Palestine Exploration Fund - Quarterly Statement for 1894/Excavations by the Augustinian Brethren on Mount Zion
II.—Excavations by the Augustinian Brethren on Mount Zion.
Herewith I send you a plan of the whole ground where the various excavations on Mount Zion have been made during the last four years, also detailed plans and sections of the excavations, which I have numbered from 1 to 8.[1]
No. 1 was done four years ago, and my report on it was published in the Quarterly Statement, 1890, p. 12, so it is not necessary to repeat anything here.
No. 2 was done afterwards. It is some 60 feet west of the first, and higher up the hill. My report on this was published in the Quarterly Statement, 1891, p. 19. Now I give a plan of all, with sections. A few feet north-west from the Mosaic—as already mentioned in my former reports—the remains of a Roman bath were found, of which I give now a plan and section. It is the lower part or fireplace. Already existing walls on four sides (remainders of a former room) were used, and lined with bricks round about; and in the centre a number of small piers were made, built also of bricks. One row was still standing, the others had tumbled over. On these brick piers of only a few feet high, the flooring rested, and the fire underneath could circulate between the piers and so warm the floor. The walls had side openings for the entrance of air, and on the north side, near the corner, was the door. The channel and the bricks of the bath mentioned were removed in subsequent excavations, and some older masonry laid bare, but of no special interest. South of the little house built up, in order to preserve the Mosaic (Quarterly Statement, 1891, p. 19), was found one of the very ancient small cisterns with steps leading down, all cut in rock, as shown on the drawings.
No. 3. Situated close to the southern road which goes down to Siloah (see Plan of Jerusalem, Quarterly Statement, 1889, p. 62). There the rock (scarped down) looked out from the ground, showing an opening, and hence, in the Ordnance Survey plan, scale 12500 is put the word "cave." This cave was cleared from all earth, &c., and proved to have been once a room (not a cistern or a tomb), hewn entirely in the rock. On its west side a door leads into another room of great interest. Three sides of it are formed of rock walls; the fourth or northern side is built up with masonry of very nicely hewn and squared stones. The roof also is formed of a semi-circular vault of nicely hewn stones, thirteen in each row, put together without mortar (unless this has been washed away). The room is now 812 feet wide and 12 feet long, and in the centre 12 feet high. It seems that the place was once longer, and that when the arching was made, the northern closing-up wall was made. On the south side there is, hewn into the rock, an apse-like niche, in the centre of which is standing a round pillar 3 feet high, giving the impression that the place was once used as a chapel. This apse or recess takes up more than half the southern wall, and on the western or remaining portion of this wall is cut into the rock, at its upper part, another but much smaller recess of a similar kind, its bottom being about 5 feet above the flooring of the room, which is of rock. This smaller recess, if I am not mistaken, ends above as a sky-hole. Over this room the earth was removed and a strong wall of hewn stone of moderate size was found, built good and strong and parallel with the line of the western side of the room below, as may be seen on the plan. There is some other masonry, but I could not make much of it. This wall was laid bare for a length of about
30 feet, and seems to go further north, and also further south, even through under the surface of the present road, where (east of it) opens the mouth of another cave, or rather, as I think, a cistern, which is not yet cleared out, being, for the greater part, under the road. At the sharp corner, projecting into the road, the rock stands up with perpendicular sides; and this is the reason for such a corner. On the eastern side of the rock, and inside the Augustinian Brethren's ground, there is an old cistern, now restored and containing water; and here is the chief door to the ground of the Brethren, and a new road, which was made northwards, after it had been ascertained that nothing of much interest is underneath. On the top of the projecting rock a flight of steps is cut into it, formerly—when a building stood on the rock—leading down into the two above-mentioned rooms. This spur of rock is visible southwards, also in the road itself, and runs on to the neighbours' ground in a curved line, forming there a scarp.
No. 4. East of the latter, lower down the slope and 45 feet distant, is a similar rock, forming a sharper corner and causing a sharp bending of the road. In this rock is also hewn a somewhat double room, in a line from south to north. The entrance is from the road, and so outside the Brethren's ground, and this is the reason that it is not thoroughly cleared, and I cannot say more about it.
No. 5. Opposite, or on the southern side of the road, the ground belongs to a Moslem; he tried to cultivate it, and made excavations, laying bare the rock scarp there (the continuation of the one described above on the Augustinian Brethren's ground), and found two cisterns, both cut into the rock, and with steps cut in rock leading down to them. The eastern cistern is nearly square, each side measuring about 13 feet, and of considerable height; the steps going down are very steep. The western one is much larger, and the steps not so steep. On its southern side, besides the door, it once had an opening, like a window, very likely broken in when the place was used as a lodging for men, and afterwards for cattle. The proprietor has built on the side of the steps a kind of pool, and over the cistern itself, a little house. West of the latter is the opening or mouth of another cistern, the size of which I do not know.
