Torah In Middle Bronze Age Archaeology

Jewish Male Circumcision At 8 Days Old

Israelite rituals that preceded the Old Testament were transcribed into it and many have been retained through the ages including by today's contemporary Orthodox Jews. For example; post wedding celebrations are held by families and friends each day for seven days, the practice was first described by Jacob's father-in-law. Or male circumcision on the eighth day after birth was instituted by Abraham for his son Isaac. Or the passage of Levite priesthood that continues to be passed from father to son in todays Jewish communities. Each of these rituals began hundreds of years before Moses transcribed the Old Testament. Ongoing practice of Biblical traditions underlie the authenticity of orthodox Judaism. 

One such glaring example relates temple worship and was recently discovered in a stone temple carved in the bedrock of Mount Moriah's eastern slope - we will call this complex Temple Zero since it precedes Jerusalem's First and Second Temple. Carbon dated evidence from the bedrock surface proves that Temple Zero was not used for worship after1535 BCE, at the time Jacobs Family emigrated from the region. The small number of artifacts discovered in Temple Zero and their periods obfuscated clues as too how the site was originally used, but its original Middle Bronze Age, bedrock bound, features strongly relate to Biblical writings, Jewish laws, customs and traditions.

View the videos captured on the recent tour of Temple Zero

The most essential and uniquely Jewish feature, is Temple Zero's western orientation, precisely defined by the altar platform (Room 1 above) and matzevah (room 4). No other Middle Bronze Age cultic structure with a western orientation exists in Israel. All other cults, of this time, faced east to pay homage to the sun. Monotheism, attributed to Abraham and the high priest of Salem, Malchi-Tzedek to whom Abraham tithed, turned against the sun.

More than six hundred years later this orientation found its way into the western facing structure and priestly practices in the Holy of Holies of the Tabernacle that Moses built, then into Jerusalem's permanent Temples. Finally synagogues of the world expressed this by facing prayer structures toward the Temple Mount in Jerusalem and priestly services turned their backs to the entrance. The cultic origins of Christianity enshrined the orientation of its priests and altars toward the rising sun in the east and in modern churches priests face toward the entrance. 

Until the temple in Jerusalem is rebuilt, the daily Orthodox ritual is to verbalize the prescribed sacrificial offerings of Jerusalem's temples. However, well before contemporary prayer was instituted, the Book of Leviticus, as evidenced by the 2000 year old burnt Leviticus scroll described sacrificial rites in detail, yet Temple Zero already facilitated many of these. Mostly these sacrificial rites are expounded in Jewish law requiring animals, wine, flour, oil and water. These laws describe that purity was retained only in stone or bedrock vessels. The construct and features of Temple Zero facilitated these rituals hundreds of years before the Leviticus text was transcribed by Moses.

The main elements of Jewish sacrifice includes oil, flour, wine and young domesticated sheep. Only unblemished animals could be sacrificed for the holy altar, this always biased selection to younger animals. Carved low in the bedrock of the room 5 (see below) that was once used to process slaughtered animals for the offering altar, we found a place to tether animals. The tether was low (~30cm) to the ground which supports its primary use for younger, smaller animals. 

Animal tether. Simulated use seen in image below

Olives would have been pressed to protect purity by flowing oil into a bedrock or a stone vessel that was not connected to a pipe or channel, typically used for vollumous production. These features are evident in the oil press (room 2) carved into the bedrock of the mountain. Once pressed oil would have been cupped out of the bedrock vessel into a stone vessel and immediately poured over refined or parched flour and offered with a sacrifice.

Pouring liquids onto corners of the altar included wine, water or blood that once flowed into a liquids channel to a pit or onto dust that was cleared daily and deposited outside the area of the temple. During slaughter blood from the animals neck was captured in a convex based stone vessel. At the base of the altar, a convex vessel would rest in its concave counterpart carved in the bedrock (see Room 1 below) in preparation for sprinkling blood of the sacrificed animal on the altar.  

