Orit Peleg-Barkat, the Temple Mount Excavations in Jerusalem, 1968–1978, Directed by Benjamin Mazar, Final Reports, Vol

Orit Peleg-Barkat, The Temple Mount Excavations in Jerusalem, 1968–1978, Directed by Benjamin Mazar, Final Reports, Vol. V: Herodian Architectural Decoration and King Herod’s Royal Portico ed. Eilat Mazar. Qedem 57. Jerusalem: Institute of Archaeology, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 2017. xx+249pp., $190. The austerity of the Western Wall may invite contem- (likely the Royal Portico) as a last resort, all perished plation but gives little sense of the luxuriance of the when the Romans set fire to the building; some were architecture that once crowned Herod’s Temple com- seen plunging themselves out of the inferno and fall- plex. Through an analysis of the extant architectural ing to their deaths (War 6.283–285). The fire left its fragments from the complex, Orit Peleg-Barkat shows mark on the surface of the stones. Many stones have a that its design elements continued a local tradition distinctive white coating, which laboratory tests show in stone ornament, and reflected modernizing trends was formed as the result of exposure to temperatures in Roman architecture. The fragments consist of of approximately 800°C. In a chilling detail, Peleg- capitals, cornices, architraves, decorative doorframes, Barkat writes that gray soap-like coating on others was and (the majority of the lot) decorative undersides of proven to be the result of contact with vitrified bones, architectural elements, namely soffits or ceilings. perhaps of individuals who died in the fire. The violent There are precisely 500 of them documented in this circumstances of the demise of Herod’s Temple com- important new book, all crafted from local limestone plex, along with the recycling of its stonework in later and all discovered during excavations at the foot of periods, and the fact that its Corinthian capitals were the Temple Mount. fashioned out of the local “meleke” limestone, which Most come from the Hebrew University excava- is relatively soft, has left an assemblage that consists of tions led by Benjamin Mazar in 1968–1978—a huge rather small, heavily damaged fragments. Furthermore, archaeological project whose long-delayed publication the find-spots of some 45%, or 225, of them have been has resulted in several recent volumes by Eilat Mazar. lost, requiring Peleg-Barkat to use diagnostic factors (I worked on this publication project in 2002–2005.) such as style and appearance to identify Herodian Recognizing the importance of the Herodian archi- specimens in the excavation repositories and flesh out tectural assemblage from the excavations, Eilat Mazar the corpus for study. encouraged Peleg-Barkat to study it as a dissertation One of her main conclusions is that the decorative project, which Peleg-Barkat completed under Gideon stonework was produced by a school of local artisans. Foerster and Rina Talgam at the Hebrew University They worked with sharp (rather than wide-toothed) in 2007. Some fragments in the book are from Israel chisels to carve the local “mizzi hilu” limestone, which Antiquities Authority (IAA) excavations in 1994–1999. they used for all elements but the Corinthian capitals, The assemblage as a whole is thought to derive from leaving distinctive vertical marks on the stone. Faint the massive Royal Portico, which extended along the scratches attest to the use of emery or sandstone to southern edge of the Temple complex, but also smooth the surface afterwards, creating the appear- the corner tower at the Robinson’s Arch entrance, the ance of stucco. Peleg-Barkat sees a tendency toward Huldah Gates and inner vestibules, and simple framing “simplification, flattening, and geometrization of the porticoes on the esplanade. In three main chapters, models” (77) in the artisans’ work, along with the usual Peleg-Barkat gives an extended typological analysis of abstention from figural representation and a generous the assemblage (chapter 2), offers a new reconstruc- use of floral elements. They preferred the Doric order tion of the Royal Portico and its architectural design for the frieze zone, in keeping with the local trend (chapter 3), and presents her argument that the shallow established already under the Hasmoneans. Their work ornamental domes of the Double Gate vestibule of the survives at other Herodian-period sites too, as Peleg- Huldah Gates are in fact Herodian in date, rather than Barkat’s research has demonstrated. For this project Umayyad (chapter 4). and others, local artisans were preferred to foreign The southern edge of the Temple complex was ones, such as those Herod is known to have occasion- where a large group of Judeans is thought to have ally brought in to execute design elements like fresco met their deaths as the Romans invaded in 70 CE. in his palatial complexes. According to Josephus, of the six thousand Judeans Peleg-Barkat underscores for us the Romanizing fea- who hunkered down in the one remaining portico tures adopted by these artisans. Most noteworthy is the © Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2018 