneller (Kadima), who heads the State Control Committee subcommittee on security, foreign affairs and international trade relations, which was tasked with reviewing the report.

The full story is here.

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There are reports of bulldozer work being carried out on the Temple Mount.

Current excavations at Shiloh are noted in this Arutz-7 article.  The article itself says very little, but the photos indicate that the work is being carried out in Area C, where archaeologists previously uncovered a series of Iron I buildings (from the time of Samuel).

Israeli officials are denying claims that the Jordan River is so polluted it is unsafe for baptism.

A student recounts her experience in the final season of excavations at Tel Kedesh in the Upper Galilee.

The Daily Star (Lebanon) has an update on recent finds in the 12th season of excavations at Sidon.  A one-minute telecast in Arabic shows the work in progress and some of the finds.

Haaretz carries a longer story on how recent excavations of the Jaffa Gate have apparently changed everything.  There are some problems with the article, however, and you might wait to revise your book (or your class notes) until the excavators publish their report.  Take note, as well, of Leen Ritmeyer’s analysis of the article.

HT: Joe Lauer

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The renewed campus of the Israel Museum was inaugurated yesterday, as reported in articles in the Jerusalem Post and Arutz-7.  I don’t like the idea that the amount of display space has doubled but fewer items are on display.

A report at Device Magazine has some additional details about the cuneiform fragments found at Hazor.  They date to the 18th-17th centuries and include the words “master,” “slave,” and possibly “tooth.”  It is not clear whether the tablet was written at Hazor or brought to the site from somewhere else.  The article (and a similar one at Arutz-7) includes photos.

The current excavations of Megiddo are profiled in this Jerusalem Post article.  The team had the privilege recently of hosting Lord and Lady Allenby.

The Galilean synagogue discovered this summer at Horvat Kur is the subject of a brief article published by the university excavating the site.

The Second Qumran Institute Symposium will be held October 21-22, 2010 at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands.  The subject is “The Jewish War agaist Rome (66-70/74): Interdisciplinary Perspectives.” Nearly all of the lectures are in English and most sound quite interesting.

Chris McKinny has posted some aerial photos of Tel Burna and labeled some of the observable features on the surface.  What a dream to have a site without later periods “in the way.”  Chris’s wife
Mindy has some nice photos of the recent excavation of Burna.

The excavations of a temple at Tel Tayinat in Turkey are profiled by the Ottawa Citizen.

A Brazilian mega-church is building a $200 million replica of Solomon’s temple, although unlike the original, this will seat 10,000 people.

HT: Paleojudaica and Joe Lauer

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I would not have predicted these results.  I know that polls are sometimes skewed by the way the questions are asked, but it’s not clear to me what factors might have been involved here. In my experience, only a small percentage has any interest in the temple in Jerusalem. From Arutz-7:

Half the Israeli public wants the Holy Temple (Beit HaMikdash) to be rebuilt. This is the main finding of a poll commissioned by the Knesset Television Channel and carried out by the Panels Institute. The poll was taken in advance of this Tuesday’s national day of mourning, known as Tisha B’Av, on which the two Holy Temples in Jerusalem were destroyed, 2,000 and 2,500 years ago, respectively. Forty nine percent said they want the rebuilding of the Holy Temple, while 23% said they do not. The remainder said they were unsure. The public is about evenly split on whether they believe it will happen, with a slight edge – 42% to 39% – to those who believe the Third Holy Temple will be rebuilt. Should the State of Israel take active steps towards the reconstruction? Forty-eight percent said no, while 27% said yes.

The story continues here.

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