The South-East (SE) corner of the foundation of the First and Second Temple altar drew on a tradition (Zevachim 53b) sourced in the biblical verse that it was in the tribal territory of Judah, the other corners were in Benjamin: “Benjamin is a wolf that tears apart; in the morning he devours the prey, and in the evening he divides the spoil” (Genesis 49:27). Now, based on Ronny Reich's declaration that the Gihon Spring was known as Ein Shemesh, the tradition conclusively followed the altar at Temple Zero. 

These rich features on the bedrock of Temple Zero support the Jewish origins of our pre-Biblical Israelite (Jacob) heritage and are uncannily aligned with the declaration in Deuteronomy 33:4 that:  

תּוֹרָ֥ה צִוָּה־לָ֖נוּ מֹשֶׁ֑ה מוֹרָשָׁ֖ה קְהִלַּ֥ת יַעֲקֹֽב׃ 

The Torah Moses charged us with is the heritage of the congregation of Jacob.

 

This Discovery Will Eventually Change The World!

Organic fragments 

in open water pipe

Enlarged view of open pipe

On the eastern slopes of Mount Moriah, in the City of David, a significant Middle Bronze Age water system, remnants of a reservoir and a water channel were discovered. Organic samples were carbon dated by Cambridge University and Weizmann Institute to the water channel's last use in 1535 BCE. The water system supplied two of four rooms, hollowed from the bedrock, of the ancient rock-cut-temple located 35m above the Gihon Spring. The water once flowed to the rooms, more than 3500 years ago, as is now evident in landscapes mapped by the Israel Antiquities Authority.

The organic samples were extracted nearest the remnant plaster that formed an open drain, running from the elevated reservoir, above and along the bedrock down the slope into the rooms. The date of the samples closest to the underside of the drain and those immediately above it exclusively overlaps the orthodox biblical chronology of Jacob's last 30 years in the homeland of his ancestors. After that he and his family immigrated to Egypt. This means the water system was constructed and only ever used during this time. Once Jacob left for Egypt, unattended, the water system and the entire rock-cut-temple went out of use and was consumed by falling sand and natural debris on the steep slope.

The water system was built to flush water onto the floor to clean blood and excrement from a room that was used to slaughter and process animals and another used to offer animal sacrifices on stones forming an altar. Between these rooms, a room with a standing stone or matzevah that, relative to the dating of the water channel, is undoubtedly the one Jacob erected as his Covenant at Beth El on Mount Moriah, after which he assumed his name Israel (Genesis 35:7-15). 

Count the fused stones on the front?

Compare the view from the back!

Senior archaeologist Ronny Reich opened his recent book "Excavations in the City of David" with a chapter, "A moment in which to be born", by explaining that the spring, east of the city, bellow the rock-cut-temple was never called Gihon, instead the Bible called it En Shemesh (Sun Spring). The spring is a perennial, intermittent gusher, resembling a pump, sometimes gushing, other times flowing, descriptively a gihon (meaning; bursting forth or gushing in Hebrew). To this day the morning sun shines brightly on the spring's entrance. 

Ronny used En Shemesh to reconcile a difficult passage from the Book of Joshua that defined Israel's tribal boundaries. We found that it perfectly describes the prerequisite intersection of the altars raised bedrock foundation, on the northern boundary of tribe Judah with the southern boundary of tribe Benjamin. 

Note the South East corner of the altar foundation

This is important and controversial because the first and second temple altars were built further up on the summit of the mountain, in the area of the temple mount, but that location does not comply with Ronny’s En Shemesh boundary. Surprisingly the rock-cut-temple and the location of its altar foundation at the  intersection between En Rogel and En Shemesh, on the eastern slope of Mount Moriah, is compliant with Ronny Reich’s boundary. Further, the altar foundations westernmost construction also  complies with Maimonides Guide for the Perplexed (Part 3 45:1):- Undoubtedly all people turned then to the East [worshipping the Sun]. Abraham turned therefore on Mount Moriah to the West, that is, the site of the Sanctuary, and turned his back toward the sun.

