Gabbatha and Dinner Out

June 25, 2013  Tuesday

Our day at the dig always begins with a pep talk from Shimon Gibson.  The area behind him has been significantly excavated during the time we've been here.

The day progressed with the usual finds of pottery, bones, glass, and coins.  We almost had another propane tank explosion, again on my watch!  We now realize that people have been carrying that tank by the burner, which breaks the nozzle.  All works well for the first time I light the burner to make the first batch of tea, but then I turn it off until the second batch.  The heating and cooling and heating must widen the crack, allowing propane to leak.  Glad to have that figured out!

After the dig, Shimon took us on a tour of the west side of the ancient city walls.  There have been at least three walls, and the boundaries have changed each time.  For example, our dig site is inside the city walls as they stood in Roman times, but the Islamic and Crusader walls excluded our site.

We started on the west side.  Shimon participated in a dig here when he was just a teenager under the direction of Magen Broshi, a famous Israeli archaeologist.  Broshi never published his findings, and Shimon has devoted much of his career to completing and publishing Broshi's work.  Shimon has rediscovered much of the stuff in the Armenian Museum (located in the southwest corner of the Old City). Broshi was the first to excavate our site back in the 1970s but all of the pottery and records were lost until Shimon Gibson found them in the museum.

Hot, sweaty diggers outside the wall:

The first thing we saw was a tomb complex dating to the 6th or 7th century BC.  They appear to be royal tombs.  When the wall was built here later, the tombs had to be evacuated because of the rule requiring burials to be at least 50 cubits (about 25 yards) outside the city.

The most exciting (to us) was learning about the "Hidden Gate".  There's clear archaeological evidence of a gate on the west side, but it is no longer visible.  In this photo, we are standing on the steps that led to this gate while Shimon points to its (former) location.

Shimon believes the steps and gate led directly to Herod's palace complex, and that it may be the Essene Gate referred to by Josephus.  Herod the Great favored the Essenes because an Essene leader had prophesied his accession to the throne.  In fact, some think the Essenes may be the group called the "Herodians" in the New Testament.  If the gate did in fact lead to Herod's palace, then the gate is a logical location for the events of John 19.  Pontius Pilate had come from his seaside home in Caesarea to be present in Jerusalem during Passover, and he stayed in Herod's palace.   After questioning Jesus and after the crowd insisted that Jesus not be release, we read this:  "When Pilate therefore heard that saying, he brought Jesus forth, and sat down in the judgment seat in a place that is called the Pavement, but in the Hebrew [Aramaic], Gabbatha."  This is the surviving part of that pavement.

If Shimon is correct, that means the traditional site of "Ecce homo" ("Behold the man", words spoken by Pilate) is incorrect.  The traditional site is identified by a Catholic church in the Moslem quarter of the Old City, near the Antonia Fortress -- the Roman barracks.  Shimon argues that Pilate would have held the trial at the palace rather than travel through the agitated crowds to the barracks.

This thorn bush happens to be growing near the pavement.  This is what the crown of thorns would have been made of.  The thorns have some kind of poison in them that raises painful welts on the skin.

After Gabbatha, we walked along the outside of the wall to visit the traditional site of King David's tomb.  The building was erected during Crusader times, but it probably preserves an earlier tradition.  We come up here to use the restrooms during dig hours.

We left the Old City, and some of us walked up to the nearby light rail station.  At the stop nearest our hotel is the Museum on the Seam, a small museum on the boundary between east and west Jerusalem.  We haven't gone in, but maybe we'll do that before we leave.

Pete and I, along with James Tabor and two other dig participants, went out for dinner -- our first fancy dinner in Jerusalem.  The restaurant was in the Legacy Hotel, a converted YMCA.

The hotel owners have done a fabulous job of converting the place to a nice hotel.  Dinner is on the 5th floor, with a wonderful view of the city at dusk.

Virginia, James, and Missy -- great company.  Those greenish drinks Pete and I have are lemonade with crushed mint leaves.  I'd definitely try that combination again, but go easier on the mint.

Pete and I ordered salads, both decidely non-kosher.  Mine was seafood ....

... and his was a "Cardo Salad", which included duck.  Both were delicious.

Pete and I split a "Mousse Duet" for dessert:  rich chocolate mousse, white chocolate custard, and berry garnish.  Yummmmmm.....

On the walk back to the hotel, we were surprised to see a shop labeled "Kando".  According to James, the proprietor is the son of the original Kando, the Bethlehem antiquities dealer who in 1948 first purchased some of the Dead Sea Scrolls from their Bedouin discoverers.

I haven't mentioned that my knee is not doing as well as I had hoped, that I still have to use a cane, and that I indulge in ibuprofen therapy.  To top it off, I felt unusually weary on this Tuesday evening.... not a good sign.