Significant improvement of the enforcement and supervision of the Israeli Antiquities laws on the Temple Mount
Since the summer of 2007 we have witnessed a positive trend concerning the enforcement of the antiquities laws, and the Israel Antiquities Authority’s (IAA) supervision of construction work on the Temple Mount. An especially significant improvement…
What’s a Dreidel doing on the Temple Mount?
The Temple Mount dirt contains not only ancient finds but also modern ones since it was deliberately mixed with modern garbage. Occasionally we find in the sifting some amusing objects which illustrate the wide variety of activities that took…
Update on Recent Developments at the Sifting Project
The number of visitors/volunteers at the Sifting Project has been increasing year by year and also the volume of the material that has been sifted. To date we have sifted about half of the debris that is on hand. This means that we have at least…
Response to Article in Times of Israel
Last Friday, an article was published in the Times of Israel, a news site popular among American Jews. We were saddened to see that even though we spent a great deal of effort informing the reporter, Ilan Ben Zion, about the significance…
More Details about the New Course of Ashlar Stones at the Bottom of the Raised Platform Northern Wall
Leen Ritmeyer, archaeologist and architect expert of the Temple Mount, published a post in his blog referring to the new discovered course of ashlar stones at the bottom of the raised platform northern wall that we published here in a report…
Report on Latest Waqf Works on the Temple Mount
The final report of State Comptroller concerning illegal activities on the Temple Mount that was written in 2010 states that all the lessons from the draft (written in 2008) were learned, and now oversight of the Temple Mount has greatly improved.…
Major Damage to the Sifting Site from the Snow Storm
The latest snow storm in Israel has caused major destruction to the Sifting Project site. The greenhouse frame could not hold the weight of the snow that gathered above it and totally collapsed. Much of the equipment and infrastructure installations…
The End of the Sifting for the Prevalent Finds
Three weeks ago we finished sifting the soil from area KI4, and in the coming days we will be finishing the preliminary sorting and registering of the finds from this area. Finishing the sifting of this area was very meaningful because it…
A new small scale trench near the Dome of the Rock
Yesterday the Waqf began a new small scale construction dig just a few meters from the northwest side of the Dome of the Rock. The purpose of the work was to expose an old water pipe in order to replace it.
Today we visited the site and found…
Appearance in National Geographic
The latest November issue of National Geographic has a section that deals with artifacts that were retrieved from sites where it was not possible to excavate them. The TMSP had a very respectful appearance in this section as the first site mentioned…
Reconstructing the Context of Our Frequent Finds
When we began transferring the mounds of Temple Mount material from the Kidron Valley dump to the Tzurim Valley National Park, we divided the dump into various areas. We suspected that the order of the removal of the earth from the Temple…
An Extensive Article in the Jerusalem Post about the Debris Removal
Following the tour we conducted yesterday for journalists, Melanie Lidman from the Jerusalem Post published an extensive article about the debris removal from last week. In this article, the police spokesmen is quoted saying:
“Antiquities…