Image Details

PHOTO: CLARA AMIT

CAPITAL CLUE. A hand-size chunk of worked stone found in the rubble covering Building 100 once belonged to a volute capital. Often termed proto-Aeolic, such capitals featured two curving palmette volutes stemming from a triangular-shaped shaft. Similar capitals decorated the columns of royal buildings and fortified city gates throughout the southern Levant. Rarely found in Jerusalem, they are well attested from the Judahite palace at Ramat Rahel, which is a mere 3 miles southeast of the City of David.