From the May 21, 2013 eNews issue
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The Romans destroyed Herod’s Jerusalem Temple in 70 CE. Is it possible that some of the wooden beams from his Temple Mount have survived—and may be identified?
Some archeologists believe this may be the case.
In their May/June Edition of Biblical Archaeology Review, archaeologist Peretz Reuven studied beams removed from the Al-Aqsa Mosque and concluded that some of the beams may date back to the Temple.
Wooden beams of the quality that would have been used to build the temple—especially Cedar of Lebanon (Cedrus libani) and cypress (Cypressus sempervirens)—were extremely valuable and would have been used and reused, again and again.
Known to archaeologists as “secondary use,” the occurrence of reuse is known to be a widely accepted practice both today and in ancient times. Stone building blocks as well as columns and wood elements of buildings have been found to have been reused from previous building projects.
The Al-Aqsa Mosque is a prime example. While the Dome of the Rock (the other major building on the Temple Mount) has survived essentially intact since it was built in the 7th Century, the Al-Aqsa Mosque has been rebuilt several times.
Why the difference? In short, the Dome on the Rock was built on a rock foundation while the Al-Aqsa Mosque was built on land fill. The Mosque is located on the southern end of the Temple Mount on dirt fill material.
What happened on the Temple Mount between the Roman destruction in 70 CE and the construction of Al-Aqsa Mosque is a bit unclear. One view is that it remained empty, essentially a garbage dump in fulfillment of Jesus’ prediction that “not one stone will be left here upon another; all will be thrown down” (Matthew 24:2; Mark 13:2; Luke 21:6).
There is some evidence of building on the Temple Mount after the destruction of the Temple in 70 AD, but nothing definitive. What is definitely known is that there is no report of a building on the Mount when the Muslims erected the Dome of the Rock and Al-Aqsa Mosque in the late seventh and early eighth centuries.
Were some wooden beams from Herod’s Temple or other Temple Mount buildings still lying around at this time, and then used and reused in the construction and various reconstructions of Al-Aqsa Mosque?
Examination of the timbers salvaged (and reused) from the Mosque following the 1927 & 1928 earthquakes indicate most of the Mosque’s Cedar of Lebanon and cypress wood was in secondary use after having been used in an earlier construction (or constructions).
The beams often display depressions and protrusions intended to hold them in place from their earlier use.
Carvings of rosettes on the underside of one of the main support beams look very similar to rosettes in the sixth-century Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, indicating that the Al-Aqsa beam probably came from a Byzantine church and its earlier use should be dated to the same period as the church.
Other cypress beams have been carbon-14 dated back to the first century BC and probably came from a nearby structure on the Temple Mount that existed at that time.
Other logs that were removed from Al-Aqsa in the early 1960s were dated to the ninth–second centuries BCE, according to archeologists who have examined the beams.
One beam found was dated back to 884 BC +/- 180 years. Given that there is building material that old on the site and materials of construction were reused on site, it is possible that some of the timbers originally used in the construction of Al-Aqsa Mosque survived from the First Temple Period.
Some of the support beams that had been used in earlier reconstructions of the Al-Aqsa Mosque were often left lying around on the Temple Mount if they were not used in later reconstructions. Gradually they disappeared, being carried away for other projects, probably homes and shops as well as souvenirs. This process sped up in recent years, especially during the recent Muslim excavation of a large stairway leading down to an underground mosque in Solomon’s Stables on the southern end of the Temple Mount.
One of the beams that has survived is carved with decorations common in the Roman period, including a rope pattern, various kinds of leaves and pomegranates. This Roman-period beam could be from Herod’s time.
Another intriguing fact about the beam is that there are markings on the beam that indicate it rested on columns that were spaced at intervals of 10.8 feet. This is a similar interval to the columns in Herod’s Royal Stoa, a basilica that stood on the southern end of the Temple Mount.
Cedar of Lebanon is an extremely valuable wood and durable enough for it to survive and be in use to the present day.
While we may never know for sure if any of these beams came from Herod’s temple, it is a distinct possibility.
References
• What Joins Jews and Muslims? - Archaeology & Arts
• Temple of Herod - JewishEncyclopedia.com
• Ancient Wooden Beams May Be from Herod’s Temple, According to Biblical Archaeology Review - PRLog
• Wooden Beams from Herod’s Temple Mount: Do They Still Exist? - Biblical Archaeology Society
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