Abstract
Excavations on Jerusalem’s Southeastern Ridge, in the GivꜤati Parking Lot excavations, have exposed a man-made ditch, some 30 m wide and at least 6 m in depth, close to the hill’s summit. This paper presents the technical features of the ditch, including the rock scarps that delineate it from the north and south, as well as an enigmatic installation composed of a series of intertwined channels. Through comparison with data from previous excavations farther east, it is clear that this ditch traversed the entire width of the ridge, creating a disconnect between the Southeastern Ridge and the Ophel. Although the initial cutting of the ditch cannot be determined, it is clear that by the Late Iron IIA, the ditch served as a moat between the acropolis—possibly including the Temple Mount—and the city. This continued until the Late Hellenistic period, when construction activities backfilled the ditch, leading to its disappearance from the cityscape.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 147-170 |
| Number of pages | 24 |
| Journal | Tel Aviv |
| Volume | 50 |
| Issue number | 2 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - 2023 |
Bibliographical note
Publisher Copyright:© 2023 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
Funding
The excavations at GivꜤati Parking Lot are conducted by the Israel Antiquities Authority and Tel Aviv University (Licence Nos. G11-18, G10-19, G11-20, G3-21, G1-22 and G7-23). The excavations are financed by the El-Ad Foundation. Y. Gadot and Y. Shalev serve as the excavation directors. D. Gelman, M. Zindel, M. Hemmed and O. Bejarano were the Area 70 supervisors. Other members of the team are: S. Bailey and M. Hacohen (assistant area supervisors) and V. Assman (surveyor). A. Reʾem, N. Sapir, Y. Baruch, O. Lipschits, K. Gur-Arieh, M. Ganon, U. Dasberg and M. Baruchi provided support in the orgenisation and logistics of the GivꜤati Parking Lot project. J. Uziel edited an earlier version of the article and offered invaluable comments. Our thanks are extended to them all. The excavations at GivꜤati Parking Lot are conducted by the Israel Antiquities Authority and Tel Aviv University (Licence Nos. G11-18, G10-19, G11-20, G3-21, G1-22 and G7-23). The excavations are financed by the El-Ad Foundation. Y. Gadot and Y. Shalev serve as the excavation directors. D. Gelman, M. Zindel, M. Hemmed and O. Bejarano were the Area 70 supervisors. Other members of the team are: S. Bailey and M. Hacohen (assistant area supervisors) and V. Assman (surveyor). A. Reʾem, N. Sapir, Y. Baruch, O. Lipschits, K. Gur-Arieh, M. Ganon, U. Dasberg and M. Baruchi provided support in the orgenisation and logistics of the GivꜤati Parking Lot project. J. Uziel edited an earlier version of the article and offered invaluable comments. Our thanks are extended to them all.
| Funders | Funder number |
|---|---|
| El-Ad Foundation | |
| Israel Antiquities Authority and Tel Aviv University | G3-21, G11-20, G1-22, G11-18, G7-23, G10-19 |
Keywords
- City of David
- Iron Age
- Jerusalem
- Moat