The altar foundation is and by Jewish law must be of bedrock. Back then loose boulders would have been assembled on it, each time it was used, to form the actual altar the Bible is likely talking about in Genesis 35:7:- There Jacob built an altar and named the site El-bethel, there God had first revealed Himself to him when he was fleeing from his brother, 22 years earlier, when he experienced his stairway to heaven dream and first erected a Matzevah. 

How is it then possible that the altar location of the first temple of Solomon and second temple could differ with the water system of an altar, dated 700 years earlier to Jacob, biblical forefathers Isaac and Abraham or even the high priest of Salem - Malchi-Tzedek?

The altar of the first temple, at the summit was not selected by Solomon, but by his father David. 1 Chronicles 21:17 (also 2 Samuel 24) tells us: David said to God, “Was it not I alone who ordered the numbering of people? I alone am guilty and have caused severe harm, but these sheep, what have they done? O Lord my God, let your hand fall upon me and my father’s house, and let not your people be plagued. Then the prophet Gad told David to go up to the summit of Mount Moriah and set up an altar and sacrifice on it. David acquired the summit from the Jebusite King who prior to David controlled the lower southern section of Mount Moriah. The summit of Mount Moriah became the temple mount as we know it today. David’s altar location was selected to rectify his personal sin.

The discovery of this altar, further down Mount Moriah, above En Shemesh or the Gihon Spring, as it is known today, must be the location associated with Jacob, his father Isaac and grandfather Abraham. These dueling locations present very complex questions that have now emerged before us.

The temple location is the forefront of Israel’s wars. Homes of violent Islamic Jihadists contain images of the Golden dome and Al Aqsa mosque on the Temple Mount. Every Jew believes, by tradition, that the Temple Mount once contained the site where Jacob’s father was bound and offered as a sacrifice by his grandfather. With this discovery perhaps Israel will shift from its Temple Mount tradition toward Mount Moriah's rock-cut-temple, defined by its compliant location, altar's raised foundation, matzevah, that is undoubtedly Jacob’s and its western orientation in order to build its final Temple on Mount Moriah.

Timeline of Jacob at Jerusalem's Stone Temple

Biblical events and archaeology, on the eastern slope of Mount Moriah are complex.  Here, I constructed this dual timeline, from creation with Gregorian dating.

According to Biblical chronology Jacob's first encounter on Mount Moriah took place in 1573 BCE. Twenty two years later, in 1553 BCE, he returned with his family to Mount Moriah. Later Jacob immigrated to Egypt, where his descendants remained for 250 years before they returned to their ancestral land.

The overlapping 100 year use of the water channel (1535 BCE) with time of Jacob makes this discovery remarkable particularly because of its exciting context with the rock-cut-temple and matzevah, stone pillar found within the stone temple location. According to the Bible Jacob erected a matzevah at this location (Genesis 35:14).

Part One
Biblical Dating

Part Two
Archaeology

The video weaves the time bound elements of this remarkable discovery at the City of David, Jerusalem.

Yes, Gaza Is Aza - End The 4000 Year Curse.

All Jews must prepare for a Holy war that lasts beyond evil Jihad. After Israel bombs more buildings, completes its ground invasion, kills lots of terrorists, rescues as many hostages as it can, buries and grieves its dead, we must ensure it corrects the 4000 year old curse of Aza by immediately securing land and possessing it in Gaza.

This curse relates to Abraham and Isaacs pact with the King of Philistines who attacked their wells, then demanded concessions for peace. Sound familiar? They granted him and his future generations the right to live on the land of Aza.

[Think tribal]: On Israel's return to its land, the tribe of Dan were allotted land that included Aza. The other 11 tribes of Israel, had already settled their land but, they failed to assist Dan conquer its allotment. Disenfranchised and demotivated, Dan's tribal leaders wandered aimlessly often promoting idolatry to other tribes. Then, Samson became a leader of Dan and the nations highest judge. Single handedly he attempted to draw attention to the problem. He went to Aza, ripped the iron gates off the city walls and carried them to the graves of Israel's Patriarchs and Matriarchs in Hebron. Sadly no tribe stepped up to help the tribe of Dan. 