No. 6. North of the last described place, and 80 feet north of the main road, is, on the Ordnance Survey plan, scale 12500, inserted a "cistern" (which I show also on the large plan). Now 90 feet further north, and in a line towards a corner (not tower) of the city wall, was found another and once very large cistern, square in form, about 30 feet on each side, and about 20 feet high, entirely cut in the rock. The roofing is also rock, and without any support in the middle. Where the rock roof was thinnest, at the eastern part, is a large opening, now left as a sky-hole. I found the place already greatly changed. First there was made a trench or road to it, starting as a side branch from the new road mentioned above, and going westwards 70 feet wide to the entrance. The sides of this road are first only earth, then rock, at first not high, but becoming higher and higher to about 7 feet, as the rock is there rising. The surface of this road is 7 feet wide, and rises gently so that rain-water will quickly run off and not fill the trench. At its end an opening is broken into the wall of the cistern and built round with masonry and furnished with a door and lock, inside which a flight of steps leads down to its bottom. Along the north wall I found also new masonry of white hewn or squared stones, forming a row of eight loculi or places into which the coffins of deceased brethren may be put, and then walled up. One of the brethren is already lying there, and his place walled up. These loculi are about 3 feet above the ground, 2 feet 8 inches high and wide, and 8 feet 6 inches deep, so that there will be left room enough before the head of the coffin for a closing wall to be made flush with the building. The man who opened the place for me said there will be a second, and perhaps a third, row of such loculi built when the time comes that they are wanted. The large opening in the roof gives light to the place below. The annexed plan and sections will explain all this. About 100 feet north of this place, and nearly in the same line, excavations were also made, and old masonry and a cistern found, but they were so far covered up that I cannot describe them separately or give drawings of them, but, if God will, I will do this at some future time when more is cleared up.
No. 7. Higher up the hill, and nearer the city, a piece of ground has been cleared away at a place about 180 feet east of the western road, 50 feet north of the new boundary wall, and about 400 feet south of the city wall. It was found to be a rock scarp extending north and south. It has been laid bare for a length of 18 feet and to a depth of 10 feet. As it is not cleared to the bottom I cannot say how high the scarp may be, but it reminds one of the scarp at the Bishop Gobat School and the Protestant Burial Ground. A little more north, and only 712 feet more west, a similar scarp rises out of the ground, not so high but in the same direction. Along the latter are the remains of former rooms, consisting of walls cut out from the rock to a height from 4 to 8 feet. There are three rooms of different sizes; the partition walls were left here rather stronger than those in No. 1. The northern room is the largest, and had, towards the east, two openings with a piece of rock between them. In the wall of the southern room is the mouth of a cistern which seems to be of large extent. In front of the rooms (east) is a nice pavement, partly of rock and partly of flagstones, which at the first view appears to be the flooring of a church, or of some similar large building, as it is of equal width (of about 20 feet) for a length of about 50 feet. But on closer examination it seems rather to have been a street of the ancient city, for no bases of pillars, or marks of such, or of other supports, are recognisable, and then the surface, although from west to east horizontal, slopes from south to north to the extent of about 18 inches.[2] At first I thought it might in later time have sunk, but as everywhere the rock is visible, that cannot have been the case, and as no steps were applied to level the decline I think it was not the flooring of a building but of a street, or rather a piazza, or open place, in front of the houses, for as a street it could not have extended far towards the south, as the high scarp is there. On the east side of the pavement is the mouth of a cistern, and along the edge of the pavement remains of a former wall, not thick, which I think formed the parapet of the paved square, which, if this were so, may perhaps be the roof of a row of rooms below. At the northern end things were different, but it is not uncovered enough to form an opinion of it. Coming from the west is a water channel cut in the rocks. Forty feet east of the large rock scarp a trench was made into the ground about 20 feet deep, when an opening appeared[3] which was closed up again until the work of excavation is resumed. West of this site No. 7 stood formerly a building of rather modern date, inserted in the Ordnance Survey Map 12500, about 15 years ago it was removed, when the Nebi Daûd people took the stones of it to build new houses. When I arrived in Jerusalem in 1846 this building was shown to me as standing on the place where St. Peter, after denying the Lord, wept bitterly, and, as I understand matters, it may really be the right place, and probably the brethren may find traces of the Cock-crow Church there. I cannot say the reason why they have not digged there, but in so many other places without result, in so far as it concerns this church. Perhaps they do not know of the former existence of the building.
No. 8. Nearer to the city they also made some excavations, but without result, as in no place did they reach the rock.
Along the western main road they made a boundary wall only as high as the surface of the road—the surface of their ground being situated-about 3 feet lower. At its end, where the road begins to bend towards the Nebi Daûd gate of the city, a new entrance door is made, and the former watch-house removed. Eastwards a higher boundary wall is made, and also a piece below from the sharp angle corner southwards. The rest is enclosed by poles and iron wire grating.
I am sorry that the ground belonging to the brethren does not extend so far that there is hope of being able to dig at the site where very likely the old city gate might be found; I am also sorry to say that from the mode in which the work is done many things escape observation, and will be buried again for centuries. If the brethren dig at a place they have to remove the earth, and often they put it in places which were not thoroughly examined before, and then plant vines and other plants or trees there, and give up further excavation.
- ↑ On the plan published, the numbers refer to Herr von Schick's notes, and also to the detailed plans sent by him.
- ↑ I had no levelling instruments with me, hence I cannot state the exact decline, but simply estimate it as it appeared to my eye.
- ↑ It seems to be a cistern as I have noted it in the drawing.