Petah Tivka excessive school pupils obtained their fingers soiled on Wednesday and Thursday this week when the Temple Mount Sifting Project’s new cell unit paid a go to.
The Yeshurun High School’s hands-on expertise was the second of the pilot undertaking’s pit stops in an effort to “bring the mountain to Muhammad.” Previously, elementary school pupils in Tekoa additionally had the chance to sift for treasure throughout a particular session with the Temple Mount Sifting Project’s workers utilizing wet-sifting equipment.
Students are given a presentation by an archaeologist on the historical past of Jerusalem and the Temple Mount particularly, and are then skilled on the right way to search to artifacts among the many grime. Using water, they “wet-sift” batches of grime, and kind out the varied rocks, pottery and different particles.
So far the pupils in Petah Tikva have discovered enormous quantities of pottery, mosaic tiles, glass and metallic. Luckier college students have found a Crusader coin, a 1st century CE coin, a partial third century CE oil lamp, an iron hook, a leg of an unidentified, doubtlessly First Temple interval cultic clay object, all of which can be cleaned and analyzed at the Sifting Project’s Jerusalem lab.
One of the teenagers stated Wednesday that the bodily activity of looking out for a connection to Jerusalem’s previous was enlightening. “We feel like we are taking part in a really important project finding old and important artifacts,” she stated.
In the 1990s, throughout unauthorized renovations of the Temple Mount’s subterranean “Solomon’s Stables” to enlarge its up to date use as an underground mosque, the Northern Branch of the Islamic Movement and the Waqf, the Jordanian directors of the Muslim holy websites in Jerusalem, eliminated 9,000 tons of antiquities-rich earth from the Temple Mount and dumped within the close by Kidron Valley, based on the Sifting Project.
Salvaging the artifacts discarded through the 1999 unsupervised renovation of the Temple Mount’s Solomon Stables was the genesis of the Temple Mount Sifting Project. (Temple Mount Sifting Project)
In an effort to salvage what valuable artifacts could possibly be discovered within the rubble, in 2004, archaeologists Dr. Gabriel Barkay and Zachi Dvira (Zweig) based the Sifting Project. Since then, some 70 p.c of the recovered grime has been wet-sifted, primarily at the undertaking’s earlier location in Emek HaTsurim, abutting the Mount of Olives.
Last April, the undertaking started to husband its funds for analysis and severed ties with the Emek Tzurim location — which nonetheless continues below the auspices of the Israel Antiquities Authority to wet-sift supplies from IAA dig websites.
While a lot of its funding comes from non-public donors, the Sifting Project is optimistic that it's going to obtain a grant from the Prime Minister’s Office to cowl shortfalls, she stated.
A Sixth-century BCE stamp seal bearing the identify of a Judean official believed to be Galiyahu, son of Imer. (picture credit score: Courtesy of The Temple Mount Sifting Project)
The undertaking estimates it has one other 5-6 years of sifting to finish from the Temple Mount soil, which is presently saved within the Emek HaTsurim National Park, hidden in plain website below a grassy knoll surrounded by bushes.
Dealing with a giant funds deficit, the first focus of the undertaking proper now's to finish a 2021 publication which is able to compile a scientific research of the as much as half a million artifacts found within the soil, spanning from the prehistoric interval to right this moment, with a focus on the First and Second Temple eras.
After they're totally researched, the quite a few priceless artifacts can be handed over to the IAA, or placed on show by the Israel Museum.
One of the 2 historic bronze cash found as Temple Mount soil was sifted within the metropolis of Petach Tikva by Yeshurun High school college students (Inbal Dasberg/Temple Mount Sifting Project)
According to Zachi Dvira, co-director of the undertaking, the purpose is for communities and faculties outdoors of Jerusalem to develop a newfound appreciation for the historic ties to the Temple Mount.
“We want to make Temple Mount heritage accessible to the entire Israeli public. We will provide them with the experience and the privilege of saving antiquities from this soil which was savagely excavated with no archaeological supervision. In this new program, we now aim to reach the parts of the public who found it difficult to come to the sifting site in Jerusalem.”
Temple Mount soil being sifted within the metropolis of Petach Tikva by Yeshurun High school college students (Inbal Dasberg/Temple Mount Sifting Project)
“The sifting activity touches upon the past, and allows us to meet ourselves in the present, while showing a commitment towards the future. The act of sifting, while seemingly an act of separation, in fact enables us to come together and be a part of the unfolding story of Jewish history. This is doubly felt in Petah Tikva, with its strong commitment to Jerusalem,” stated Yeshurun High school principal Rabbi Yaniv Cohen.
There might be little question of the tutorial price of the hands-on expertise for the pupils.
“Seeing the students fascinated by the tangible interaction with the Temple Mount artifacts is exciting,” says archaeologist Haggai Cohen. “The students keep asking for a detailed explanation about each artifact they find, and with this hands-on experience, they are getting a deep education about the heritage of Jerusalem, its history, archaeology, and the cultures that formed it.”
The Sifting Project has utilized for a grant from the Education Ministry which might subsidize the pilot undertaking. Likewise, communities and faculties can supply to cowl the undertaking’s prices and make a date to benefit from the sifting expertise themselves.
“We hope to reach every sector of society – Jews, Christians, and Muslims, religious and secular. The history of the Temple Mount shows that the Mount was an important center of activity for all the monotheistic religions for over three millennia,” stated Dvira.