Samson belittled the powerful Philistines until he destroyed their temple of idolatry perishing with their leaders and thousands of congregants. Later, the Philistines raided all of Israel's tribes and stole the nations most holy possession, the Ark of Covenant, from their temple, in Shilo. The peace-pact was shattered a thousand years after Abraham and Isaac. But, Dan and Israel were dispossessed of their land and never returned to Aza. 

Yes, Aza is Gaza. Resurrecting that pact, the Romans named all of Israel Syria Palestina, and the British adopted the Roman resurrection calling it Palestine. On Simchat Torah 5784, of the Hebrew Year, Israel paid a very heavy price. Now, it must break the enemy curse and finally possess Aza. 

ISRAEL MUST NEVER LEAVE GAZA! 

There, Israel must immediately build a Hesder Yeshiva and protect it with everything it’s got. Then, build another and another and another…until holy places of Jewish Torah learning and their communities are secured in all of Gaza. This is how Aza's neighborhoods can begin to be normalized. The plan has been implemented and is working for resilient Jewish communities in The City of David, Silwan, Nazareth elit, Bat Yam, Lud, Jabel MuKabar, Hebron and many other places in Israel. 

Holy Torah is the only weapon Israel has to dispel and resist any misconstrued, Jihad! Israel must not fall into the trap of building fences around empty tracts of land on which Palestinians can be recruited by the next Jihadist terror regime. That would be an invitation for the next disastrous tragedy in years or decades to come. Never again!

Water, Water Everywhere, Will Archaeologists Drink?

On the eastern slopes of the City of David, a Middle Bronze Age water system, remnants of a reservoir and a water channel was carbon dated to 1515 BCE. There is no other later evidence of water supply to rooms of the rock-cut-temple. No alternative water system exists, yet despite the absence of later evidence some archaeologists, still insist that the rock-cut-temple, in its present form, should instead be dated to the Iron Age. Academic isolation and over simplification of context, distorts understanding at this complex, ancient location. However, the video below offers the most comprehensive explanation. Before viewing, it's important to illustrate the passage of water as it once flowed to the rooms, more than 3500 years ago (follow the Area U/C map below). 

Room 2 (with tethered animal for slaughter) 

Room 1 (with impression of sacrificial altar on platform)

Water passage. Room 2 (center-foreground)
 Room 1 (upper right-background)

 

Area U water system leading to Area C rooms (1 and 2)

The video explains that the rock-cut-temple was active up until 1500 BCE (Middle Bronze), then buried, out of site until 700 BCE (Iron), exposed at that time, reburied during wall construction and finally excavated 13 years ago.

Eureka! Have We Have Found “The Altar” of Akeida?

The verse in Vaeyra, Genesis 22:9 states "אֶת־הַמִּזְבֵּ֔חַ", (et-ha-mizbei-ach) "the altar", using the absolute noun.

וַיָּבֹ֗אוּ אֶֽל־הַמָּקוֹם֮ אֲשֶׁ֣ר אָֽמַר־ל֣וֹ הָאֱלֹהִים֒ וַיִּ֨בֶן שָׁ֤ם אַבְרָהָם֙ אֶת־הַמִּזְבֵּ֔חַ וַֽיַּעֲרֹ֖ךְ אֶת־הָעֵצִ֑ים וַֽיַּעֲקֹד֙ אֶת־יִצְחָ֣ק בְּנ֔וֹ וַיָּ֤שֶׂם אֹתוֹ֙ עַל־הַמִּזְבֵּ֔חַ מִמַּ֖עַל לָעֵצִֽים׃ 

They arrived at the place of which God had told him. Abraham built the altar there; he laid out the wood; he bound his son Isaac; he laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. 

The 13th century commentator Chizkuni states:  'את המזבח', 'the altar'. The Torah did not write: 'altar' without the prefix letter ה which meant that it was the altar that had previously served such a purpose. According to our tradition, Adam, Abel, Noah and his son, had all offered offerings to G-d on that same altar. 

