The find suggests an ancient royal or public Israelite structure near the area of Jerusalem's ancient First Temple.
When an architectural fragment like this one is found on an archaeological dig in Jerusalem, it could likely mean a very important building existed somewhere nearby -- such as a building fit for a king. An archaeological excavation team under the direction of Israeli archaeologist Eilat Mazar has recently uncovered a large fragment of what is known as a "proto-aeolic capital", or royal Israelite capital, the top-most portion of an architectural column that is designed to support or grace the facade or entrance-way of an important royal or administrative/public building. It was found within a stony fill adjacent to a wall dated to the Iron Age II (1000 - 539 BCE) and is assumed by its location to have been in secondary use in this final resting place. (Succeeding builders often reused or "recycled" architectural elements in the construction of later structures).
Says Mazar about the capital fragment: "The first time we see it [proto-aeolic capitals] used as capitals is only at Israelite sites of the First Temple period. We know this from sites in the north of Israel like Megiddo and other royal cities like Hazor, Dan, Samaria -- and also in the south - Jerusalem and Ramat Rachel, which features a royal palace south of Jerusalem........It fits very well into the general picture of a royal structure."
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A proto-aeolic capital displayed at the site of Ramat Rachel near Jerusalem, where examples of this royal Israelite capital have been excavated. Deror Avi, Wikimedia Commons
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Mazar and her team, which also consists of students and volunteers from the Herbert W. Armstrong College in the U.S., have been excavating in the Ophel, an area just below and south of the current Temple Mount where the ancient Jewish temple once stood and where today stands the al-Haram ash-Sharif (Dome of the Rock) and the al-Aqsa mosque. The new find is consistent with the spectacular finds already uncovered in previous excavation seasons, where she and her colleagues have uncovered not only finds dated to the Second Temple, Hellenistic, Roman, and Byzantine periods, but also what Mazar and others suggest may be the remains of structures attributed to builders during the period of King Solomon in the 10th century BCE. These remains include a section of a massive wall of large, well-dressed stones 70 meters long and 6 meters high. Also uncovered with the wall was a structure interpreted as an inner gatehouse, a royal structure adjacent to the gatehouse, and a section of a corner tower 8 meters long and 6 meters high, built of carved stones.
In addition to the proto-aeolic capital, excavators have recently uncovered a fire pit that contained ash, pottery sherds, fragments of burnt wood and what may be grapes dated to almost three thousand years ago. Massive external and internal walls of a likely public or royal structure are now emerging, and archaeologists are anticipating the possibility that, as excavations continue, they will be able to "piece together" the newly emerging features and connect them to previously excavated features from other seasons to determine the nature and extent of the structure(s) at the location.
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Cover Photo, Top Left: Proto-aeolic capital Deror Avi, Wikimedia Commons
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