A massive quarry dating to the Second Temple period has been uncovered in Jerusalem, offering a new glimpse into the capital’s ancient past, the Israel Antiquities Authority announced on Thursday.
The quarry, which was unearthed in the city’s present-day Har Hotzvim industrial park several weeks ago, is one of the largest ever found in Jerusalem, the state-run archaeological body said.
Two stone vessels, impervious to ritual defilement according to Jewish law, were uncovered at the site. According to the IAA such vessels always signal the presence of a Jewish population.
During the excavation, the archaeologists also uncovered scores of various-sized building stones, as well as quarrying and cutting trenches whose outlines indicate the size of the blocks being produced.
“Most of the building stones extracted were huge rock slabs, whose length reached about 2.5 meters. Their width was 1.2 meters and they were 40 centimeters thick,” said Michael Chernin and Lara Shilov, excavation co-directors on behalf of the IAA. “Each such quarried block weighed two and a half tons.”
They noted that the impressive size of the stones produced at the site likely attests to their intended use in one of Jerusalem’s many royal construction projects in the late Second Temple period, beginning under King Herod the Great’s reign between 37-4 BCE.
“It is reasonable to assume, with due caution, that at least some of the building stones extracted here were intended to be used as pavement slabs for Jerusalem’s streets in that period,” they said.
Herod’s construction projects in Jerusalem included, first and foremost, the expansion of the Temple Mount area and the Temple itself.
In addition, during his reign, a series of impressive public buildings—palaces and fortifications—were built throughout the city, requiring a huge supply of high-quality construction stones.
The Second Temple was destroyed by the Romans in 70 CE.
“Revealing this huge quarry, just before...the time of year when the Jewish People the world over mourns the Jerusalem that was lost in these days, is symbolic and very moving,” said IAA Director Eli Escusido.
The vessels uncovered at the site will go on display this summer in Jerusalem.
