Israelite Tower: Difference between revisions

|alternate_name =‎ המגדל הישראלי

|map_type =Jerusalem

|map_alt =

|builder =

|cultures =

[[File:Jerusalem Jewish Quarter map.svg|right|275px|thumb|Map of Jerusalem's Jewish Quarter. The Israelite Tower stands north of the [[Broad Wall (Jerusalem)|Broad Wall]] (number 4)]]

== Excavation ==

Between 1969 and 1982, [[Nahman Avigad]] conducted extensive excavations in the [[Jewish Quarter (Jerusalem)|Jewish Quarter]], situated on Jerusalem's southwestern hill. These excavations, covering an area of some 5 acres, proved crucial for the understanding of the history of settlement in this section of the old city. In the northern part of the quarter, Avigad and his team uncovered three well-preserved segments of late Iron Age ([[First Temple Periodperiod]]) fortifications. One of these was the Israelite Tower, described as "one of the most impressive fortificationsfortification remains from biblical times to have been found in the land[[Land of Israel]]".<ref name=baa/>

=== Israelite Tower ===

Slightly north of the [[Broad Wall (Jerusalem)|Broad Wall]], excavations revealed two perpendicular walls about {{convert|4|m|ft}} wide and surviving to a maximal height of {{convert|7|m|ft}}. One is {{convert|12|m|ft}} long, running from east to west, and the other {{convert|8|m|ft}} long and runs from north to south.<ref name=baa/> Standing on bedrock 45 feet below modern ground level, the walls were built of rough-hewn field stones placed in courses along both faces, with the spaces in-between filled with small stones. A surface of beaten earth tightly bonded to the tower, covered by ashes, produced Late Iron Age II [[sherds]] characteristic of the 8th and 7th centuries BCE.<ref name=t10/> Avigad identified the tower as the corner of a four-chambered gatehouse in Jerusalem's northern wall, perhaps the "Middle Gate" mentioned in {{bibleverse||Jeremiah|39:3|HE}}. It had been built to protect the city's vunerablevulnerable northern perimeter, probably during the eight8th century BCE but perhaps during the reign of [[Manasseh of Judah|Menasseh]] in the 7th century BCE.<ref name=t10/><ref name=ih/> DespiteIt theis physicalphysically proximity, it appearsclose to have come into use after the Broad Wall, built during the reign of king [[Hezekiah]], but appears to have come into use after the Broad Wall had already fallen into disuse.<ref name=baa/>

Finds at the tower attest to the a fierce battle that took place at the site. On the last day of the 1975 excavation season, Avigad's team unearthed four arrowheads buried in the layer of soot and ashes at the base of the tower. One was made of iron and the other three of bronze, including one distinguished from the others by three triangular fins and a hollow socket for the shaft. This was identified as a [[Scythian|Scytho]]-Iranian type in widespread use by Babylonian archers after 600 BCE.<ref name=t10/> As the pottery found within the conflagration layer is dated earlier than 586 BCE, the range of dates for the possible battle at the site is reduced significantly. The four arrowheadarrowheads are therefore likely remnants of the Babylonian siege and destruction of Jerusalem in 586 BCE. They are thought to be the first remains ever recovered of the Babylonian siege, having come to rest in the ashes of the burning city, as described in {{bibleverse|2|Kings|25|HE}}.<ref name=baa/><ref name=t10/><ref name=sco/>

Avigad's discoveries also provided an answer to a contemporary debate about the extent of Iron Age Jerusalem. Before the excavation of the Jewish quarter, scholars had been divided between those that believed the city had been confined to its eastern ridge, including the [[Temple Mount]] and the [[City of David (historic)|City of David]], and those who believed the biblical city has already expanded to encompass the southwestern hill. Avigad's discoveries, since augmented by additional finds, had proven that by the end of the First Temple period, Jerusalem's city walls had expanded to the [[Hinnom Valley]] in the west and had encompassed the entire southwestern hill.<ref name=baa/><ref name=t10/>

