ISRAEL
A
n entire residential
quarter in what used
to be known as the Up-
per City of Jerusalem, from
the time of the Herodian
Dynasty, is a new attraction
available to visitors in Israel's
capital.
The spacious mansions,
decorated with frescoes, mold-
ed stucco and-colorful mosaic
;ours were opened to the
public in November 1987 for
the first - time since the
Romans put the torch to these
luxurious residences, corn-
pleting the destruction of
Jerusalem.
The Herodian Quarter was
excavated by Professor Naham
Avigad and scores of ar-
cheologists and volunteers,
iNho dug their way through
more than 2,000 years of
debris. They were followed by
the restorers, and after years
of intensive labor, this site has
now been opened to the public.
Below the modern buldings
it is possible to wander
through the palatial mansions
that were built here by
wealthy Jerusalemites on the
choicest real estate the city
had to offer. We can picture
the creme de la creme of the
city gathering in the sump-
tuous reception halls or the
proprietors luxuriating in
their various bathing installa-
tions. We marvel at the
decorations on their
residences and at the fur-
niture and utensils they used
for their banquets. How all
this survived succeeding
waves of destruction seems
miraculous.
Jerusalem has been
destroyed scores of times. The
most recent wave of devasta-
tion was between 1948 and
1967. Paradoxically, it led to
an almost unprecedented
resurgence of the city's past.
The area had been the
Jewish Quarter within the ci-
An excavated mansion in the Herodian Quarter.
Ancient History
Archeologists have found mansions
under the modern buildings.
ty walls since the Middle
Ages. When Israel's capital
was re-unified in 1967, the
returning Israelis found the
quarter to be one big heap of
rubble. A company was set up
to rebuild the area and at the
same time droves of ar-
cheologists descended on the
quarter to research the past.
For them it was the chance of
a lifetime, or rather several
lifetimes, which heretofore
had been denied them and
previous generations (and still
is in other parts of the city,
because of crowded living
conditions.)
A period of activity got
under way in 1967 — upwards
and downwards. As buildings
went up, archeologists dug
downwards into the past. Now,
after almost 20 years of plan-
ning, digging, building, and
restoring, the Jewish Quarter
is once again a residential
area, an area offering glimp-
ses into the city's millenia of
history.
Builders and diggers work-
ed at leaving the more impor-
tant finds exposed at street
level or visible under the new-
ly built houses. The incorpora-
tion of the Cardo street from
Byzantine and Crusader
times into the present street
plan is an example of im-
aginative planning and design
that has drawn world-wide at-
tention. Other ancient re-
mains in the rebuilt quarter
include an apse of the sixth
century Nea Church, built by
the Emperor Justinian, and
fortifications built by the Mac-
cabean rulers in the second
century BC and by King
Hezekiah in 701 BC.
The latest complex of ex-
cavations to become accessible
is a quarter of luxurious
residences built in the first
century BC, when King Herod
the Great carried out exten-
sive building projects that
made Jerusalem one of the
most resplendent cities of the
times. Restoration of the man-
sions had to wait till the
rebuilding of two religious
academies on top of the ex-
cavations was completed.
Now it is possible to descend
seven meters below the new
buildings and walk through a
complex of palaces.
These mansions were
located at the eastern edge of
the Upper City of the time
and had a magnificent view of
the huge Temple esplanade
built by King Herod and of the
Mount of Olives beyond. The
largest of them still has walls
standing as high as three
meters — unusual for ancient
remains in Jerusalem. The
buildings were preserved by
the pavement of a street later
laid on top of them.
The mansions have an array
of water installations in their
basements, all the more
remarkable considering the
shortage of water in the area.
Here we find ritual baths, as
well as luxurious bathrooms
paved with exquisite mosaics.
This preoccupation with
Jewish requirements for ritual
purity, combined with the
presence of more sybaritic
bathrooms, lead scholars to
believe that the mansions
belonged to the high priests of
the Temple. This belief is rein-
forced by the proximity of the
quarter to the Temple
precinct.
The interior walls of the
mansions are decorated with
colored frescoes and plaster
imitations of dressed stones.
The larger mansion had a
sumptuous reception hall, the
ceiling of which had an in-
tricate pattern of stucco
panels. These were found ly-
ing on the floor and were us-
ed for its reconstruction.
The reception hall walls
were first decorated with
frescoes and later covered with
plaster imitating stones. Both
techniques are known from
Pompeii, but there they ap-
pear in reverse chronological
order. The frescoes in Hero-
dian buildings never depict
people or animals, in observa-
tion of Jewish religious laws.
Some items of furniture and
utensils were found in the
mansions, and they too attest
to the affluence of the in-
habitants. They are displayed
in the excavated houses. There
are high, one-legged stone
tablets for serving food and
low, three-legged tables for
dining — like those found
elsewhere in the Roman
empire.
Many of the utensils were
made of stone, which, because
they were not prone to con-
tamination, rendered them
ritually pure. The glassware is
especially luxurious and
beautiful. One pitcher is in-
scribed with the name of its
maker, Ennion, and is only
the fourth one of its type found
in the world. Fragments of
other vessels by Ennion, who
was a master craftsman work-
ing in Sidon, have been found
in the mansions.
Various sections of the man-
sions were covered with ashes
and soot. Coins were also
found, bearing dates of the
first Jewish revolt against
Rome (66-70 AD). The latest
coins found are from the year
69.
The Upper City was con-
quered by the Romans one
month after they had taken
the Lower City and destroyed
the Temple.
❑
Israel Ministry of Tourism
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
89