Biblical Archaeology Review

Remember that Josephus said that ashlars in the Third Wall were no less beautiful than the ashlars of the Temple itself.

The Roman procurators, or governors, of Judea struck coins clearly dated according to the regnal years of the Roman emperors whose names appear on them.

In 1966, during a commercial excavation for a new building, a line of ashlars from the north face was uncovered by a bulldozer. This line of ashlars was similar to the beautiful dressed stones Kathleen Kenyon had found a year earlier in the south face.

Some scholars have even suggested the outside possibility that the upper part was never built. This would solve a lot of problems.

An ashlar is a rectangular building stone with surfaces trimmed at right angles, permitting a tight fit against adjacent stones.

See Dan Bahat, “Does the Holy Sepulchre Church Mark the Burial of Jesus?” BAR 12:03; Gabriel Barkay, “The Garden Tomb—Was Jesus Buried Here?” BAR 12:02.

See “Jerusalem’s Water Supply During Siege,” BAR 07:04, by Yigal Shiloh; Hershel Shanks, The City of David (Biblical Archaeology Society, 1975).

Although this is the name by which scholars frequently refer to this wall, it is also known by a number of other names: the northern line, the northern trace and several names that beg the question (the Third Wall, the Circumvallation Wall, the Barrier Wall).

A. D. Tushingham, Excavations in Jerusalem, 1961–1967 (see review in Books in Brief, in this issue).