Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Yigal Levin" <leviny1 AT mail.biu.ac.il>]

I have not seen the particular coins in question, but dozens of other such
coins are in Hebrew - LG)LT CYWN.

Yigal
----- Original Message -----
From: "Gary Hedrick" <garyh AT cjfm.org>
To: "'Yigal Levin'" <leviny1 AT mail.biu.ac.il>
Sent: Friday, April 15, 2005 5:56 PM
Subject: RE: [b-hebrew] News From Temple Mount


> Yigal, was the inscription on the coin ("For the Freedom of Zion")
> in Hebrew or Aramaic?  Do you know?
>
> Gary
>
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> CJF Ministries
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>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: b-hebrew-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org
> [mailto:b-hebrew-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of Yigal Levin
> Sent: Friday, April 15, 2005 4:37 AM
> To: archaeology2 AT yahoogroups.com; neareasternarchaeology AT yahoogroups.com;
> b-hebrew; biblical-studies AT yahoogroups.com
> Subject: [b-hebrew] News From Temple Mount
>
> I'm sure that this will be of interest,
>
> Yigal Levin
> ------------------------------------------------------------
>
> From
>
<http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&ci
> d=1113445110394>.
> Go there for pix.
> =================================
>
> Jerusalem Post
> Apr. 14, 2005
> Temple Mount relics saved from garbage
> By ETGAR LEFKOVITS
>
> On the grounds of a Jerusalem national park with a view of the Temple
> Mount, a small group of Israeli archaeologists and volunteers sifting
> through piles of rubble discarded by Islamic Wakf officials from the
> Temple Mount into a city garbage dump have recently uncovered a series of
> history-rich artifacts dating back to the First and Second Temple periods.
>
> The five-month old privately-funded project underway at the site, which is
> being directed by Bar Ilan University archeology professor Dr. Gabriel
> Barkay, is being called virtually unprecedented since archaeological
> excavation has never been permitted on the Temple Mount itself.
>
> Six years ago, following the Islamic Wakf's unilateral construction of a
> mosque at an underground area of the Temple Mount known as Solomon's
> Stables, Wakf officials discarded more than 10,000 tons of rubble with
> history-rich artifacts, at a municipal garbage dump in the Kidron Valley
> and other locations outside the Old City.
>
> The November 1999 destruction and removal of the antiquities in the wake
> of the mosque construction was later called "an unprecedented
> archaeological crime" by the head of Israel's Antiquities Authority, the
> state-run archaeological body nominally charged with supervision at
> Judaism's holiest site, as well as by Israel's leading archaeologists.
>
> According to decades-old regulations in place on the Temple Mount, Islamic
> Wakf official administer the compound, while Jerusalem police are in
> charge of overall security at the site.
>
> Straddled by political concerns and in flagrant contravention of the law,
> Israeli archaeologists from the Antiquities Authority have not been
> carrying out supervision for five years now at the bitterly contested site
> due to their concern about renewed Palestinian violence at the compound.
>
> After the Antiquities Authority voiced disinterest in thoroughly sifting
> through the rubble discarded by the Wakf, Barkay applied -- and eventually
> received a license from the Antiquities Authority to sort through the
> piles of earth thrown into the garbage dump in search of antiquities.
>
> "The project should have been a government- sponsored initiative in
> coordination with the Antiquities Authority, but neither wanted to do it,
> " Barkay said in an interview.
>
> "The whole matter exposes the Antiquities Authority's short-handedness in
> taking care of and protecting antiquities on the Temple Mount," he added.
>
> Starting in November, the archaeologist and a small team, led by his
> 32-year-old former student Zachi Zweig, transferred 68 truckloads of
> rubble saturated with archaeological finds from the garbage dump to the
> Emek Zurim National Park, on the western slopes of Mount Scopus. Using a
> mechanical sifter, the rubble was then separated into heaps based on size,
> before being hand-checked for antiquities.
>
> Over the last five months, Zweig a small team of six workers -- and an
> equal number of daily volunteers -- who have sifted through 15 percent of
> the rubble to date have uncovered scores of history-rich artifacts, from
> the First Temple Period until today amidst the rubble, including a large
> amount of pottery dating from the Bronze Ages through modern times, a
> large segment of a marble pillar's shaft, and over 100 ancient coins,
> among them several from the Hasmonean dynasty.
>
> The one meter tall marble column, streaked with purple veins and white
> spots, is thought to date back to Late Roman or the Byzantine period,
> Barkay said, and is similar to column shafts near the southern wall of the
> Temple Mount.
>
> The first coin recovered from the rubble was from the period of the First
> Revolt against the Romans that preceded the destruction of the Second
> Temple, he added.
>
> The coin bore the phrase "For the Freedom of Zion," and was particularly
> meaningful as the Temple Mount was one of the epicenters of the fight
> against the Romans.
>
> Other finds include a spout of a Hasmonean lamp, an assortment of
> arrowheads, an ivory comb, a ceramic flask, various first temple
> figurines, and numerous pottery oil lamps.
>
> The historical project underway is now in danger of going unfinished due
> to a lack of financial support, with the project director saying that the
> project will abruptly end in one week unless organizers receive urgent
> financial backing needed to complete the work.
>
> Barkay said that he felt an unparalleled obligation to sort through the
> rubble to save what
> was possible from the destruction of antiquities.
>
> "The very act of spending time and making the effort to examine debris
> just because it originates from the Temple Mount transmits a very powerful
> message to the general public and to the world at large about the
> importance of the place," Barkay said.
>
> The work at the site was at first conducted primarily by volunteers who
> heard of the project by word of mouth. Soon, school groups, new immigrants
> -- and both Jewish and Christian tourists -- began stopping by to
> volunteer for work at the site, Zweig said, voicing the hope that someone
> will step in to ensure the project continues.
>
> "It's like touching history," said archaeologist Vicky Mesestrano, a
> worker at the site.
>
>
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