of Jerusalem and its Region

Transcription

1 Israel Antiquities Authority Jerusalem Region The Hebrew University of Jerusalem The Faculty of Humanities Institute of Archaeology The Jerusalem Development Authority Moriah The Jerusalem Development Co. New Studies in the Archaeology of Jerusalem and its Region Collected Papers Volume V Editors: David Amit, Guy D. Stiebel and Orit Peleg-Barkat Jerusalem 2011

2 CONTENTS 7 Editorial Introduction David Amit, Guy D. Stiebel and Orit Peleg-Barkat 9 Excavations in the Jerusalem Region, David Amit THE TEMPLE MOUNT - NEW STUDIES 17 Four Stages of Development of the Temple Mount Joseph Patrich and Marcus Edelcopp 38 The Royal Stoa of the Herodian Temple Mount: A Proposed Reconstruction Orit Peleg-Barkat 52 Two Fatimid Inscriptions from the el-aqsa Mosque: A New Reading Omar Abed Rabbo CULT IN JERUSALEM 67 A Cultic Structure of the Middle Bronze IIB-C Period in Nahal Refa'aim (Walajeh) Daniel Ein Mor 78 An Assemblage of Rooms and Rock-cut Installations of the Iron II Period from the City of David Ronny Reich and Eli Shukron 96 Miniature Icons box from the Giv'ati Parking lot excavations Yana Tchekhanovets 104 The Nea Church of St. Mary Theotokos: An Architectural Discussion Oren Gutfeld JERUSALEM I N TH E M USLIM P ERI O D 121 A Reconsideration of Settlement Around Jerusalem at the End of the Byzantine Period and in the Early Muslim Period Zubair 'Adawi 142 The "Southern Hammam" and Khan Tankaz Which was First? Harve H. Barbé and Taufik Deadle 158 New Discoveries in Madrasat el-baladiyeh near the Gate of the Chain Yuval Baruch, Shachar Poni and Neria Sapir

3 THE COINS OF JERUSALEM AND ITS ENVIRONS 169 The Earliest Coin of Judea Haim Gitler 179 Power and Rule Jerusalem Coins of Alexander Jannaeus Guy D. Stiebel *7 A First Century CE Mint South of Jerusalem? Archaeological Context Fanny Vitto *16 A First Century CE Mint South of Jerusalem? Numismatic Evidence Donald T. Ariel NEW STUDIES OF JERUSALEM AND ITS REGION *24 Excavations of Saint John Prodomos, Jerusalem Jean-Baptist Humbert 185 A Monument (Nympheon?) and Other Remains from the Second Temple Period West of the Temple Mount: The Excavations of the Giant Causeway Alexander Onn and Shlomit Weksler-Bdolah 200 Excavations at Horvat Midras in the Judaean Shephelah : Preliminary Report Amir Ganor, Alon Klein, Rina Avner and Boaz Zissu

4 List of participants Omar Abed Rabbo, HU Zubair 'Adawi, IAA David Amit, IAA Donald T. Ariel, IAA Rina Avner, IAA Harve H. Barbé, IAA Yuval Baruch, IAA Tawfik Deadle, HU Marcos Edelcopp, HU Daniel Ein Mor, IAA Amir Ganor, IAA Haim Gitler, Israel Museum Oren Gutfeld, HU Jean-Baptiste Humbert, École Biblique Alon Klein, IAA Alexander Onn, IAA Joseph Patrich, HU Orit Peleg-Barkat, HU Shachar Puni, IAA Ronny Reich, Haifa University Neria Sapir, IAA Eli Shukron, IAA Guy D. Stiebel, HU Yana Tchehanovetz, IAA Shlomit Veksler-Bdolah, IAA Fanny Vitto, IAA Boaz Zissu, Bar-Ilan University Editors David Amit, IAA Guy D. Stiebel, HU Orit Peleg-Barkat, HU

