CHAPTER V : ARCHAEOLOGICAL EXCAVATIONS IN THE CITY OF AL-QODS (257)

Excavations in Palestine began fairly early in time and involved Al-Qods in particular, the purpose being to learn about the city's history and monuments.

However, the earliest methodical techniques of archaeology were not applied until the period between 1865 and 1867 under the direction of Professor C.

Warren (258) and the patronage of the British Fund for Excavations and Surveys which was set up to this end. (259) Owing to the galleries and tunnels, Warren managed to find out the ramparts of old Al-Qods.

The Association of the contributors to the above-mentioned Fund undertook further excavations, between 1894 and 1897, directed by archaeologists F.J. Bliss and A.C. Dickie, both of whom sought to determine the course of the ancient ramparts on the southern side of the city by following their traces. (260)

In 1901 and 1911, a British expedition led by Professor M. Parker managed to locate vestiges of the underground tunnels and galleries in the valley of the Qadrun (Kidron) which communicates with Gihon Spring. The results of these excavations were published by L.H. Vincent.

R. Weill, with the help of Baron Edmund Rothschild, conducted large-scale excavations in the southern part of the Hill. Further excavations, financed by the above-mentioned Fund, were undertaken between 1923 and 1925 under the direction of R.A.S. MacAlister and J.G. Duncan, and between

261. Encyclopedia of Excavations in the Holy Land, Vol. 2 (Oxford : 1975), pp. 591-593.

Y. Yadin, ed., Jerusalem Revealed : Archeology in the Holy City 1968-1974, p. 21

262. Yadin, Ibid., p. 21.

263. Encyclopedia of Excavations, Vol. 2, p. 592.

Y. Yadin, Ibid., p. 21.

K. Kenyon, Digging up Jerusalem (1974).

264. Encyclopedia of Excavations, Ibid., p. 619.

265. Encyclopedia of Excavations, Ibid., p. 619.

1927 and 1929 under the direction of J.W. Crowfoot. MacAlister and his colleague worked in a site at the top of Tell Al-Hadaba and were able to unearth part of the ramparts on the east side of this location. On the other hand, Crowfoot worked in a site west of the bottom of this Tell and unearthed vestiges of a gate along these ramparts. (261) In addition to these excavations, there were others conducted between 1935 and 1940 by C.N. Johns in the Citadel of Al-Qods under the auspices of the Palestinian department of Antiquities. (262) Between 1961 and 1967, excavations were carried out by a joint archaeological mission from the British Institute of Archaeology (located in Al-Qods), the British Fund for Excavations, the British Academy, the Dominican (French) Archaeological School, and the Canadian Royal Museum of Ontario. Directed by the English archaeologist Kathleen Kenyon, these excavations involved three sites in the Old City : the first was near Bâb Dimashq (the Gate of Damascus) the second was close to the third rampart, and the third was at the top of Mount Zion. It was in the course of these excavations that the findings of previous research work were checked through the application of modern archaeological investigation methods and processes. (263) In the above-mentioned sites and not far from the excavation site where Crowfoot worked, Kathleen Kenyon in 1963 unearthed vestiges of Byzantine dwellings built in Roman quarries and of water towers with staircases. These dwellings were quite spacious and very skilfully constructed. (264) In 1937, Palestinian archaeologist Dimitri Barâmika, who conducted excavation work under the auspices of the Palestinian Department of Antiquities, unearthed in the vicinity of the third rampart the vestiges of a picturesque chapel which was 6.1 metres long and 3.5 metres wide. This archaeologist first suggested that this place of worship was a Byzantine construction which dated back to the 5th century B.C.; however, a close examination of the mosaic material used in the chapel subsequently revealed that the latter must have been constructed in the 7th century A.D. (265) Also in 1937, under the auspices of the above-mentioned Department, archaeologist Johnson conducted excavation work in various sites which date back to the time of the Franks' occupation of Al-Qods. Some of these excavation sites consisted of one of the churches in the Valley of Kidron and Al-Haram Al-Shareef : A general view, including the Excavation Sites at the centre of the picture Al-Qal'âa Al-'Arabiyya (the Arabic Citadel), which was once made into the headquarters of the Roman governor of Al-Qods. Among other sites which were explored and found to date back to this same period, there was that of the St.

Anastasia Basilica, a small church next to the St. Stephen Church. (266) In 1956 and 1962, Catholic priests undertook in the old city excavations in the parcel that they have in the Muslim quarter, close to St. Anne Church, and unearthed finds which also date back to the Byzantine era. (267) Subsequent to the aggression against Al-Qods, the Israeli authorities in 1968 conducted excavations near the south wall of the Mosque of Al-Aqsâ, thereby violating the international conventions which prohibit archaeological excavation in areas under military occupation. This excavation was later extended to the area of the Mosque's west wall up to the Arch of Robinson. The vestiges unearthed through the excavations undertaken along the south wall were dated back to the following :

1. The early Arab-Islamic Age : from the Umayyad to the Seljuk dynasties;

2. The Byzantine Age : from the reign of Constantine I to the Arab conquest;

3. The Roman period : the era of Aelia Capitolina; and

4. From the reign of Herod to A.D. 70. (268)

The Israeli archaeologists who were hoping to find therein vestiges dating back to the period of Herod I the Great were very disappointed by the finds, for most of these were part of the vestiges of the Islamic buildings which dated back to the Umayyad Age and were located in the south-west area of Al-Haram Al-Shareef. (269) These buildings were probably palaces, for their vestiges are similar to those of palaces found in Syria, Palestine, and Jordan inasmuch as all of these had a cylinder-shaped tower at each corner. It is very probable that after they had been restored, these three palaces were used as residences throughout the 9th century A.D., that is in the Abbassid Age. Then, they probably became ruins in the 11th century A.D. and people must have subsequently used the fallen stone-piece for the construction of their own dwellings.

