Huge quarry from the end of the Second Temple period discovered in Jerusalem: it is among the largest ever discovered

In recent weeks, ahuge quarry, among the largest ever discovered in Jerusalem, dating back to the end of the Second Temple period, was unearthed during an excavation conducted by theIsrael Antiquities Authority in Jerusalem’s Har Hotzvim industrial area. The excavation, funded by the real estate development company Vitania on its land, revealed an area of about 3,500 square meters, representing only a portion of this vast quarry. Prominent among the finds unearthed was a stone utensil that, according to Halacha (Jewish Law), could not become unclean and was widely used by Jews during the Second Temple period.

Archaeologists uncovered dozens of building stones of various sizes, as well as extraction and cutting trenches outlining the dimensions of the extracted blocks. “Most of the building stones extracted here were huge slabs of rock, whose length reached about 2.5 meters, width 1.2 meters and thickness 40 centimeters,” say Michael Chernin and Lara Shilov, directors of the excavations on behalf of the Israel Antiquities Authority. “Each extracted block weighed two and a half tons. The impressive size of the stones produced from this quarry probably testifies to their use in one of the many construction projects in Jerusalem at the end of the Second Temple period, beginning with the reign of Herod the Great (37 to 4 BCE).”

Historical sources suggest that Herod’s construction projects in Jerusalem included the expansion of the Temple Mount area and the Temple itself. A number of monumental public buildings, including palaces and fortifications, were also constructed during his reign, requiring large quantities of high-quality building stones. These massive construction projects continued under his successors, with the most significant among them being the construction of the city’s “Third Wall” by Herod’s grandson, King Agrippa I, who reigned between 37 and 44 CE.

“It is reasonable to assume, with due caution, that at least some of the building stones quarried here were intended to be used as slabs for Jerusalem’s roads at that time,” Chernin and Shilov state. “In another excavation by the Israel Antiquities Authority that has been underway for the past few years in the City of David, archaeologists have discovered a paved road, the ’pilgrims’ road,’ also dated to the late Second Temple period, under the rule of successive Roman proxies. Amazingly, it turns out that the paving stones of this road have exactly the same size, thickness, as well as the identical geological signature of the stone slabs that were extracted from the quarry now on display at Har Hotzvim.”

In one corner of the quarry, archaeologists were also surprised by the discovery of a stone vessel: the intact vessel, hidden in that corner for two thousand years, was discovered almost by accident by archaeologist Alex Pechuro. “It is a stone purification vessel of the type that served the Jewish community during the Second Temple period,” explains Lara Shilov. “It is possible that it was produced on site, in the quarry itself, or that it was specially brought to the site for the benefit of the workers.”

The current excavation reveals another aspect of Jerusalem’s history during its heyday, just before the siege by the Romans in AD 70.

“We are working tirelessly, together with Vitania, to preserve and present the quarry and integrate it into the commercial complex that will be built here. In this way, the entire public will be able to get an idea of the magnitude of the building stone quarrying enterprise for Jerusalem in the time of the Second Temple,” said Dr. Amit Re’em, supervisor of the Jerusalem district of the Israel Antiquities Authority.

According to Eli Escusido, director of the Israel Antiquities Authority, “Revealing this huge quarry, just before the anniversary of the 9th of Av, a time of the year when Jewish people around the world mourn the lost Jerusalem, has great symbolic value and is very moving.”

Image: The quarry from the Second Temple period on Mount Hotzavim. Photo by Emil Eljam, Israel Antiquities Authority

Huge quarry from the end of the Second Temple period discovered in Jerusalem: it is among the largest ever discovered

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