Jerusalem Dig Uncovers Ancient City Walls

Originally published: https://web.archive.org/web/20090714042103/http://smoothstoneblog.com/2008/09/jerusalem-dig-uncovers-ancient-city-walls.htm

Another stab into the heart of Palestinianism. From Reuters ( visit the link soon before they scratch it from the etherworld ):

Israeli archaeologists unveiled on Wednesday a 2,100-year-old Jerusalem perimeter wall on Mount Zion at the southern edge of Jerusalem’s Old City, which dates back to the Second Jewish Temple. The 3.2-meter (10.5-foot)-high wall formed part of a 6 km. (3.5-mile)-long fortification around the city in biblical times, said Yehiel Zelinger, who headed the excavation for the Israel Antiquities Authority. The ancient wall on Mount Zion had disappeared from view by the time a similar stone barrier, also uncovered in the dig, was built at the site during the Byzantine period more than 250 years later. Nonetheless, the second wall followed almost exactly the same path.

“During these two periods, Jerusalem was the centre … to the Jews during the Second Temple Period and to pilgrims from the Christian world (during the Byzantine Period),” Zelinger said.

British archaeologists surveyed the site in the 19th century, leaving behind a shoe and beer and wine bottles, which Zelinger’s team found and put on display on Wednesday.