IMAGES Also available online—brill.com/ima DOI:10.1163/18718000-12340098 BOOK REVIEWs 263 widespread introduction of Corinthian capitals, which complex was restored as an Islamic holy site. And in Herodian Judea usually appear with unorthodox she relates the exquisite repertoire of motifs on the acanthus leaves marked by a rounded, plump appear- domes—the rinceaux and the floating squares in var- ance, but at the Temple complex have a more standard iegated geometric patterns, for example—to Herodian pointy leaf. Other Romanizing elements attested at comparanda, while highlighting subtle contrasts with the complex include rosettes on the metopes of Doric Umayyad ornament. Her argument is not entirely friezes, as well as modillion cornices, both of which stylistic, however, but is bolstered by some traditional had recently become popular in late Republican and stone-by-stone archaeological analysis. (Peleg-Barkat Augustan Rome, as Peleg-Barkat demonstrates through visited the passageway once in 2004, with the approval deft use of comparanda. Local stone artisans saw “with of the Waqf.) The result is a convincing case that the their own eyes or in sketch books Roman innovations Double Gate vestibule includes original Herodian in the field of architectural decoration and adjusted architectural ornament in situ. them to fit local tastes,” she writes (14), thereby trans- It has long been obvious that motifs inspired by forming a repertoire that had been marked up to that Temple appurtenances, most notably the menorah, point by a mix of Hellenizing and local motifs. The very were fixtures in Jewish liturgical design from late antiq- form of the Temple complex—with a sacred compound uity onward, but only recently have we appreciated the surrounded by porticoes and adjoined on one end by extent to which the Temple influenced local design a basilica-type structure (the Royal Portico)—is strik- while the building still stood, with the newly discovered ingly similar to the imperial cult complex known as Magdala Stone offering a case in point. Now Peleg- the Caesareum. Barkat contends that the rising popularity in first- The Royal Portico is reconstructed by Peleg-Barkat century CE Jerusalem of the orthodox Corinthian as an apsidal basilica 31–32.5 m wide and some 180 m capital, the modillion cornice, and the Doric frieze long, with a western entrance courtyard and eastern with rosettes can be attributed to their appearance auxiliary rooms filling out the structure so that it in the Temple complex, as can elements utilized in extended across the entire width of the esplanade. local funerary architecture, such as shallow domes This was the main locus of commercial and judicial and Herodian-type ashlar masonry. While it seems activity. Peleg-Barkat’s discussion of the building is perfectly reasonable to assume that the Temple archaeological detective-work at its best, and the was influencing local design contemporaneously, the result is a plan that differs somewhat from those details of her argument are potentially undermined by suggested by scholars such as Ehud Netzer and Leen a startling new discovery at the southwestern corner Ritmeyer. Josephus’s rather lengthy description of the of the Temple Mount. It consists of domestic remains Royal Portico in Antiquities 15:411–16, where he calls that were put out of use with the construction of the it a structure “more noteworthy than any under the Western Wall and whose associated artifacts, quite sun,” is problematic in a number of respects, though surprisingly, point to a construction date for the Wall Peleg-Barkat makes a case for the account’s general no earlier than twenty years after Herod’s death. As reliability, along with its dependence on an earlier she notes, the preliminary results of this recent excava- source. She carefully correlates Josephus’s description tion (by the IAA) suggest that the southern end of the with whatever clues she can find among the material Temple complex—including the Royal Portico—was remains—column width, pilaster width, positioning not completed until well into the first century CE, of the underground vaults—to recreate the building’s leaving much less time for its design elements to form and dimensions. She proposes a Doric frieze over impact local aesthetics before the fall of the city. Rather Corinthian capitals and exceptionally deep modillion than inspiring them, perhaps the Temple complex sim- soffits, as evidenced by a number of extant soffit frag- ply reflected the broader aesthetic trends of the region. ments boasting two strips of decoration rather than As is conventional for archaeological reports, the the usual one. A large curvilinear piece with a stunning book is short on big-picture synthesis and long on data double meander and a rosette garnish may have come presentation. We still await a full discussion of possible from the apse of the building. interactions between Judean artisans and those of other The Double Gate vestibule is the book’s secondary regions, including Italy and Egypt; of the decorative focus.

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