Jerusalem, the Old City: Second Temple Period Quarry and a Medieval Building

Ḥadashot Arkheologiyot— Excavations and Surveys in Israel 130 JERUSALEM, THE OLD CITY: SEcoND TEMPLE PERIOD QUARRY AND A MEDIEVAL BUILDING KATE RAPHAEL INTRODUCTION In February and March 2011, a salvage excavation took place within a private residence at 7 Shone Halakhot, a narrow alley in the northern part of the Jewish Quarter in the Old City of Jerusalem (map ref. 2221/6314; Raphael 2015; Fig. 1). The excavation was conducted following extensive renovation work at the residence, a structure whose ground level consists of two vaulted rooms renovated during the Ottoman period. The excavation reached down to bedrock, unearthing the remains of a Second Temple-period quarry and a medieval building. The latter was built in the late twelfth or early thirteenth century CE, but its main level of occupation dates from the Mamluk period; the Ottoman-period structure made use of the walls of the earlier building. The excavation yielded a rich assemblage of finds, including pottery, glass .St רח' el-Silsilehהשלשלת Bad .Stרח' שונה Halakhot הלכותStone קרדו Cardo החפירה The Excavation הרובע היהודי Jewish Quarter הרובע הארמני רח' משגב לדך Armenian Quarter Misgav Ladakh St. הר הבית Temple Mount בתי מחסה Bate Mahasse הכותל המערבי . Western Wall Park הגן הארכיאולוגיArchaeological 0 100 m מ Fig. 1. Location map. 2 KATE RAPHAEL vessels and over 80 coins (see Raphael and Kool 2018), that ranges in date from the second–first centuries BCE through the Ottoman period. The medieval building—the main feature uncovered in the excavation—was most probably a family dwelling. While large Muslim monuments of medieval Jerusalem have attracted the attention of architectural historians (Burgoyne 1987; Grabar 1996; Hawari 2007), rather little is known about domestic architecture and the daily life of the common people during this time, except from several Ayyubid-period dwellings excavated in the 1960s along the city’s wall in the Armenian Garden (Tushingham 1985:108–142). The relatively well-preserved architecture of the medieval building unearthed in the excavation, along with the rich ceramic and glass assemblages and numerous coins and bones found in association with it, seems to offer an opportunity to examine the medieval urban life of common people. QUARRY REMAINS Several narrow grooves (L129) cut into the hard limestone bedrock in the northern part of the excavation (Plan 1: Area B) outline large stone blocks that were quarried out. The fill in the lower part of the quarry (L134) was rich in pottery from the late second and first centuries BCE: small shallow bowls (Fig. 2:1), cooking pots (Fig. 2:2), storage jars and an amphora (Fig. 2:3, 4), juglets (Fig. 2:5, 6) and an oil lamp (Fig. 2:7). Alongside the pottery were two fragments of stone cups (Fig. 2:8, 9). Similar, handmade vessels are known from Avigad’s excavations in the Jewish Quarter (Geva 2006a:193; 2006b:218, Pl. 9.1:16), the City of David (Cahill 1992: Figs. 14; 16:1) and the Temple Mount (Magen 2002: Fig. 3.60:9); as well as from a cave on Mount Scopus that served as both a quarry and a workshop for the production of stone vessels (Amit, Seligman and Zilberbod 2008:320, Fig. 20:15), a manufacturing site for these vessels at Ḥizma (Magen 2002:97, Fig. 3.63:a) and Tel el-Full (Gibson 2003:289). The similarity in shape, size and production technique between the stone cups found in the excavation and the earliest stone cups found in the abovementioned sites suggests a first century BCE date, which is supported by the pottery and coins. Five identifiable coins were found in Fill 129 that covered the quarry floor (see Raphael and Kool 2018: Nos. 2–4, 7, 8); they range in date from the Seleucid (last third of the second century BCE) to the Hasmonean (early first century BCE) periods. Similarly dated ceramic and numismatic finds were unearthed in a small salvage excavation carried out under the adjacent building to the east (5 Shone Halakhot; Billig 2011). JERUSALEM, THE OLD CITY: SEcoND TEMPLE PERIOD QUARRY AND A MEDIEVAL BUILDING 3 Plan 1. The excavation, plan and sections. 4 KATE RAPHAEL 0 2 Fig. 2. Second Temple-period pottery (1–7) and stone cups (8, 9) from Fill 134. No. Type Basket Description Parallels 1 Bowl 1269 Light brown clay Jerusalem, Jewish Quarter, 2nd c. BCE – 1st c. CE (Geva and Hershkovitz 2014: Pl. 3.3:10; Geva 2010:138. Photo 5.15). 