Summary: Covering about 37,700 square feet, this vast stone quarry is the largest found yet in Jerusalem.
“Listen to me, you who pursue righteousness, you who seek the Lord: look to the rock from which you were hewn, and to the quarry from which you were dug.”
– Isaiah 51:1 (ESV)
Largest Quarry Site
A massive and ancient limestone quarry was recently brought to light in the Har Hotzvim high-tech industrial zone of Jerusalem, according to an announcement by the Israel Antiquities Authority’s (IAA) last month. This quarry site, covering roughly 37,700 square feet, is one of the largest ever discovered in the city and still only represents a portion of the entire quarry.
Based on the small amount of ceramics found at the site, the quarry was “in use for decades during the end of the Second Temple period,” up to the “generation before the destruction,” said IAA excavation director Michael Chernin to The Times of Israel.
Among the significant artifacts unearthed in the area is a beautiful and intriguing stone vessel which, along with other stone tools, helped to identify the site as Jewish. The archaeologists said the stone vessel is “a find which by its nature always signals the presence of a Jewish population.”
“The excavation provides a glimpse into Jerusalem’s past at its zenith, just before the Romans destroyed it in 70 [AD],” said the IAA in a statement.
Massive Construction Stones
There are “tens of quarries in this area” dating from the same period, according to Chernin, speaking of the Har Hotzvim and Sanhedria neighborhoods. “The location of these areas, only four kilometers [2.5 miles] from the Old City, was an ideal source for building materials for King Herod’s massive projects.”
“In the ancient world, there were a lot of technologies to shape the stones, and special carts designed to carry them. The Old City isn’t so far,” he said. “There are many cases from the same period of larger stones being transported much further.”
Throughout the excavation, archaeologists uncovered a multitude of building stones in different sizes, along with trenches from quarrying and cutting that reveal the dimensions of previously extracted blocks.
“Most of the stones extracted here were huge rock slabs, measuring about 2.5 meters in length [over 8 feet], 1.2 meters in width [4 feet], and 40 centimeters [1.3 feet] in thickness,” said Chernin and Lara Shilov, the IAA excavation directors.
“Each of these blocks weighed approximately two-and-a-half tons!” they continued. “The enormous size of these stones suggests they were intended for use in one of Jerusalem’s many royal construction projects during the late Second Temple period, starting under the reign of King Herod the Great between 37-4 BC.”
Monumental Building Projects
Historical records indicate that Herod’s projects in Jerusalem included the expansion of the Temple Mount and the Temple itself. “Furthermore, during Herod’s reign, several grand public buildings, palaces, and fortifications were built throughout the city, necessitating a large supply of high-quality construction stones,” said the excavators.
In a separate excavation conducted in recent years by the IAA in the City of David, archaeologists have uncovered a paved street referred to as the Pilgrim’s Road. “It is reasonable to assume, with caution, that some of the building stones extracted here were meant to be used as pavement slabs for Jerusalem’s streets during that time,” said Chernin and Shilov.
“Amazingly, it turns out that the paving stones of this street are exactly the same size and thickness, and share the identical geological signature as the stone slabs that were extracted from the quarry now being exposed in Har Hotzvim,” they noted.
Herod I and his Successors
“Monumental building projects continued under [Herod the Great’s] successors, including the significant construction of the city’s ‘Third Wall’ by Herod’s grandson, King Agrippa I, who ruled between 37-44 AD,” they said. This is the king described in Acts 12, who killed the Apostle James and imprisoned Peter.
A helpful thing to be aware of, so as not to confuse one with the other, is that Herod was the family name of the ruling dynasty. There are four different Herods mentioned in the New Testament.
Herod I became known as Herod the Great because of his colossal building projects. This Herod was the one who slaughtered all boys two years old and younger in Bethlehem, after the magi told him a new king had been born there (Matt. 2). Herod Antipas was one of Herod I’s sons who had John the Baptist beheaded.
Purification Stone Vessel
While excavating a secluded part of the quarry, archaeologist Alex Pechuro made a remarkable discovery. Almost by accident he happened upon a pristine stone vessel that had been hidden for nearly two thousand years.