266. Encyclopedia of Excavations, Ibid., p. 626

267. Encyclopedia of Excavations, Ibid., P. 612

268. B. Mazar, The Excavations in the Old City of Jerusalem near the Temple Mount (1974), p. 1.

269. M. Bendov, "The Area South of the Temple Mount in the early Islamic Period" in Jerusalem

Revealed, pp. 97-102.

Y.Yadin, Ibid., p. 39

Mahmûd Al-'Abidî, Islamic Monuments in Palestine and Jordan (Amman, 1973), pp. 123 and 124.

A map of Israeli excavations around Al-Haram Al-Shareef and underneath the Mosque of Al-Aqsâ Some scholars believe that the buildings in question (i.e. those that used to be adjacent to Al-Haram Al-Shareef) were Umayyad palaces belonging to one of the Umayyad caliphs, but others variously think that one of these (Building I) was an Abbassid tax collector's headquarters while another (Building IV) was a mosque. However, most of them believe that these were constructed in the reign of Al-Walîd bin Abdelmalek. Historian Al-Maqdissî writes in his description of the ramparts of Al-Qods that one of the gates bears the name of Bâb Al-Walîd.

A gate by the same name in Al-Qods is mentioned by another historian, Ibn Ar-Râbihî, who was Al-Maqdissî's contemporary. On the other hand, fifteenth-century (A.D.) historian Mujîruddîn Al-Hanbali makes no mention of it. (270) Between 1975 and 1978, the Israeli authorities undertook excavations in the Qal'âa (the Citadel) alongside the west wall and unearthed, sixteen meters away from it, a stone-built sewage conduit which, as was subsequently realized, stretched all the way to this wall and continued underneath and beyond it, as it channelled waste water westward. The unearthed section of it was some fifteen meters long. In 1982, further excavations led to the unearthing of another part of this conduit east of the city's ramparts. The section between the two unearthed stretches is rather narrow, having a depth and a width of about forty centimetres. (271)

In 1981, the Hebrew University in Al-Qods, with financial help from the so-called Association of the City of David, conducted excavations in an attempt to find out the areas of Al-Qods where the city's populations lived from the Stone Age to A.D. 70. These excavations led to the unearthing of vestiges of ramparts which date back to the early period of the Bronze Age and of other ramparts dating back to the middle period of the Bronze Age. (272)

In 1982 and 1983, further excavations were undertaken by Israeli authorities in the Old City, on Mount Zion, and in the outskirts of Al-Qods, particularly in Kharbat 'Ain At-Toot and Kharbat Al-Issâwiyyah. After making a survey in 1981 and 1982, the Israelis claim to have established a total of eighty-eight ancient sites that include dwellings, olive and seed presses, hedged farms, watch towers, cemeteries, stone quarries, public ovens, reservoirs, and public (Turkish) baths, in addition to tools and various pieces dating back to the Paleolithic Age. Paleolithic tools and pottery pieces have also been unearthed in a site south of Tell Al-Fûl, immediately east of the surveyed area, and south of Kharbat As-Sawma'ah.

270. B. Mazar, Ibid., p. 39.

J.M. O'Connor, The Holy Land : An Archeological Guide (Oxford : 1980).

271. Excavations and Surveys in Occupied Palestine, Vol. 2, (1983) p. 52.

272. Excavations and Surveys in Occupied Palestine, Vol. 1, (1982) pp. 49-60

Back in 1936, archaeologist Nasrullah had explored this area, for he gathered about three thousand Neolitic chipped-granite tools. Close to these, vestiges of quasi-cylinder-shaped constructions were unearthed by Nasrullah, who believes that they date back to the Megalithic Age.

Likewise, ruins were found which variously date back to the Bronze Age, to the Iron Age, to the Hellenic period and to the Byzantine peiod. (273) The aims of these excavations (274) , needless to say, differ and vary depending on the individuals and the institutions that undertake them.(275)

The character of Al-Qods as a holy city has always been part of the collective consciousness as far as the believers of the three monotheistic religions are concerned. This explains why scholars have undertaken studies, monographies, and excavations as a means to understand better both the history of this city throughout the centuries and its spiritual as well as strategic importance. Muslims, Christians, and Jews have always sought pilgrimage to Al-Qods in quest for Divine Grace through the sight and the touch of all the holy places and objects therein. The rivalry to monopolize Al-Qods has always been so intense between Muslims that it brought them to war as rival parties.

There is nothing surprising in this, for controlling Al-Qods means controlling the holiest place on earth. The same can be said about Christian factions who fought each other to death to extend their control of this city; such conflicts, according to some historians, have brought about the Crimean War. (276)

The Zionists who are currently undertaking these excavations in Al-Qods have some specific objectives in mind, for they are constantly seeking for arguments to support their alleged historic right to Al-Qods and to Palestine.

Their investigations have produced vain results and their simplistic theories have dealt a fatal blow to the cultural heritage of both Al-Qods and Palestine, for they remain based on false and unfounded claims.

273. Excavations and Surveys in Occupied Palestine, Vol. 2, p. 52

274. Cf. Kathleen Kenyon (1974), Digging up Jerusalem.

Roger Moorey (1981), Excavations in Palestine.

275. A. Hadîdî, Jordanian Annals.

Shawqî Sha'th, "New data concerning Palestinian Ancient Monuments", a paper read at the First Colloquium on Palestinian Ancient Monuments, whose proceedings are in press.

276. A. Tazi (1984), Moroccan Pious Endowments in Al-Qods.

Al-'Aref, A History of Al-Qods, p. 118.