Why would Abraham have to build an altar if this verse refers to the altar by absolute noun? Every altar is designated by its bedrock foundation, a bedrock plinth, which later became a requirement under Jewish law. The plinth connected every boulder and stone assembled on it, by the builder, to the bedrock foundation together constituting "the altar" on which a sacrifice would be offered. So, where is this altar?

Ronny Reich opened his recent work "Excavations in the City of David" with a chapter, "A moment in which to be born", by explaining that the spring, east of the City, was never called Gihon, instead the Bible called it En Shemesh (Sun Spring). I completely agree, but the spring was also known as a gihon. The spring is a perennial, intermittent gusher, resembling a pump, sometimes gushing, other times flowing, appropriately and descriptively a gihon (meaning; bursting forth or gushing in Hebrew).

Ronny related En Shemesh to sun worshippers of Jeremiah 8:2 and "horses...of the sun abolished by Josiah" (2 Kings 23:11) and that "perhaps at that time the name En Shemesh (Sun Spring) was abolished" along with idolatory.  Well Ronny, that is entirely possible, but equally unnecessary because the morning sun still shines on that spring, to this very day and the name En Shemesh does not necessarily denote its association with idolatry.  

Having said all this, Ronny used En Shemesh to reconcile a difficult Biblical passage describing the intersect, critical to the altar, on the northern boundary of tribe Judah with the southern boundary of Benjamin. Why is this important? Because the first and second temples did not comply with this map, but a recently discovered rock-cut-temple and its altar foundation or plinth, on the eastern slope of Mount Moriah, at the compliant location does. Could this be Akeida?

Map from Excavations in the City of David by Ronnie Reich and Eli Shukron

The Gemara (Zevachim 53b) asks: What is the reason that there was no base on the southeast corner of the altar? Rabbi Elazar says: Because it was not in the portion of land of the one who tears, i.e., the tribe of Benjamin, as he is described in the following manner: “Benjamin is a wolf that tears apart; in the morning he devours the prey, and in the evening he divides the spoil” (Genesis 49:27). As Rav Shmuel, son of Rav Yitzḥak, says: The altar would consume, i.e., occupy, one cubit of the portion of Judah. The part of the altar in Judah’s portion was the southeast corner of the base, and therefore there was no base on that corner. 

SE corner of the altar base or plinth.
Dotted line marks the boundary of Judah and Benjamin

In addition, there are numerous important Kabalistic or mystical concepts and references to the southeast. But, here Ronny Reich conclusively resolved that the only portion of Judah's land that can possibly intersect the southeast corner of the altar plinth was recently found at the rock-cut-temple, in the City of David and that was used at the time of the patriarchs. Further, the only water system at this site, an essential requirement for frequent temple sacrifices, was last used in 1535 BCE, which overlaps with the last 30 years of Jacob's life in the region. 

The 12th Century commentator Rashi, rendered the the altar base:

North is on the right of this image and the image above

Shockingly, the southeast and all corners of the altar of the first and second temple, that were built further north, on the summit of Mount Moriah, The Temple Mount, fell entirely within Benjamins territory. No portion of those altars fell in Judah's territory as depicted by the outline of todays, so called, 'Old City' in Ronny Reich's map above and as stated in the Gemara. 

The fundamental and indigenous, tribal right to a permanent temple, on their land, belonged to Benjamin. Why? Because, Benjamin did not participate in the sale of Joseph. But, it was not clear to tribe Benjamin which end of its land the temple would be built and that opened grounds for the fiercest tribal competition. Ephraim (Joseph's son) demanded it be on its southern border with northernmost Benjamin, Judah demanded it be on its northern border adjacent to Benjamin's southernmost border. 