2 Cooking pot 1269 Reddish brown clay Jerusalem, Jewish Quarter, 1st c. BCE (Geva and Hershkovitz 2014: Pl. 3.3:7) 3 Storage jar 1269 Yellowish brown clay Jerusalem, Jewish Quarter, 1st c. BCE – 1st c. CE (Geva and Hershkovitz 2014: Pl. 3.5:1, 7) 4 Amphora 1269 Yellow-brown clay Jerusalem, Jewish Quarter, 2nd–1st c. BCE (Geva and Hershkovitz 2014: Pl. 3.5:5) 5 Juglet 1269 Gray-brown clay Jerusalem, Jewish Quarter, 2nd c. BCE – 1st c. CE (Geva and Hershkovitz 2014: Pl. 3.2:23) 6 Unguentarium 1269 Light brown clay Jerusalem, Jewish Quarter, 1st c. BCE (Geva and Hershkovitz 2014: Pl. 3.4:9) 7 Lamp 1277 Orange-reddish clay; faint Jerusalem, Jewish Quarter, 1st BCE – early 1st c. CE (Geva and diagonal lines decorate the Hershkovitz 2014: Pl. 3.3;13) surface around the eye 8 Stone cup 123 Flat base and thick walls; chisel marks inside and out 9 Stone cup 1273 As No. 8 THE MEDIEVAL BUILDING The medieval building stood along a street which during the Mamluk period was part of the Muslim neighborhood of Kharat el-Ashraf (Ḥarit el-Sharaf). In previous centuries it was known as Kharat el- Acrad (Ḥarit el-Akrad)—the Kurdish neighborhood (Drory 1979:172–173). The street ran south of Ṭariq JERUSALEM, THE OLD CITY: SEcoND TEMPLE PERIOD QUARRY AND A MEDIEVAL BUILDING 5 Bab el-Silsila (Ha-Shalshelet Street), one of the main streets in Mamluk Jerusalem, which still displays a concentration of monumental buildings from the Mamluk period. Two main construction phases were identified in the structure. It was built in the late twelfth or early thirteenth century CE, and continued to be used throughout the Mamluk period, when at least one wall was added to the structure. The Mamluk period, to which belong most of the remains, may have seen a short period during which the dwelling stood abandoned. The Ayyubid Period (Late Twelfth – Early Thirteenth Centuries) The building seems to have consisted of a large, rectangular hall built along a north–south axis and two additional rooms or units to its east and west; the excavation unearthed the hall (Plan 1: Areas A, B) and part of the western room (Plan 1: Area C). Three of the walls, delimiting the hall on the east, south and west (W11/W20, W12, W13/W18; preserved height of 1.7–4.0 m, thickness 1 m; Figs. 3, 4), were built of roughly dressed stones, resulting in irregular courses, and were founded directly on the bedrock, suggesting that they were all built in one phase. Although built in a similar manner, the northern wall (W19; Fig. 5) was founded on a thick (0.75 m) layer of fill that lay on a floor (L126, below) that reached W18, suggesting that it was constructed at a later phase, perhaps during the Mamluk period (below). This and several minor repairs in the walls may have followed damage caused by the earthquake of 1303 CE Fig. 3. The hall, Wall 13, looking west. 6 KATE RAPHAEL Fig. 4. The hall, Walls 11 and 14, looking east. Fig. 5. The hall, Wall 19 and Floor 126, looking north. JERUSALEM, THE OLD CITY: SEcoND TEMPLE PERIOD QUARRY AND A MEDIEVAL BUILDING 7 (Guidoboni and Comastri 2005:231), but they could have been simply due to regular wear and tear. The thick walls prbably carried a second floor. Two entrances were set in the hall’s eastern and western walls; the doorposts were built of large, well- dresses stones (Figs. 6, 7). The eastern room was partly destroyed, and what remains of it is now part of the adjacent primary school. The western room (W13, W22, W23) was only partially excavated. Fig. 6. The hall, the entrance to the western room, looking west. Fig. 7. The hall, the entrance to the eastern room, looking east. 8 KATE RAPHAEL Remains of a compact crushed-lime floor (L126; see Fig. 5) were uncovered in the northern part of the hall. Copper coins from the reigns of Nur al-Din (1146–1174 CE) and al-‘Adil (1199–1218 CE) and an illegible Ayyubid copper (see Raphael Kool 2018: Nos. 16, 24, 26, respectively) were found under the floor. The al-‘Adil coin suggests that Floor 126 was first laid or repaired during the late twelfth – early thirteenth century CE. The pottery found within this floor and below it is locally made, including numerous handmade vessels (Fig. 8:1–3, 9). The most common of which were coarse clay bowls with crude line paintings (Fig. 8:3 and the likes of Fig. 8:4). Floor 126 was covered with a pile of collapsed stones (L125; Fig. 9), which mark the end of this phase. In a fill (L124) above Collapse 125 were three Mamluk coins from the late fourteenth–fifteenth centuries CE (see Raphael and Kool 2018: Nos. 50, 51, 61). Fig. 8.4 No Type Locus Basket Description Parallels 1 Bowl 126 1157 Coarse clay, with large white grits; Jerusalem, Ayyubid (Tushingham 1985: Fig. 35:10) indented rim with comb decoration 2 Bowl 126 1157 Light brown clay Yoqne‘am, second half of 12th – early 13th c.

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