BIBLE HISTORY DAILY

Building Second Temple Jerusalem

Massive Second Temple quarry uncovered in Jerusalem

Second Temple Jerusalem quarry

The ancient stone quarry of Second Temple Jerusalem. Courtesy Emil Aladjem, IAA.

Excavations in Jerusalem’s Har Hotzvim neighborhood continue to reveal a massive stone quarry, which can now be counted as the largest ever discovered from the Second Temple period in the region. Uncovered by the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA), the quarry’s stones would have been used in many of the massive building projects undertaken by King Herod the Great and his descendants.


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Building Jerusalem

Under Herod the Great (r. 37–4 BCE), the city of Jerusalem and the region of Judea became incredibly prosperous, with some of the region’s most monumental construction projects carried out during this period, including the expanded Jerusalem Temple, the Herodium, and the port city of Caesarea Maritima. The IAA excavations may help answer where the Herodian family obtained the building materials for their Jerusalem-based projects.

While only around an acre of the quarry has been uncovered, the IAA estimates there is much more to be found. “Most of the building stones extracted from here were huge rock slabs, whose length reached 8 feet, their width was 4 feet, and they were a foot thick,” said excavation directors Michael Chernin and Lara Shilov in a press release. “Each such quarried block weighed two-and-a-half tons!”

quarry

Aerial view of the Second Temple period quarry. Courtesy Emil Aladjem, IAA.

These massive stones would have been the primary building materials for Jerusalem’s royal construction projects, including the Temple Mount and the Jerusalem Temple itself, both built under Herod the Great. Jerusalem’s “Third Wall,” built by Herod’s grandson, Herod Agrippa I (r. 37–44 CE), along with many other impressive buildings, fortifications, and palaces built in Jerusalem during the first century would have also utilized these stones.

While the stones from the Har Hotzvim quarry were almost certainly used in many of these important projects, the IAA was able to directly connect them to the Pilgrimage Road currently being excavated in the City of David, which also dates to the Second Temple period. Examining the road’s paving stones reveals they share the same dimensions and geological signature as those quarried at the Har Hotzvim site.

Stone vessel

The stone vessel discovered in the quarry. Courtesy Emil Aladjem, IAA.

Beyond the quarried stone, however, archaeologists were also surprised to discover an intact stone vessel. According to biblical law, stone vessels cannot become ritually impure and were thus commonly used by early Jewish communities starting in the late second century BCE. This vessel, however, is quite different. As Yonatan Adler of Ariel University shared with Bible History Daily, “The stone here is too hard for mass production of stone vessels which were normally made from soft chalk. If this vessel was made on-site, then it might be that the workers at the quarry were just having some fun trying their hand at making a stone vessel. Its form is quite different from the normal chalk vessels from the period.”


Related reading in Bible History Daily:

Ancient Stone Quarry Discovered in Jerusalem

Israeli Archaeologists Discover Byzantine Quarry and Possible Site of Sixth Century Miracle

All-Access members, read more in the BAS Library:

Quarrying and Transporting Stones for Herod’s Temple Mount

Where Was the Capitol in Roman Jerusalem?

Not a BAS Library or All-Access Member yet? Join today.

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1 Responses

  1. Zizipho Ke-tu-rah Dhlamini says:

    The World is questioning many many events of the Bible History one wonders if there are valuable answers

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1 Responses

  1. Zizipho Ke-tu-rah Dhlamini says:

    The World is questioning many many events of the Bible History one wonders if there are valuable answers

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