Following  the 300 years of settlement, and a plague that ravaged the nation, King David opposed the ancestral claims of Ephraim and on Prophet Gad's advice he built 'an altar', on the summit of Mount Moriah at a location inside Benjamins land, close to the border with Judah. The language difference for 'altar' used in Tanach is startling - מִזְבֵּ֔חַ (miz-bei-ach) without the ה (ha) prefix; not 'the altar', but he built 'an altar':

2 Samuel 24:18

וַיָּבֹא־גָ֥ד אֶל־דָּוִ֖ד בַּיּ֣וֹם הַה֑וּא וַיֹּ֣אמֶר ל֗וֹ עֲלֵה֙ הָקֵ֤ם לַֽיהֹוָה֙ מִזְבֵּ֔חַ בְּגֹ֖רֶן (ארניה) [אֲרַ֥וְנָה] הַיְבֻסִֽי׃ 

Gad came to David the same day and said to him, “Go and set up an altar to the LORD on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.” 

David's altar was not described using the absolute noun because it was built where no altar had previously existed yet, after the national pandemonium, all the other tribes agreed with David and contributed to acquisition of the land. David's son Solomon built the First Temple on the summit of Mount Moriah, Jerusalem. In the late second temple period Herod ordered that the summit be walled in by the Temple Mount.

Searching for the place of the original Akeida altar was forgotten, lost for more than 3500 years. Now that we have found it, we are compelled to build the altar, for the Third Temple, at the location of this bedrock plinth on the boundary between Judah and Benjamin that intersects its South East corner.

 

Jerusalem and Jacob - Calling Archaeology Detectives

Fifty years and tens of millions of dollars have failed to explain 700 years of missing evidence from ancient Jerusalem's eastern slope, at the City of David. The gap perpetuates confusion among archaeologists, who otherwise would prefer to date the significant rock-cut-temple to the Iron Age. You see, between the Middle Bronze (3500 years ago) and Iron Age (2800 years ago) no direct evidence, in the rock-cut-temple, has been discovered and that presents a problem. 

Rock-cut-temple on eastern slope after ground cover was finally cleared in 2023.
The adjacent house, which was built 20 years ago, on compressed ground cover, is now suspended on steel plates with pilons to bedrock

Around the rock-cut-temple, there is undisputed, carbon dated evidence of occupation and Middle Bronze Age use up until 3500 years ago, then +700 years of nothing, and plenty Iron Age evidence after that. The dearth of Iron Age evidence, starting around 2800 years ago, dominates academic papers and influences narratives about the significant rock-cut-temple, yet this evidence gap, that screams the loudest, is ignored by archaeologists. In this case the absence of evidence proves the evidence!

If not for two samples (#9964/5) of organic matter, trapped below and above plaster layers of a man made channel that once fed water into at least the southern-most rock-cut-room, archaeologists would have a more simplified proof of Iron Age origins.

Sample #9964 lay undisturbed, protected by natural ground cover, above the plaster channel for 3500 years. Sample #9965 was protected by the plaster layers of the channel above it. 

At blue line B (map below) the U (Sample #9964) and X (Sample #9965)

"B" marks the excavation site of organic samples, from above and below the plastered water channel.
Other samples #9181/9962 (top) and building 1948 (right) dated between 1820-1510 BCE. 

Water channel flowed from a reservoir to the bedrock floor.
No evidence of an Iron Age water channel and reservoir has been located 

The barrage of published Iron Age evidence and the inferred dating of the rock-cut-temple is refuted by carbon dated samples at several locations. However, most powerful are #9964 and #9965 two 3500 year old, Middle Bronze Age, organic samples that date the water channel construction and last use. Similar plaster layers, on the bedrock, in the western, rear end of a storage room, present insufficient proof of Iron Age shaping of bed rock. Such plaster remnants, dated to the Iron Age, may have been laid by Iron Age occupiers of the homes constructed above the bedrock.

A solution is not easily forthcoming because absence of evidence is an insufficient academic standard of proof. The water channel remains the strongest proof of use and there is no other evidence of water service to the temple. Unfortunately, +700 years after the water channel was last used, in preparation for construction of the City's eastern defensive wall, the rock-cut-temple was cleared to the bedrock to accommodate the 4 meter wide wall. Immediately west, the water channel was recently traced, running, from the remains of a reservoir (at blue B), underneath Iron Age homes to the southernmost rock-cut-room. However, archaeologists won't confirm that the channels Middle Bronze Age construction is directly linked to construction of the rock-cut-temple. Instead, they promote an alternative, unproven, theory that the water channel was cut (at blue B) by constructors and at the southern rock-cut-room during its Iron Age construction. This hypothesis only exacerbates the absence of an Iron Age water system.

