Ramat Rahel | Let's probe a Biblical Mystery

Holy Land Pilgrimage and Biblical Archeology

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"OH HOW LONELY SITS THE CITY THAT ONCE WAS FULL OF PEOPLE!
HOW LIKE A WIDOW SHE HAS BECOME, SHE THAT WAS GREAT
AMONG THE NATIONS! SHE THAT WAS A PRINCESS AMONG
THE PROVINCES HAS BECOME A VASSAL"
LAMENTATIONS 1

In mid-summer, on the ninth day of Av according to the Jewish calendar, Jerusalem goes into mourning. It’s a day of fasting in memory of the destruction of the First Temple and the Second. All Jerusalem’s trendy pubs, coffee houses and cinemas close down at dusk as people flock to the Western Wall to chant Jeremiah’s lamentations throughout the night.

That next evening after the fast, we members of the Ramat Rahel archeological excavation team gathered to inaugurate our final week of the 2008 season. Oded Lipschits, director of the excavation, shared his identification with the residents of this ancient biblical site who would have witnessed the fire and smoke of the burning sanctuary and holy city, just four miles to the north.

View of Jerusalem to the north of Tel Ramat Rahel

Photo: Gila Yudkin

View of Jerusalem from Tel Ramat Rahel

Note the Dome of the Rock in the middle, a bit to the left

This season’s million-shekel question was, were the residents of the Iron Age (biblical period) citadel we have been uncovering at Ramat Rahel, friend or foe? Were they the “good guys,” i.e. administrators representing the Judean king of Jerusalem? And thus the more than a dozen stamp impressions found in the 2,700-year-old debris this season would have come from storage jars collected as taxes for the Judean monarch.

Or were the administrators actually Babylonian in ethnicity and loyalty, i.e. the “bad guys”? The Babylonians from today’s southern Iraq would have replaced the Assyrians who had originally built the citadel as a forward position to spy over the capital of their vassal state of Judah.

Team member excavators studying Ramat Rahel's Iron Age citadel

Photo: Gila Yudkin

Ramat Rahel team members studying the Iron Age citadel

We know from a 6-sided cuneiform prism found in Nineveh, in northern Iraq, that the Assyrian emperor Sennacherib boasted that he captured 46 Judean cities and numerous small towns, along with 200,150 Judean POWs, but “Hezekiah the Judahite king I shut up in a cage like a bird.”

Hezekiah’s capital city did not fall to the Assyrians due to his diligence: he built an outer defensive wall (2 Chronicles 32:5); he diverted the Gihon Spring water over to the western side of his city (2 Chronicles 32:30) and he mobilized Isaiah to intercede with the Almighty on behalf of the Judeans (2 Kings 19:20).

Ramat Rahel whose biblical name we don’t yet know could have been included in the small towns captured and looted by Sennacherib. A problem with this theory though, is that we have found no layers of ash, signifying destruction and conquest, either by the Assyrians or the Babylonians. Could it be that they just walked in? It’s a riddle to put on hold.

So then, what were the finds of the Iron Age, which starts at Ramat Rahel at the end of the eighth century BC, in the days of Isaiah? Most importantly, we found some 15 l’melech (meaning belonging to the king) stamp impressions on broken jar handles. The jars would have held agricultural produce collected as a form of taxes to the governor or king.

Dr. Oded LIpschits deciphering a stamp impression

Photo: Gila Yudkin

Deciphering a stamp impression; Dr. Oded Lipschits is on left

In one locus, Iron Age pottery filled more than thirty buckets, with lots of typical burnished plates where the potter would have taken a shell or stone to draw concentric lines while the clay was still spinning on the wheel. Other prominent finds included pieces of a fertility figurine and a rider on horse, similar to those found in the City of David from the same period.

Photo: Courtesy of Oded Lipschits

Grad student Luke pick-axing in the locus with the most Iron Age pottery

The dig was intense and exciting. At 5.30 each morning, as the sun rose over the six areas of excavation, pickaxes, hoes, shovels, buckets, brushes, hand axes, trowels, and sifters were wheel-barrowed out to each area. A western breeze from the Refaim Valley and black netting nicknamed “Joshua tents” (remember it was Joshua who commanded the sun to stand still: Joshua 10:12) kept us diggers cool till late morning. Of course in August it’s all relative!

Hauling out "the collapse" from Ramat Rahel's Area D1

Photo: Courtesy of Oded Lipschits

Johannes and Phil hauling out "the collapse" from area D1

We haven’t yet solved the mystery of whether the inhabitants of ancient Ramat Rahel were friend or foe, but stay tuned. One thing is sure – this season’s finds at Ramat Rahel will provoke a vigorous discussion among biblical scholars. There will be another season next summer. It may be then that we make that astounding discovery which will enter into all subsequent history books.

Jar containing Second Temple period silver shekels

Photo: Courtesy of Oded Lipschits

Second Temple period silver shekels were found in this jar

In the meantime during the coming year, scholars and grad-students will be analyzing the just-discovered walls, ceramic vessels, stamp impressions, hole-mouthed jars and other Iron Age artifacts unearthed by team members from California to Columbia, Hong Kong to Heidelberg and Alberta to New Zealand.

12 MOST POPULAR ARTICLES this week

Testimonials by volunteer team members can be found in "Pilgrims Talk about the Ramat Rahel Dig."

Other "Holy Sites: Gila’s Highlights":

Read about the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls in Shepherds, Scholars and the Dead Sea Scrolls

Gila Yudkin, who calls herself a former Connecticut Yankee living now in King David's Court, has been guiding since 1978. This summer, in addition to playing the role of “Big Mama” facilitator for 138 team members from 17 countries and 5 continents at the Ramat Rahel dig, Gila Yudkin enthusiastically shared her archeological insights and anecdotes on tours of Megiddo, Masada, Caesarea, Capernaum, Qumran and the Kidron Valley. If you would like Gila to guide your next pilgrimage, book early and directly with Gila!

"Let's probe a Biblical Myserty at Ramat Rahel" (as text without the photos) is one in the series of free monthly e-letters sent on request to tour leaders, pastors, clergy, teachers, Bible students, colleagues and friends. If you'd like to receive "Holy Sites: Gila's Highlights" every month, please contact Gila. Last month's highlight was: "Let's count coneys at Caesarea Philippi." This month's highlight is: "Let's follow Isaac to Mount Moriah." Next month's highlight will be: "Let's throw stones at Absalom's Monument."

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