Pedreira may have supplied materials from the Second Temple, says IAA

2024-08-13 16:43:22

Following earlier reports that excavations had revealed a large limestone quarry, it has now been revealed that some of the slabs were probably used to build a road used by Jesus and his disciples 2,000 years ago.

The quarry in question was found in the neighborhood of Har Hotzvim in Jerusalem during construction work there. The ancient facility may have also provided material for other construction projects of King Herod the Great and his descendants, according to the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA).

The value of the archaeological site was confirmed in an official note from the IAA, stating that this is perhaps the largest discovery of its kind from the Second Temple period in the area.

Some of the stones, weighing 2.5 tonnes each, were used as paving slabs for the excavation of the Road of Pilgrimage in the City of David — a 2,000-year-old stone road that Jesus himself and his disciples traveled on, and which connects the Pool of Siloamwhere Christ healed the blind, to the Temple of the Jews, where he prayed.

Measurements and a “geological signature” confirmed the following, according to the IAA: “The large stones produced by this quarry probably attest to its intended use in one of Jerusalem’s major royal building projects at the end of the 19th century, starting under the reign of King Herod the Great in 37-4 BC,” archaeologists Michael Chernin and Lara Shilov, directors of the excavation, told the portal Times of Israel.

“Historical sources tell us that, first of all, Herod’s building projects in Jerusalem included the expansion of the Temple Mount area and the Temple itself. In addition, during his reign, a series of impressive public buildings – palaces and fortifications – were built throughout the city, which required a huge supply of high-quality building stones. Monument building projects in the city continued under his successors as well,” the note says.

Archaeologists believe that the stones from the quarry were used in the expansion of the Jerusalem Temple, in the funeral monument containing the remains of Herod, called Herodium, and also in the construction of the port city of Caesarea, mentioned in the Acts of. of the Apostles.

“The IAA excavations may help answer where the Herod family got the building materials for their projects in Jerusalem,” said the Biblical Archeology Society (BAS) update.

The expert researchers found dozens of building stones of various sizes, as well as dug and cut trenches whose contours indicate the size of the blocks being removed,” the note concludes.

In addition to the temple, built by Herod the Great, large stones were used on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. Herod Agrippa I, his grandson, used the rock materials for the “Third Wall” in Jerusalem and palaces and other buildings built in the first century, according to the threshold. The Christian Post.