Archaeology & The Ancient Near East

Extensive discussion of a 7th-century cylinder seal found in the Garden Tomb compound, part of Jerusalem's northern necropolis during the Iron Age, focusing on the archaeological context, the seal's iconography related to the Moon god of Harran, and its relevance for the history of religion in the southern Levant during the time of king Manasseh of Judah.

Several column bases, column drums, an almost complete Ionic capital and a dozen fragments of other
Ionic capitals of similar size and style were found during the late Prof. Nahman Avigad’s excavations
in the center of the Jewish Quarter (Avigad 1983: 161‒162, Figs. 178‒181). The fragments were
retrieved from Area Q, in the southeastern corner of the Hurva Square, and from Area H, situated a
short distance to the west of Area Q. They all belong to Ionic columns of approximately 1 m. in diameter.
Their similar monumental dimensions, common stylistic characteristics, and the fact that they
were found in relatively close proximity to one another, suggest that they all originated in one series
of columns of a monumental building that once stood on the Southwestern Hill of Jerusalem. Several
of the features of these architectural fragments, as well as their carving style, point to a date in the late
1st century BCE or the 1st century CE, and epigraphic evidence supports a similar date (see Chapter
Nine, this volume). The fragments, and especially the Ionic capitals, are of excellent workmanship
and they undoubtedly represent some of the finest examples of Herodian architecture in Jerusalem.
The architectural elements were all carved of semi-hard limestone (melekeh) quarried in the vicinity of Jerusalem.
Most of the known quarries of the late Second Temple period are located north of the city (Avnimelech
1966; Safrai and Sasson 2001; Zilberbod 2012). Apart from their similar scale and type of stone, all the fragments
have smooth, finely dressed surfaces, and the marks of the sharp, fine-toothed chisels are discernible
on the faces of the drums. Such marks are typical of the Herodian period (Reich and Shukron 2006: 62). They
normally comprise tiny dots in vertical columns or horizontal lines, although in some places they appear in
groups running in different directions.
The archaeological context of the fragments and a typological and stylistic analysis of the column
drums, column bases and Ionic capitals are presented below, followed by a general discussion of Ionic
columns in late Second-Temple period Jerusalem and the possible architectural context of the Ionic
columns discussed here.