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In this photo taken on Dec. 1, 2011, Israel's Antiquities
Authority archeologist …
In this photo taken on Dec. 1, 2011, marks carved in the bedrock
over 2,800 years …
JERUSALEM (AP) — Mysterious stone carvings made thousands of
years ago and recently uncovered in an excavation underneath
Jerusalem have archaeologists stumped.
Israeli diggers who uncovered a complex of rooms carved into the
bedrock in the oldest section of the city recently found the
markings: Three "V'' shapes cut next to each other into the
limestone floor of one of the rooms, about 2 inches (5 centimeters)
deep and 20 inches (50 centimeters) long. There were no finds to
offer any clues pointing to the identity of who made them or what
purpose they served.
The archaeologists in charge of the dig know so little that they
have been unable even to posit a theory about their nature, said
Eli Shukron, one of the two directors of the dig.
"The markings are very strange, and very intriguing. I've never
seen anything like them," Shukron said.
The shapes were found in a dig known as the City of David, a
politically sensitive excavation conducted by Israeli government
archaeologists and funded by a nationalist Jewish group under the
Palestinian neighborhood of Silwan in east Jerusalem. The rooms
were unearthed as part of the excavation of fortifications around
the ancient city's only natural water source, the Gihon spring.
It is possible, the dig's archaeologists say, that when the
markings were made at least 2,800 years ago the shapes might have
accommodated some kind of wooden structure that stood inside them,
or they might have served some other purpose on their own. They
might have had a ritual function or one that was entirely mundane.
Archaeologists faced by a curious artifact can usually at least
venture a guess about its nature, but in this case no one,
including outside experts consulted by Shukron and the dig's
co-director, archaeologists with decades of experience between
them, has any idea.
There appears to be at least one other ancient marking of the
same type at the site. A century-old map of an expedition led by
the British explorer Montague Parker, who searched for the lost
treasures of the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem between 1909 and 1911,
includes the shape of a "V'' drawn in an underground channel not
far away. Modern archaeologists haven't excavated that area
yet.
Ceramic shards found in the rooms indicate they were last used
around 800 B.C., with Jerusalem under the rule of Judean kings, the
dig's archaeologists say. At around that time, the rooms appear to
have been filled with rubble to support the construction of a
defensive wall.
It is unclear, however, whether they were built in the time of
those kings or centuries earlier by the Canaanite residents who
predated them.
The purpose of the complex is part of the riddle. The straight
lines of its walls and level floors are evidence of careful
engineering, and it was located close to the most important site in
the city, the spring, suggesting it might have had an important
function.
A unique find in a room beside the one with the markings — a
stone like a modern grave marker, which was left upright when the
room was filled in — might offer a clue. Such stones were used in
the ancient Middle East as a focal point for ritual or a memorial
for dead ancestors, the archaeologists say, and it is likely a
remnant of the pagan religions which the city's Israelite prophets
tried to eradicate. It is the first such stone to be found intact
in Jerusalem excavations.
But the ritual stone does not necessarily mean the whole complex
was a temple. It might simply have marked a corner devoted to
religious practice in a building whose purpose was commonplace.
With the experts unable to come up with a theory about the
markings, the City of David dig posted a photo on its Facebook page
and solicited suggestions. The results ranged from the
thought-provoking — "a system for wood panels that held some other
item," or molds into which molten metal would could have been
poured — to the fanciful: ancient Hebrew or Egyptian characters, or
a "symbol for water, particularly as it was near a spring."
The City of David dig, where the carvings were found, is the
most high-profile and politically contentious excavation in the
Holy Land. Named for the biblical monarch thought to have ruled
from the spot 3,000 years ago, the dig is located in what today is
east Jerusalem, which was captured by Israel in 1967. Palestinians
claim that part of the city as the capital of a future state.
The dig is funded by Elad, an organization affiliated with the
Israeli settlement movement. The group also moves Jewish families
into the neighborhood and elsewhere in east Jerusalem in an attempt
to render impossible any division of the city in a future peace
deal.
Palestinians and some Israeli archaeologists have criticized the
dig for what they say is an excessive focus on Jewish remains. The
dig's archaeologists, who work under the auspices of the
government's Israel Antiquities Authority, deny that charge.