5 * A First Century CE Mint? Numismatic Evidence A First Century CE Mint South of Jerusalem? Numismatic Evidence Donald T. Ariel Israel Antiquities Authority Eight years after completing his landmark catalogue of the coins of Palestine in the British Museum (Hill 1914), Georges Francis Hill published an article entitled Ancient Methods of Coining. At the time, numismatists learned most of what was known about minting technology from examining the coins themselves. Hill discussed the various ways that flans blanks for striking coins were produced (1922: 2 13). He called one of the methods casting en chapelet and explained that it was widely employed, especially in the late second and first centuries BCE in the eastern Mediterranean. The example he used was the bronzes of the Hasmonaean kings of the Jews (Hill 1922: 7 8). This reconstruction of the flan casting technology was made 46 years before any molds en chapelet what we term closed connectedflan molds had ever been identified. The first covered connected-flan mold fragments published were from Samaria (Meshorer 1968). This was followed four years later by the publication of some Cypriot specimens in excavations at Paphos (Nicolaou 1972) and four years after that by the publication of a chance discovery of a three-part mold in the ruins of Kh. Rafi a (Kloner 1976). These molds are all made of limestone. Since then, including those first finds, some 26 similar flan mold fragments have been found in Paphos, and 49 flan mold and fragments were uncovered in the southern Levant, mostly unpublished (Ariel forthcoming). 1 The most recent find of a closed connected-flan mold is the first completely restorable one to be found in a controlled archaeological excavation Table 1. Dimensions and other details of the East Talpiyot closed connected-flan molds Reg. No. Height Width (cm) Thickness No. of No. of Size of Total Flans in (cm) (cm) Columns Drillings per Column Depressions one casting (mm) (est.) (Drilled side) 1327 (Flat side) [Fig. 1]

6 New Studies in the Archaeology of Jerusalem * in the southern Levant. Six fragments of this mold were found in a site 130 m east of Kh. Sûbhah in the East Talpiyot neighborhood of Jerusalem. Two connecting fragments belong to the drilled side of the mold, while four fragments connect together to form most of the flat, cover side of the mold (Fig. 1). A fragment of a second mold was also found. The details of their contexts are described in the adjoining article of the excavator, Fanny Vitto. The details of the dimensions of the East Talpiyot molds appear on Table 1. A modern summary of the artifactual evidence for ancient minting technology yields the conclusion that covered molds were almost exclusively used to produce base-metal flans and coins. Pairs of well hewn ashlar limestone blocks averaging 25 cm high by 35 cm wide were prepared. On one block drilled depressions were sunk on one side and the other block was left flat. 4 Channels were chiseled between the drillings and the resulting strip of connected flans was able to be removed as a unit. Hill described these molds as open molds, but added (1922: 8, n. 16) that they: at any rate [were] moulds which were merely covered with a plate, which often did not fit closely, but allowed the metal to overflow. Pilon also described the flat block as a cover (Pilon 2003: 40). However, the term cover is a poor one, as it seems to indicate the mold was laid horizontally. Based upon a rarely appearing feature of the Judaean molds found on the East Talpiyot mold (below), it is now certain that casting took place when both the flat covering plates and the drilled plates of these molds were positioned upright. For each mold the drillings were uniform in size. The drillings of the East Talpiyot molds had diameters in the middle range between the extremes known (5.5 to 37 mm), and they were shallow: roughly 0.5 mm, although some of the other drillings on the Judaean molds reach 2.2 mm deep (Ariel 2010: 245). To lower the degree of fluctuation of weights of the flans it was necessary to restrict the depth of the drilling (Hoover 2008: 53). There is no evidence as to how this was accomplished, but one may conceive of a number of alternatives. The drillings on most molds were spaced out at regular intervals. Between the drillings channels were chiseled out. The length of the channels on the East Talpiyot molds are 2 3 mm, also in the middle range (between 1 2 to 13 mm; e.g., Ariel 2010: ). The drill bits used on all of the molds were tapered in such a way so as to produce bevelled flans. On most of the molds, as on the ones from East Talpiyot, this is barely perceptible. However, Hill already understood that the main function of the bevelling was technological and not aesthetic, and that the bevelled flans were easier to remove from the molds after cooling (Hill 1922: 8; see also Laing 1969: 4). On a number of connected-flan molds funnels were prepared to facilitate the flow of the molten bronze into the channels. Sometimes this is an afterthought, and the funnels damaged the topmost drillings (e.g., on a three-part mold from Kh. Rafi a (Kloner 1976). The funnels of the complete East Talpiyot mold are not afterthoughts. They are also extremely thin, perhaps cut into the mold with an awl rather than a chisel. The top of this mold, however,

7 * A First Century CE Mint? Numismatic Evidence c 1 Complete East Talpiyot mold: a. view of drilled block (Reg. Nos. 1216, 1370); b. view of top of drilled and flat (Reg. No. 1327) blocks, with cavity; c. view of top of drilled and flat (Reg. No. 1327) blocks, when upright (Photos: C. Amit); d. drawing of drilled block with side section and top view of the attached drilled and flat blocks (Drawing: J. Rosenberg)

