VASE FOUND AT S.-E. ANGLE.
(By favour of the Palestine Exploration Fund.)
At the South-Eastern Angle.—At this corner the wall stands about 70 feet high above the ground. At a height of 22 feet we observe the great stone which is estimated to weigh more than one hundred tons; and the courses below that have the appearance of being ancient work. But we still have to go 78 or 80 feet beneath the surface to find the foundations of the wall. It appears that the lowest or foundation course is partially sunk in the rock at the angle. When the builders of the Temple came to work here, they found upon the rock an accumulation of 8 or 10 feet of fat mould, abounding in potsherds. This they cut through in order to lay their foundation stones on the solid rock. In the red earth were found fragments of pottery and fat-lamps, which probably are of the earliest type of lamp used in Jerusalem. Resting on the red earth was a layer of broken pottery, and in this was found a rusty nail, some charred wood, and several jar handles. Some of these last had well-defined figures impressed on them, resembling in some degree a bird, but believed to represent a winged sun or disc, possibly the emblem of the Sun god. On each handle, above and below the wings, are some Phœnician letters, corresponding in one case to LMLK ZPH, and in the other to LK SHT. At 3 feet east of the angle a hole was discovered scooped out of the rock, and in it was found a little earthen jar, standing upright as though it had been purposely placed there.
MASONS’ MARKS, S.-E. ANGLE.
(By favour of the Palestine Exploration Fund.)
More interesting still, Warren discovered on some of the lower stones near the south-east angle a number of marks in red paint, with two or three characters also inscribed with the chisel. The late Emanuel Deutsch declared them to be partly letters, partly numerals, and partly special masons’ marks, exactly corresponding to some which he found on the substructures of the harbour of Sidon, and the very oldest ruins in the city of Tyre. As we know from the Bible that Solomon employed Phœnician masons to build the Temple, this discovery was thought at first to prove the Solomonic age of this part of the wall. But further reflection warns us that it is not of itself sufficient; the old alphabet might be but little changed in the days when Herod rebuilt the Temple, and the forms of masons’ marks might be the same with Phœnicians and with Romans. As, however, they appear to be quarry signs, they seem to imply that the stones were shaped at the quarry, and not upon the ground, and thus support the Scripture statement that the Temple was erected without sound of axe or hammer. The same may be said of the marginal drafts or bevels, which on some stones are carried all round, on some round three sides, or only two, and exhibit no pattern or design when we look at the wall as a whole. The quarry whence the stones appear to have been brought is called the Cotton Cavern; its entrance is outside the walls, east of Damascus Gate, and it extends under the north-eastern part of the city for more than a quarter of a mile. The cavern was not unknown in the time of the Sultans, but it was afterwards lost sight of, until in the year 1852, a dog scratching away the earth and stones, again uncovered the mouth of it. In this quarry we go over ground covered with chips, we see some blocks of stone in the rough, and others cut, and some only partially severed from the rock. We see also the places where lamps rested to give light to the workers. But in the fat mould at the angle of the wall we do not find any stone chippings.
In the Kedron Valley there is an accumulation of nearly 100 feet of loose stone chippings and other debris, lying against the wall of the Sanctuary, covering all the western side of the valley, and resting at its eastern part upon the slope of Olivet. The true bed of the Kedron is 40 feet west of its present surface bed. On the west side of the true bed was found a masonry wall, 3 feet thick; and at intervals, as the rock rises other walls are encountered, built apparently for supporting terraces.
