The Results of the Excavations on the Hill of Ophel (Jerusalem Sous Terre), 1909–11
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Palestine Exploration Quarterly ISSN: 0031-0328 (Print) 1743-1301 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/ypeq20 The Results of the Excavations on the Hill of Ophel (Jerusalem Sous Terre), 1909–11 Charles Warren To cite this article: Charles Warren (1912) The Results of the Excavations on the Hill of Ophel (Jerusalem Sous Terre), 1909–11, Palestine Exploration Quarterly, 44:2, 68-74, DOI: 10.1179/ peq.1912.44.2.68 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1179/peq.1912.44.2.68 Published online: 20 Nov 2013. Submit your article to this journal Article views: 9 View related articles Full Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at http://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journalCode=ypeq20 Download by: [UNSW Library] Date: 24 April 2016, At: 19:29 68 RESULTS OF THE EXCAVATIONS ON THE HILL OF OPHEL. possible to slip in again when I was dressed, nluch to the anlusement of the Arabs; anything like this slime-topped land I never walked on. The Bedouin, of which two :were accompanying us, washed when they came to water, but the fella~jn nwrely looked on. This is usual, as the Bedouin are in nlany respects the cleaner race. 'Ve reach~d N ekhl the next afternoon without .passing any features of interest. (To be continued.) THE RESULTS OF THE EXCAVATIONS ON THE HILL OF OPHEL (JERUSALEM SODS TERRE), 1909-11.1 By GENERAL SIR CHARLES WARREN, G.C.JVLG., I{.C.B., F.R.S., R.E. IN the Palestine Exploration Fund Quarterly Statement for January, 1912, there are two notices of the work of the Parker Expedition at Jerusalem, 1909-11, so that I need occupy no space ove-r prelimin- aries, and can proceed at once to my subject. For reasons denied to the public, the names of the members of the expedition and their objeets and aims have been withheld, and the nature of the work generally has been wrapped in mystery. In the translator's preface to Underground Jerusalem, 1911, we are promised that on the completion of the expedition's work the proceedings will be recorded in a final and complete volume, to be published by l\1essrs. Constable and Co. In the meantime, a tentative volun18 (Jerusale1n ~01lS terre), by the Rev. Father H. Vincent, has been published by J\1r. Horace Cox, Downloaded by [UNSW Library] at 19:29 24 April 2016 dealing with the portion of the work of the expedition which relates to clearing out the tunnels and aqueducts about the Virgin's Fount to Siloam, of whieh surveys and descriptions bad already been published by the P.E.F., 1867-1876 .. It is evident from Father Vincent's account that the expedition was very liberally supplied with money and material, but whether they were equally equipped for scientific research seems doubtful. We cannot, however, judge of the work of the expeditiQn until their volume is published, for Father Vincent expressly states that he 1 French Edition by H. Vincent, and English Translation. R~si:JtTs OF THE EXCA"\rATIONS ON THE HILL OF OPHEL. 69 accepts full responsibility for every error in plan and letterpress of Jerusalem sous terre, only he records that the proofs have been read by the leader of the expedition. I should not have considered it necessary, or even desirable, to make any renlarks on excavations which do not at present materially increase our knowledge of the Holy Land, had the accou~t been written in a fair and reasonable spirit, but it has been represented- to me that the statements of Father Vincent do a grievous injustice to the work of the Palestine Exploration Fund in former years, and that I am the only person sufficiently acquainted with the work to put matters straight. I respond with alacrity to this call to duty iIi connection with work I carried out in 1867. The matters I have to deal with are threefold. (1) Father Vincent, in speaking of my work at Jerusalem, in the English translation-states vaguely: "far too many points ,vere left uncertain to give a real value to his results. The structure and exact proportion of his galleries, the nature of his caverns, even the fact about one of his walls, which was supposed to be a natural cavity-all this remained uncertain. The few objects of archaeo- logical interest discovered, only complicated the problem, instead of throwing light upon it." (Underground Jerusalern, p. 11.) In the Revue Biblique (January, 1912, p. 86) these strictures are still more pointed and are untrue; the reason for these ungenerous remarks are to be found in the next paragraph. 