8 New Studies in the Archaeology of Jerusalem * has another unusual feature. It was dressed to create slopes on the top edges of both the drilled and flat blocks. The slopes did not extend to the corners, so when both drilled and flat sides of the block pairs were joined the sloping tops formed a shallow cavity facilitating the pouring of the molten metal into the funnels. This trait is also found on fragments of three molds, all found in the same excavation area (N) in the Jewish Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem (information courtesy of Hillel Geva; to be published by the author). Moreover, on all four mold fragments with this feature signs of dark discoloration are found in the area of the shallow cavities further evidence that these cavities directed the molten metal into the molds (see notes 2 3). The discoloration on the tops of these molds has not previously been identified. There are occasional incised markings on the narrow edges and outside surfaces of the molds. The complete East Talpiyot mold bears two incisions perpendicular to the mold faces at either end of the top of the mold and double v-shaped incisions (or one X-shaped incision in the middle of the mold top. The incisions definitely functioned as guidelines to assist in the alignment and tying of the mold block pairs (or, in the case of Kh. Rafi a, mold block triplet) before pouring the molten metal. In one of the double v-shaped incisions of the flan mold a fragment of bronze was preserved. This is not thought to be evidence of bronze wire being used to tie the blocks together. Rather, I believe the bronze fragment stuck within one of the v-shaped incisions is remains of the molten bronze which splashed out of the adjoining shallow cavity on the top of the mold and became entrenched in the incision. The south Levantine molds have thus far eluded refined dating. Their dates could span the two-century lifetime of the Jerusalem mint, between the date of the first bronze coins that were minted in the city in 132/131 BCE (SC II: 392, No. 2123) and the end of the mint upon the destruction of the Jerusalem in 70 CE. The complete East Talpiyot flan mold appears to be the first such find for which we may suggest that its flans were used to strike a specific type of coin. This is based upon the numismatic profile and distribution of the finds of coins (and flans) at the site. Of 158 excavated coins, the 78 coins and flans most closely related to the various installations were cleaned. 75 were identifiable. 36 are the latest coins of Alexander Jannaeus (Table 2, No. 1) and, primarily, imitations of those latest coins (Table 2, No. 2). These finds seem to belong to the original Hasmonean settlement phase at the site. Although coins of Jannaeus circulated well into the first century CE (Ariel 2006: 193), the high quantities found at the site, relative to the first century coins, cannot be explained as arriving there only in the first century CE. Besides the coins of Jannaeus and their imitations, the remainder of the coins found in association with the installations was issues struck between 16/7 and 54 CE. The absence of coins from between the original (mid-first century BCE?) settlement phase and the midfirst century CE phase represented by these coins may indicate that there was limited or no occupation at the site during the reign of Herod and soon thereafter.

9 * A First Century CE Mint? Numismatic Evidence Table 2. Coins and unstruck flans from East Talpiyot Ruler (Date [CE]) 1 Alexander Jannaeus (80/79 BCE) TJC Group/ No. Subgroups L1-6 Quantity Provenance IAA Nos. (Prefixed by 140) 3 U4, U9, U12 589, 618, Alexander Jannaeus Subgroups 32 U4 ( 15) , 608, imitation (after 80/79 L7-14 U9 ( 8) , , BCE) U12 ( 9) , , 630, 634, 637, , mm flan (perhaps for Hasmonean coin) - 1 U Prefect under Tiberius (16/7) U12 ( 5) U15 ( 10) , 645, 647, , [Fig. 2] Prefect under Tiberius (17/8) 6 Prefect under Tiberius (17/8 24/5) U Cf U ~15 mm flans 17 U9 ( 6) U10 ( 11) 609 [Fig. 3] 610, 614, 617, 619, , 627, 629, , , Agrippa I U4, U7, U12 590, 606, Procurator under Claudius (54) East of U9 607 The distribution of the 22 coins of the first century CE (Table 2, Nos. 4 9) is most peculiar. Fifteen specimens of a relatively rare type struck by a prefect under Tiberius in 16/7 CE (Fig. 2) represent over two thirds of the finds. Moreover, 17 flans of the same diameter of these relatively rare coins (roughly 15 mm in diameter) and the same diameter as the drillings on the complete flan mold were found in proximity to two adjacent installations, U9 (where one of the