“This is a purification vessel made of stone, used by the Jewish community during the Second Temple period,” Shilov explained. “It could have been produced on-site in the quarry or brought specifically for the workers’ use.”
According to Jewish Halacha (religious law), stone vessels, unlike ceramic and glass vessels, remain ritually pure and were commonly used by the Jewish community at that time. These laws of ritual purity and impurity have a Biblical origin (Leviticus 11:33).
“Stone vessels played an integral role in the daily religious lives of Jews during [the first century AD],” explained archaeologist Yonatan Adler, Senior Lecturer at Ariel University. “It was a Jewish ‘Stone Age’ of sorts.”
Most of the purity laws relate to rites in the Temple. During the Second Temple period, however, the rules were greatly expanded. The territory of the Temple was, at least metaphorically, expanded beyond the Temple confines. Ritual cleanliness was not limited to the bounds of the Temple but spread through the Jewish community affecting ordinary people.
“It made sense to purchase a vessel that could not become unclean, for once a vessel became ritually unclean, it had to be taken out of use. An impure pottery vessel, for example, had to be broken,” explained archaeologist Yitzhak Magenin in the article “Ancient Israel’s Stone Age” in Biblical Archaeological Society magazine.
We see the expansion of the purity laws in the New Testament when the Pharisees accused Jesus’ disciples of not ritually washing their hands before eating. Jesus replied by saying:
“Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written, “‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines they commandments of men.’
You leave the commandment of God and hold to the tradition of men.”
And Jesus said to them, “You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to establish your tradition! For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and your mother’; and, ‘Whoever reviles father or mother must surely die.’ But you say, ‘If a man tells his father or his mother, “Whatever you would have gained from me is Corban”’ (that is, given to God) then you no longer permit him to do anything for his father or mother, thus making void the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And many such things you do.”
And he called the people to him again and said to them, “Hear me, all of you, and understand: There is nothing outside a person that by going into him can defile him, but the things that come out of a person are what defile him.”
“For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.”
- Mark 7: 6-13, 21-22 (ESV)
Har Hotzvim
Many stone quarries dated to the 1st century AD have been discovered in Israel and especially in the surroundings of Jerusalem, demonstrating how Jerusalem was a very significant place for building at that time. This recently excavated quarry was partly discovered as early as 2021 by the archaeologist Moran Hadj’bi of the IAA. The latest finds are significant additional contributions to what had already been recently uncovered.
The quarry site is located in a neighborhood in northern Jerusalem called Har Hotzvim, an industrial park that serves as a hub for many high-tech companies. Interestingly, in Hebrew “Har Hotzvim,” means “Hill of the Stonecutters” which actually originated from a quarry that operated in the area in the 1960s. The name “Har Hotzvim” first appeared in official documents in a proposal for an industrial zone construction project on the site, submitted in 1969 by the architect Zalman Einav.
“We are diligently working with Vitania to preserve and showcase the quarry, integrating it into the upcoming commercial complex planned for the area,” said Dr. Amit Re’em, IAA Jerusalem District Supervisor. “This will allow the public to appreciate the grandeur of this significant enterprise – quarrying the building stones for Jerusalem during the Second Temple period.”
The quarry area will be preserved and incorporated into the 40-story industrial and commercial complex planned by Vitania, a real estate development company, which discovered the site as part of the building process.
Conclusion
“The revelation of this vast quarry, especially just before the Nine Days and Tisha B’Av, a period when Jews worldwide mourn the destruction of Jerusalem and its Temples, is deeply symbolic and poignant,” said IAA Director Eli Escusido.
The unique stone vessels found at the quarry were displayed for families at the Jay and Jeanie Schottenstein National Archaeological Campus in Jerusalem, in honor of Tisha B’Av. Every year in late summer, Jewish people from around the world commemorate the loss of the Temples on ‘the ninth of Av’ (Tisha B’Av) on the Hebrew calendar. On this exact date, centuries apart, both Jewish temples, the first built by Solomon and the second by Herod, were destroyed.
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TOP PHOTO: Stone vessel at quarry identified with Jerusalem’s Second Temple-period Jewish population, discovered in a quarry in the northern part of the city. (credit: IAA).
