Late Mazar 2000 Overview

The Late Roman Period in the Temple Mount Excavations
Eilat Mazar, Hebrew University

The Xth Roman Legion remained in Jerusalem for 200 years after the destruction of the city in 70 C.E. In 130 the Emperor Hadrian reconstituted the city as Aelia Capitolina.

The Temple Mount excavation will make a critical contribution to the study of this period, little known in Jerusalem until now. We do not have a Josephus or any other similar source to enlighten us about this period. Except for a few fragmentary literary references, we are almost entirely reliant on archaeological finds. The Temple Mount excavation is perhaps the major source of information about this period, until now largely untapped.

Prof Mazar recovered two well-preserved public buildings from this period, one a bakery and the other a bathhouse, both west of the Temple Mount. A third fragmentary building from this period was found southeast of the other two.

The Late Roman finds from these buildings, as well as from other loci, include Latin inscriptions, some of which mention Roman emperors and commanders of the Xth Roman Legion; bronze figurines; fragments of marble statues; engraved Roman gemstones with depictions of various scenes relating to mythology and to the Roman army; nearly 200 coins (the largest group of Late Roman coins recovered in any systematic excavation in Jerusalem, mostly of Aelia Capitolina); jewelry; dozens of bricks containing the stamp of the Xth Legion (the bricks were often in secondary use in the buildings of Aelia Capitolina); objects of daily life; and of course large quantities of pottery, much of it intact or restorable.

All of this material--both architecture and finds--must be processed.
In addition, we have a number of broader questions to ask of the material:

Where in the city was the Xth Legion located?
Was Jerusalem surrounded by a wall at this time? (Kathleen Kenyon thought she had found this wall, but her conclusion must now be re-evaluated.)

What can we learn about the urban layout of Aelia Capitolina, its economy, daily life?

What can we learn from the inscriptions about the history of the city as well as the philology of the language?

What will the coins, gems and other finds tell us about the material culture of the city?