10 New Studies in the Archaeology of Jerusalem * fragments of the complete mold was found) and U15. This number is by far the highest number of flans found in any one archaeological site in Israel. Moreover, these flans could all have been cast in that mold. Besides their diameters, and the central protrusions and bevelling characteristic of all of the Judaean flan molds, most exhibit the relief of the roughly mm chiseling lines visible on the mold (Fig. 3). 2 One of 15 coins issued by a prefect under Tiberius in 16/7 CE (TJC: 257, No. 321; IAA ) Obv. KAI/CAP Within upside down wreath; Rev. Three lilies stemming from between two leaves; in fields: L Γ 1.5:1 scale (Photos: C. Amit) 3 One of 17 unstruck flans measuring approximately 15 mm (IAA ) 1.5:1 scale (Photos: C. Amit) The flans establish that the flan molds found at the East Talpiyot site were not brought there for secondary use. Either the casting of the flans using the complete mold took place in the vicinity of the U9 and U12 installations, or the flans were stored (before striking) in that area. The 15 specimens of the coins struck by a perfect under Tiberius (TJC: No. 321) suggest that it was that type of coin that was struck from the flans cast at the site. The 15 coins were found in installations U12 (five coins) and U15 (ten coins), the latter installation being quite a distance away from the flans. Therefore, it is possible that the minting took place near installation U15. The East Talpiyot molds, therefore, not only include the first completely restorable such mold found in an excavation in Judaea. They also are the first molds found in association with closely dated coins and flans. These objects provide, for the first time, significant evidence for the dating of a covered connected-flan mold. Like the distribution of ancient dies (Vermeule 1954; Malkmus 1993: 72), many connected-flan molds have been found far from likely sites for official mints. This distribution may open a window into questions of mint organization in the regions where they are found. The East Talpiyot molds were found in a village some 2.9 km south of the present day walls of Jerusalem. They join the Khirbet Rafi a molds (Kloner 1976) 33 km southwest of Jerusalem and single finds of mold fragments in Maghar el- Ati, 16 km northwest of Jerusalem, and Ras Abu Maruf, 4.4 km north of the city walls (Ariel forthcoming). Together they constitute 20% of the wellprovenanced finds of molds in Judaea.

11 * A First Century CE Mint? Numismatic Evidence Are these mold fragments evidence for forgers mints in villages outside of Jerusalem, as most of the abovementioned dies are understood? Or were the four villages merely sites producing flans to be struck in the central mint in the capital? 5 The four Judaean sites noted above are likely to have been villages with agricultural orientations. The evidence for flan production at those sites, and possibly minting at the East Talpiyot site, therefore, are quite anomalous. Minting of coins in the eastern Mediterranean is generally understood to have been sanctioned and controlled by a central political authority. It would require a new understanding of the processes of coin production to suppose that minting or at least the casting of flans took place in villages outside of a regional capital, and not in the capital itself. Despite evidence for semipermanent, official mints in some contemporary cities, one need not expect that a city of the size of Jerusalem had a permanent mint, certainly at the time coins began to be struck in Judaea. A looser minting organization now seems a better model, although the relationship between the central authority and the village workshops cannot, as yet, be exactly determined. The village workshops for flan-production and possibly coin-striking may have been satellite operations sanctioned by those minting in Jerusalem. Or they might have been makeshift mints producing coins of necessity. It is not known whether all of these operations in the periphery were producing quality issues or barbarous/irregular issues, such as those recently discussed by Fontanille (2010). If the East Talpiyot site indeed struck the 15 issues of TJC: 257, No. 321, then that cottage mint, at least, was not producing barbarous or irregular issues. It can be said that the molds found outside of Jerusalem show no signs of being less sophisticated than those found within the capital. In fact, features of the molds found in the four village sites noted above point to the unlikely conclusion that the operations outside the capital were more sophisticated than those within the capital. These last thoughts may need to force a paradigm shift in our understanding of ancient (provincial) mint operation. While the possibility of decentralized flan-casting within Jerusalem has never been raised before, the idea that Jewish coins may have been minted outside of Jerusalem is not new. 6 In sum, the East Talpiyot molds and the other connected-flan molds found outside of Jerusalem elicit no easy explanations for their existence. Much more information is needed in order to understand the Jerusalem mint. It would especially be helpful to know whether the findspots of connected-flan molds are indicative of proximate minting, as seems to be the case at the East Talpiyot site, or whether other explanations for their most unusual distribution are available. Notes 1 The southern Levantine molds include three from Samaria (Kenyon 1957: , Fig. 118: 2; Meshorer 1968) and Galilee (Ariel 2006: 116; Hendin : 60; 2010: 507, n. 91). These are not discussed here. The only other stone flan mold (drilled and flat sides) was not found in the eastern Mediterranean and does not belong to the same time period. It was excavated at