2. Having thus cast on one side the work of the P.E.F., the author takes all our· plans and sections and uses them, giving no indication that the tunnels have already been examined, surveyed, and published in Plates 42 and 43 of the P.E.F. Plates. For example- the expedition's surveys of the plans of the tunnel, Virgin's Fount Downloaded by [UNSW Library] at 19:29 24 April 2016 to Siloam, and_ of the gallery, Virgin's Fount to Ophel, coincide almost exactly with the original surveys of the P.E.F.; the inference is either that one set of plans are copied from the other, or that they are both remarkably accurate. 3. On the other hand, there are discrepancies and errors in Father Vincent's sections which quite preclude their being of any use for scientific purposes, and the letterpress has a different lettering to the plans j but this latter- discrepancy has been recognized and removed by the publication of amended plans in the ReVIle Biblique, January, 1912. F 2 70 RESULTS OF THE EXCAVA.tloNS ON THE HtLL OF OPHEt. Father Vincent gives an account of the work of ·the expedition as follows :- (a) Clearing out the mud and debris in the rock-cut aqueduct leading from the Virgin's Fount to Siloam, and making are-survey of the aqueduct. (Original Survey, Plate 42, P.E.F.) (b) Discovery of, and clearing out of some rock-cut channels (for about 50 feet). These are not of any importance at present and need not be referred to again. (c) Clearing silt and debris off the floor of rock-cut staircase leading from the shaft (Joab's Gutter) near the Virgin's Fount to the chasm. (These passages are all depicted on Plate 43, P.E.F.) In this work the expedition made one discovery, which, however, throws no light at present on any point: They found an exit in the rock to the open air from the top of the shaft. They also examined the chasm for about ten feet below the point where I was obliged to leave off in 1867. This yhasm is the one real point of interest ~n these subterranean passages, as it is supposed by sonle· to be the entrance to David's Tomb; yet, singularly enough, this chasm appears to have been left without a thorough examination, as there is no detailed account of it in the letterpress, and three sections of it (given in Underground Jel)"usalem, Plates III c, and V, and Revue Bibliqttte, January, 1912, Plate V) differ in the most unaccountable manner. In considering the results of these excavations, we must ,make a clear distinction between what the expedition may hereafter consider them to be, and what Father Vincent considers them to be now. Father Vincent, as a distinguished archaeologist, has been writing about these very tunnels for some years past. He states that the results of these excavations of the expedition, Downloaded by [UNSW Library] at 19:29 24 April 2016 1909-11, are twofold (p. 32, English translation) : (1) That the aqueduct from Virgin's Fount to Siloam is no,v determined to be the work of King Hezekiah. (2) That the rock-cut passage, shaft, and staircase, from the Virgin's Fount to Ophel is now proved to be the gutter (~inn6r) up which J oab ascended. Father Vincent, however, does not mention in. any way how these excavations prove this, and I may frankly state that his Chapter III, with all his deductions, might have been ,vritten just as appositely before the excavations of 1909-11 were made. RESULTS OF THE EXCAVATIONS ON THE HILL OF OPHEL. 71 I nlay say further, that these deductions were made by him before the Parker excavations commenced, and are published in the pages of the P.E.F. Q.S., 1908, p. 225. I quote his words :- "But everyone ,vin remember the system of -canals disco.vered and boldly explored by Lieut.-Gen. Warren, and a connexion between the subterranean communication from the city to the ,veIl, and the §inn6r of 2 Samuel v, 8, has long presented itself to acute minds." " . I did not hesitate in my recent work (Canaan d'apres l'Exploration Recente, p. 27, No.1) to attribute the §innor to the Jebusites of th~ 15th ,to the 11th century B.C., at Jerusalem." If we search back for the origin of the g'ut!er theory we must go back to a time, 1867-8, when the late Bishop of Jerusalem, then the Rev. Joseph Barclay, Dr. Chaplin, and I used to meet together in the evening to discuss the topography of Jerusalem, and argue the poirit as to whether J ebus could actually have been on Ophel. But the first time the theory of the gutter (§innor) of Joab actually canle before the public was when the Rev.