Archaeologists excavating in Jerusalem have discovered a vast quarry dating from 2,000 years ago (Second Temple period).
The 2,000-year-old quarry in Jerusalem, Israel. Image credit: Shai Halevi / Israel Antiquities Authority.
The quarry, only part of which has been excavated, covers approximately 600 m2 (0.15 acres), but was at least two or three times larger.
The massive building blocks extracted from it measured 1.5 x 2 m (5 x 6.6 feet).
“The large-scale building projects in ancient Jerusalem, such as the Temple Mount, required a vast amount of building materials and the ability to organize and coordinate the quarrying and transportation of thousands of building blocks to the ancient city,” said Dr. Moran Hagbi, an archaeologist at the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA).
“Building blocks in various stages of working were discovered in the quarry.”
“For example, we uncovered large, square blocks of stone about to be detached from the bedrock, prior to loading and transporting them to the ancient city.”
“For us, this quarry presents a golden opportunity: because some of the stones were left in situ in this way, we can copy ancient technologies and experiment with them in order to recreate the processes by which the building stones were quarried.”
The IAA archaeologists plan to recreate the ancient methods used to detach the stone blocks and to test the effectiveness of methods described in ancient sources.
To do this, they will use copies of ancient tools found in previous excavations and prepared specifically for experimental purposes.
“In a symbolic way, Jerusalem’s current development boom presents us with an opportunity to excavate and research the great building projects in Jerusalem in antiquity,” said Dr. Eli Eskozido, general director of the IAA.
“Before any development project begins in Jerusalem, our archaeologists are called upon to excavate and examine any ancient finds, for the sake of future generations.”
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This article is based on text provided by the Israel Antiquities Authority.
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