Footnotes

1.

Hershel Shanks, “Where Mary Rested—Rediscovering the Kathisma,BAR 32:06.

2.

Gabriel Barkay and Amos Kloner, “Jerusalem Tombs from the Days of the First Temple,BAR 12:02.

Endnotes

1.

The name Ketef Hinnom, “the shoulder of Hinnom,” was coined by the author based on the geographic descriptions of Joshua 15:8, 18:15–16.

2.

Both Pompey’s earlier camp and the siege wall of Titus are mentioned by Josephus. See Josephus, War 5.12 (504–507).

3.

The excavations were directed by the author under the auspices of the Institute of Archaeology of Tel Aviv University and the Israel Exploration Society. The work was carried out with financial support from the Yad Hanadiv Foundation, the B’nai Brith Organization and several other institutions. The 1994 season was financed by a generous donation of the late Leon D. Weindling through the Jerusalem Foundation. The 1996 season was conducted as a salvage dig under the auspices of the British School of Archaeology in Jerusalem. Many volunteers and students, groups and individuals, from Israel and abroad participated in the excavation. Of special importance was the contribution of the students of the American Institute of Holy Land Studies in Jerusalem (now the Jerusalem University College) and groups organized by the Biblical Archaeology Society.

4.

C.W.M. Van de Velde, Narrative of a Journey through Syria and Palestine in 1851 (London: Blackwood, 1854).

5.

This named church is the first on a list of 35 churches beginning in the western part of the city. Until our discovery of this hitherto unknown church at Ketef Hinnom, St. George’s Church was thought to be located far west of the city. That identification should now be reconsidered since the site of Ketef Hinnom is a much more suitable location for this church. Moreover the name of St. George, to whom the church was dedicated, is mentioned in one of the Greek inscriptions of the Byzantine period incised on the façades of burial caves in the nearby Hinnom Valley. The Byzantine Period church we uncovered should therefore be identified with the “Church of St. George outside the walls” mentioned by Thomas (“the undertaker”), who described the city’s building and victims following the Persian conquest of 614.

6.

Rina Avner, “The Kathisma Church,” New Encyclopedia of Archaeological Excavations in the Holy Land 5 (2008), pp. 1831–1833.

7.

Dan Barag, “Brick Stamp-Impressions of the Legio X Fretensis,” Bonner Jahrbücher 167 (1967), pp. 244–267.

8.

A. Grossberg, “Cooking Pots with Holes Found in Jerusalem and the Customs of Haverim and Amei ha-Aretz,” in E. Baruch and A. Faust, eds., New Studies on Jerusalem, vol. 8 (2002), pp. 59–71 (Hebrew) (English summary on p. 11).

9.

Large parts of the Herodian period quarry were unearthed in the excavations directed by Y. Zelinger and Rina Avner on behalf of the Israel Antiquities Authority in 1999–2003, prior to the construction of the building of the Menachem Begin Heritage Center at Ketef Hinnom. A report of this excavation is forthcoming in ‘Atiqot, the bulletin of the Israel Antiquities Authority.

10.

The angular cornice at the meeting point of the walls and the ceiling is mentioned by the name tephahot in 1 Kings 7:9. The term means “hand breadth,” which is 1/7 of a cubit (7.5 cm)—the exact height of the cornices discovered in the burial caves. In Jerusalem, there are about 35 burial chambers from the Iron Age which have the cornice preserved.

11.

I would like to express my thanks to Professor Patricia Smith of the Hebrew University’s Medical School for this information.

12.

Marina Rosovsky, David Bigelajzen and Dodo Shenhav, “Cleaning and Unrolling the Silver Plaques,” Tel Aviv 19 (1992), pp. 192–194.

13.

Gabriel Barkay, “The Priestly Benediction on the Ketef Hinnom Plaques,” Cathedra 52 (1989), pp. 37–76 (Hebrew).

14.

Gabriel Barkay, “The Priestly Benediction on Silver Plaques from Ketef Hinnom in Jerusalem,” Tel Aviv 19 (1992), pp. 139–192.

15.

Gabriel Barkay, Andrew G. Vaughn, Marilyn J. Lundberg and Bruce Zuckerman, “The Amulets from Ketef Hinnom: A New Edition and Evaluation,” Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research 334 (2004), pp. 41–71. See also Gabriel Barkay, Marilyn J. Lundberg, Andrew G. Vaughn, Bruce Zuckerman and Kenneth Zuckerman, “The Challenges of Ketef Hinnom: Using Advanced Technologies to Reclaim the Earliest Biblical Texts and Their Context,” Near Eastern Archaeology 66 (2003), pp. 162–171.