Orit Peleg E-mail: msporit@mscc.huji.ac.il Ph. D. 2008, The Hebrew University Advisors: Prof. Gideon Foerster, Dr. Rina Talgam

Abstract:

In 1968-1968 the late Prof. Benjamin Mazar directed archaeological excavations at the foot of the western and southern Temple Mount enclosure. Among the remains from many historical periods, the monumental buildings from the time of King Herod the Great (37-4 BCE) are especially impressive. In the southern part of the Temple Mount plaza, Herod built the Royal Stoa. A new entrance system was built and new streets were paved along the southern and western enclosure walls; beside them were shops, paved plazas, public ritual baths, etc.

The excavations revealed hundreds of fragments of architectural decoration that had originally decorated the structures in the area. The carving is of high quality and the motives are geometrical and floral and include no human figures, as was customary in Jewish art of this period. It is likely that some of these fragments came from the Royal Stoa and the southern entrances to the Temple Mount compound. These fragments include column bases, column drums, different types of capitals, architraves, friezes, cornices, soffits, door frames and decorated lintels.

The publication project of the Temple Mount excavations, directed by Dr. Eilat Mazar on behalf of the Institute of Archaeology, has undertaken to publish the final report of the excavations. My doctoral thesis on the architectural fragments from the excavations is part of that project.  This research aims to study these fragments and publish them scientifically. For the first time a reconstruction of the Royal Stoa based on physical remains will be presented. Examination of the fragments’ technical and stylistic feature in comparison with finds from other sites will create a better and more complete perception of the architectural decoration of the Herodian period. The research will also present a regional and chronological typology of stone carving in Judea from the Hasmonean period to the destruction of the Temple in 70 CE.

Projects:

• The Temple Mount publication project (directed by Dr. Eilat Mazar)
• Ramat Hanadiv excavations (directed by Prof. Y. Hirschfeld)
• Publication of the Nabatean sites of the Negev

Curriculum Vitae

List of Publications