IDENTIFYING ANCIENT RUINS IN JERUSALEM - MORE ART THAN SCIENCE

Givati Parking Lot excavations (Tepperman 2014)

A few days ago, I toured again at one of the most complex archaeological sites in Israel, and for the first time I was able to come away with an understanding of the discoveries there that I found very moving. The excavation site is commonly referred to as the Givati Parking Lot. Up to about 8 years ago this location was just that, a parking lot just outside the ancient City of David outside the modern wall of the Old City in Jerusalem. Without going here into too much detail, the archaeologists dug through several layers spanning Muslim history, the Byzantine and Roman period, and then in the last few years a level corresponding to the first century of the Common Era  - the last 70 years or so of the Second Temple between the reign of King Herod and the Destruction of Jerusalem in the year 70.  One of the structures that they uncovered is shown at the far end of the photo to the right and has been subject to a fair amount of controversy.

Unfortunately, this was as close as I was able to get at this point in time. As I snapped the picture, I was standing on the north side of the excavations facing south with the City of David Archaeological park on my left and the foot of a mountain rising up to my right leading up to the hill commonly called Mount Zion. The excavation of the parking lot itself is located in a deep valley referred to by Josephus as the Tyropoeon Valley. This is an extension of the valley that runs from the Damascus Gate down beside the Temple mount through what is now the Kotel Plaza and down to the Kidron Valley at the foot of the City of David. 

The location and the orientation of the excavation became very important in order to understand the proposed theory about the unusual structure at the far end of this photo. A close up of it appears below.This structure was the one dated to the first Century CE.

First Century CE structure - Givati Parking Lot (Tepperman 2014)

It features very thick substantial walls, a large ritual bath, and its foundations extend out to the edge of the excavation site on the right side (western side) of the photo. In effect the entrance to this substantial structure would have opened up onto a wide boulevard uncovered separately by another group of archaeologists. This very wide, stair-cased, street-scape led from the foot of the City of David up to the Temple mount depicted in the map below. These characteristics; large size, thick walls, and entrance on to the main boulevard prompted discussion.  Can we venture an educated guess as to the owners of this large mansion?

Josephus himself, our main historical source for the area, describes the population inhabiting this area as relatively poor.  However, all indications are that this large unique palatial structure would have stuck out as a sore thumb. Josephus does in other references identify in a fair amount of detail one building that might fit the facts on the ground. During the 40's and 50's of the first century a foreign queen by the name of Helena was known to have converted to Judaism. She reportedly built a substantial palace for her family around this time in the City of David area.

Her husband ruled the Kingdom of Adiabene, and on his death the crown was inherited by her son Izates. Their  capital city was located in the town of Arbil, in what is today Kurdish territory in northern Iraq, southeast of the city of Mosul. Both Josephus and several Talmudic sources describe her generous donations or ornaments to the temple; the Palace she built in Jerusalem to house her family during their visits, and the grain she generously purchased and supplied to feed the poor in Jerusalem during a period of famine. She was a favorite of the Rabbis of the time and well loved by the populace. Upon her death she was buried in a mausoleum north of the city of Jerusalem. Today this mausoleum is identified with the Tomb of the Kings and her sarcophagus is on display in the Louvre Museum in Paris.

Certainly, there was no inscription anywhere on this structure identifying this structure in the Givati excavations as the palace of Queen Helena. There is no historical description that places her palace in this specific location. However, the temptation to speculate about these remains is difficult to resist and many continue to suggest that these are the remains of the home of one of the most beloved characters of the last years of the Second Temple period, Queen Helena of Adiabene.