New findings from the ancient drainage canal that operated in Jerusalem 2000 years ago tell the story of the city in the days of the Second Temple - from prosperity to destruction
The drainage canal from the days of the Second Temple. Photo by Emil Eljam, Antiquities Authority
A complete glass vial, grape colanders, two thousand year old eggshells - and also complete pottery candles with soot remains - all these were discovered in a new excavation in the drainage channel that ran under the main street of Jerusalem in the days of the Second Temple. The excavation, managed by the Antiquities Authority with funding from the City of David, shows the changing urban pulse of Jerusalem in the last decades before the destruction of the Temple, in 70 CE.
As part of the excavation, the canal that was the main underground artery of Jerusalem is being exposed. This canal passed, among other things, under the colorful markets at the foot of Mount Habit, and along the entire length of the City of David.
"The remains of life above the main street of Jerusalem were washed into the mouth of the canal, and they remained preserved between the sides of the canal as they were left with the destruction of the city," she explains Dr. Ayala Zilberstein, director of the excavation on behalf of the Antiquities Authority. "Small finds tell us a big story, from the days of Jerusalem's prosperity and splendor on its bustling streets, to the dying moments of the city in the years of the rebellion and its abandonment following the destruction."
According to Dr. Zilberstein, "since most of these canals received regular maintenance, the fact that it was in the central canal that layers of silt were discovered that filled the canal to almost half its height, suggests a gradual neglect of the city's maintenance. The neglect and abandonment we are witnessing corresponds to the story of the destruction of Jerusalem."
In the upper layers of the alluvial soil, the excavators discovered remains from the days of the city's destruction, including complete pottery candles dating to the end of the Second Temple period. The remains of soot preserved on their rim remain as a sign of the fire that burned in them. Several meters south of the place where the oil candles were uncovered, a Roman sword inside a leather scabbard was discovered several years ago, in an excavation led by Eli Shukron, and the possibility is being examined that, like the sword, the oil candles were also carried in the hands of rebels who found a hiding place in the ditch.
As the diggers dug deeper into the layers of alluvium, they were exposed to a multitude of findings that testify to the splendor and wealth of Jerusalem during the Second Temple period in the years when the city was bustling: already in the manual excavation by a team of skilled workers led by Nissim Mizrahi, complete vessels were found, including vials of perfume and precious oils, Most of them are earthenware, and next to them is a delicate glass vial that miraculously was preserved almost undamaged.
The initial examination of the pottery and glass vessel assemblages, conducted by Dr. Yael Gorin-Rozen and Dr. Shulamit Terem, indicated a particularly rich and varied concentration of vessel types, some of which are rare.
"The large variety of tools stored in the drainage channel can bring us together with the full tool service of the residents of Jerusalem. In contrast to a more limited set of tools that is usually expected to be found in the excavation of a single household kitchen, tools from different houses and streets were drained into the ditch and thus a representation of everything that the city's peddlers had to offer was obtained" - explains Dr. Zilberstein.
In light of the potential inherent in the layers accumulated in the canal, all the bags of dirt that were dug up were saved and sent to the dirt filtering site in Emek Zurim National Park. Along with the discoveries of colorful coins and beads, the filter plant's main contribution came from an unexpected direction, with discoveries of food remains that helped researchers discover some of the secrets of Jewish cuisine: grape vines, grain kernels, fish bones and even eggshells, all of which shed light on the menu of Residents of Jerusalem in the vibrant days of the city. The richness of the organic find led to the conduct of diverse laboratory tests in order to examine the existence of the remains that are not visible to the eye. Already in a preliminary examination conducted by Vitali Sterman and Dr. Yotam Asher from the Antiquities Authority, it was possible to distinguish the gap between the layers of the city's living activity, and the layers that accumulated more recently. "The closer you get to the layers from the later days of the city - there is less and less evidence of human artifacts, and you get the picture of the city's decay," adds Dr. Zilberstein.