=== Hasmonean Tower ===

Abutting and incorporating the Israelite Tower are the remains of another tower and city wall.<ref name=ih/> Shaped like the Greek letter {{pi}}, the tower extends north from the wall. Constructed of medium-size, well-cut, close-fitting rectangular ashlars, the tower walls are {{convert|9|m|ft}} long and between 2.5m and 3m thick. The masonry is characteristic of the first1st or second2nd centuries BCE, as is the pottery found on and below another surface bonded to the wall, 1.3 meters above the earlier 6th century floor. These have linked the later defences to the Hasmonean "First Wall", described in detail in [[Josephus]]' ''[[The Jewish War]]''.<ref name=wall/> Although Josephus erroneously attributes it to [[David]], [[Solomon]] and the kings of Judah, construction of the wall was initiated by [[Jonathan Maccabeus]] and completed by his brother [[Simon Maccabeus|Simon]] during the second2nd century BCE. A nearby gap between fragments of the wall hints that another city gate stood at the site, possibly the [[Gennath gate]] also mentioned by Josephus.<ref name=t10/><ref name=ih/><ref name=jer/><ref name=forts/>

== Access ==

== See also ==

* [[Jerusalem during the Second Temple Periodperiod]]

<ref name=wall>[[#Josephus|Josephus]], [httphttps://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=J.+BJ+5.142&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0148 ''The Wars of the Jews'' 5:142-145,159]</ref>

* <cite id=Geva>{{cite book|title=Jerusalem in Bible and archaeology: the First Temple period|editorseditor1=Vaughn, Andrew G;Killebrew‏ |editor2=Killebrew, Ann E|chapter=Western Jerusalem at the end of the First Temple Period in Light of the Excavations in the Jewish Quarter|first=Hillel|last=Geva|url=httphttps://wwwbooks.google.com/books?id=yYS4VEu08h4C |year=2003|publisher=Society of Biblical Literature|isbn=9781589830660978-1-58983-066-0|pages=183-208183–208|ref=Geva}}</cite>

* <cite id=Josephus> Josephus, Flavius. William Whiston, A.M., translator (1895). ''[httphttps://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0148 The Works of Flavius Josephus]''. Auburn and Buffalo, New York: John E. Beardsley. Retrieved 15 July 2010.</cite>

* <cite id=Price>{{cite book|url=httphttps://books.google.com/books?id=IoGQT16GNDcC|year=1997|last=Price|first=Randall|title=The Stones Cry Out|publisher=Harvest House|isbn=9781565076402978-1-56507-640-2|ref=Price}}</cite>

* <cite id=Rocca2008>{{cite book|url=httphttps://books.google.com/books?id=Gup5vH_B-aoC|last=Rocca|first=Samuel|year=2008|title=The Forts of Judaea 168 BC – AD 73|location=Oxford, United Kingdom|publisher=Osprey Publishing|isbn=978-1-84603-171-7|ref=Rocca2008}}</cite>

* <cite id=Ronen>{{cite book|url=httphttps://books.google.com/books?id=Y6CdceCDoc8C|publisher=Open University of Israel|first=Israel|last=Ronen|script-title=he:ירושלים לדורותיה, מעיר-מקדש לבירת ממלכת החשמונאים|isbn=9789650610753978-965-06-1075-3|year=1984|language=Hebrew|ref=Ronen}}</cite>

* <cite id=Singer>{{cite book|title=Top Ten Biblical Archaeology Discoveries|editor=Corbet, Joey|year=2011|publisher=Biblical Archaeology Society|location=Washington, DC|last=Singer|first=Suzanne F.|chapter=Jerusalem’s Babylonian Siege Tower|url=http://www.reformedstudies.org/files/ten_top_biblical_archaeology_discoveries.pdf|formatref=Singer|access-date=2011-09-25|archive-date=2012-04-02|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120402230616/http://www.reformedstudies.org/files/ten_top_biblical_archaeology_discoveries.pdf|url-status=dead}}</cite>

* <cite id=Winter>{{cite book|url=httphttps://books.google.com/books?id=vFmaH4AbP6QC|first=Dave|last=Winter|year=1999|title=Israel Handbook|publisher=Footprint Travel Guides|isbn=9781900949484978-1-900949-48-4|ref=Winter}}</cite>