12 New Studies in the Archaeology of Jerusalem * Châteaubleau in France and dates to between 266 and 270 CE (Pilon 2003: 46 47). 2 The discolorations were best discerned at the upper part of the block where the molten metal would have been hottest. 3 The blackenings are 9 10 mm. However, the drillings were mm, indicating that the blackenings of flat molds can be significantly smaller in diameter than the actual drillings. 4 In this regard the three-block Kh. Rafi a mold is exceptional. Drilled block A was laid against the flat side of block B, while the drilled side of block B was laid against flat block C (Kloner 1976). 5 This is Pilon s suggestion for the Hôtel de Monnaies workshop in Paphos (Pilon 2003: 39). 6 In 1954, Kindler proposed that a mint of imitative coins of Alexander Jannaeus was located in Jaffa, basing himself on (1) a large hoard of these coins excavated in Jaffa, (2) the high frequency of finds of this kind in the Judaean coastal region and (3) their relative absence in stocks of Jerusalem-based collectors (Kindler 1954: ). Abbreviations SC II: A. Houghton, C. Lorber and O. Hoover, Seleucid Coins. A Comprehensive Catalogue II: Seleucus IV through Antiochus XIII, New York, Lancaster, Penn. and London TJC: Y. Meshorer, A Treasury of Jewish Coins from the Persian Period to Bar Kochba, Jerusalem and Nyack Bibliography Ariel 2006 D. T. Ariel, Coins, in: H. Geva (ed.), Jewish Quarter Excavations in the Old City of Jerusalem Conducted by Nahman Avigad, Volume III: Area E and Other Studies. Final Report, Jerusalem 2006, pp Ariel 2010 D.T. Ariel, Coins, in: H. Geva (ed.), Jewish Quarter Excavations in the Old City of Jerusalem Conducted by Nahman Avigad, Volume IV: The Burnt House of Area B and Other Studies. Final Report, Jerusalem 2010, pp Ariel forthcoming D.T. Ariel, Judean Perspectives of Ancient Mints and Minting Technology, Israel Numismatic Research 6 (2011). Fontanille 2010 J.-P Fontanille, The Barbarous Coins of Judea, Israel Numismatic Research 5 (2010), pp Hendin D. Hendin, A New Coin Type of Herod Antipas, Israel Numismatic Journal 15 ( ), pp Hill 1914 G.F. Hill, Catalogue of the Greek Coins of Palestine (Galilee, Samaria, and Judaea), London Hill 1922 G.F. Hill, Ancient Methods of Coining, Numismatic Chronicle 2 (1922), pp Hoover 2008 O. Hoover, Seleucid Bronze Coinage Production, in: A. Houghton, C. Lorber and O. Hoover (eds.), Seleucid Coins. A Comprehensive Catalogue II: Seleucus IV through Antiochus XIII, New York, Lancaster and London 2008, pp Kenyon 1957 K.M. Kenyon, Miscellaneous Objects in Metal, Bone and Stone, in: J.W. Crowfoot, G.M. Crowfoot and K.M. Kenyon, Samaria Sebaste, III: The Objects from Samaria, London 1957, pp Kloner 1976 A. Kloner, Flan Moulds from Khirbet Rafi a, Atiqot [English Series] 11 (1976), pp Kindler 1954 A. Kindler, The Jaffa Hoard of Alexander Jannaeus, Israel Exploration Journal 4 (1954), pp Laing 1969 L.R. Laing, Coins and Archaeology, New York Malkmus 1993 W. Malkmus, Addenda to Vermeule s Catalog of Ancient Coin Dies, Journal of the Society for Ancient Numismatics 18/1 (1993), pp ; 18/2 (1993), pp ; 18/3 (1993), pp ; 18/4 (1993), pp Meshorer 1968 Y. Meshorer, The Mint of King Herod the Great? Shekel 1 (1968), pp Nicolaou 1972 K. Nicolaou, Découverte d un Hôtel des Monnaies de l époque ptolémaïque à Paphos, Chypre, Bulletin de la société française de numismatique 27 (1972), pp Pilon 2003 F. Pilon, Un fait unique en Gaule romaine: la découverte de moules à flans monétaires en pierre calcaire, Revue Suisse de Numismatique 82 (2003), pp Vermeule 1954 C.C. Vermeule, Some Notes on Ancient Dies and Coining Methods, London 1954.