Clearance of the area by Iron Age wall constructors, remains the best explanation for the absence of direct evidence, but what, if any direct evidence, was cleared from the bedrock at that time remains a mystery and whether the rock-cut-temple had been buried under ground cover, for +700 years, before the wall constructors cleared it, remains inconclusive. 

Any suggestion that #9964, and other samples #9181 and #9962 survived, in situ, above ground, for +700 years, while Iron Age Area U and rock-cut-temple was apparently constructed, exposed or in active use is preposterous. More likely the last use of the rock-cut-rooms is also tied to the date of sample #9964 and construction of the rock-cut-rooms dated to sample #9965 sometime between 1615 BCE and 1880 BCE or prior.

Accumulated ground cover concealing the rock-cut-temple site as it was in 2012.
Adjacent house built on compressed ground cover.

Promotion of an academic theory for Iron Age construction of the rock-cut-temple is further refuted by surviving evidence immediately north (#9181 and #9962), of sample #9964 (from the water channel) and east, from below building 1948, dated to 1820 BCE and in mortar 1.2m above bedrock dated to 1605 BCE. These additional samples strongly increase the probability of a Middle Bronze Age origin and suggest that a significant Iron Age construction of the rock-cut-temple would have disrupted at least #9181 and #9962 laying bare on the surface of these excavated areas. 

Academia faces significant challenges in admitting a Middle Bronze Age origin because of Iron Age bias in tangential data and the Biblical alignment to the archaeological last use, defined by at least sample #9964. The period of carbon dating overlaps patriarch Jacob who, Jewish commentators attest stayed briefly on Mount Moriah. According to Biblical chronology Jacob's first encounter on Mount Moriah took place in 1573 BCE. Then, he and his family arrived on Mount Moriah in 1553 BCE and left the region in 1523 BCE. Jacob immigrated to Egypt, where his descendants remained for 250 years before they returned to their ancestral land. The overlapping 100 year use of the water channel (1535 BCE) with time of Jacob makes this discovery remarkable particularly because of its potentially exciting context to the  rock-cut-temple and matzevah found within the temple location. According to the Bible Jacob erected a matzevah at this location (Genesis 35:14).

The matzevah, "standing stone" or anointing pillar at the rock-cut-temple.

The video above tells the comprehensive story.

Jerusalem's Temple Zero Opposes The Sun!

A brief about key Biblical events and their consistent interpretations, in Judaism, will help you to better consider the remarkable archaeological discoveries on the eastern slope of Mount Moriah, Ancient Jerusalem in the City of David. If the developing story continues it will be impossible to contain the importance of the location to the realm of special interests and tourism. 

Jerusalem's perennial water source, the Gihon Spring played a central role in ancient Jewish teachings about that unique location. After the events that diminished Adam and Eve's heightened spiritual state, it is taught Adam purified himself in the waters of the Gihon Spring for 130 years before they reunited and populated the pre-flood world. The olive branch of Noah's dove is said to come from the same mountainous area where Noah planted a vineyard. The Bible informs us that Abraham arrived to the "ancient hill" where he pitched his tent east of Beit El, west of Ai and built an altar, to which he returned. He tithed his wealth to MalchiTzedek, the high priest of Salem. It's taught that Abraham contributed "yira", meaning awe of that place, to constitute the name Yira-Salem, Jerusalem.

Unanimously teachers identify ancient Jerusalem's Mount Moriah as the place Abraham offered his son Isaac, as a sacrifice. That's where where Abraham turned to the West, that is, the site of the Sanctuary, and turned his back toward the sun contrary to common practice. The Bible writes that Isaac's son Jacob "stumbled upon that place", he had realized it's inherent sanctity. There he erected a 'standing stone' on which he made a covenant to build 'Beit El" The House of God, the name he gave to that place. According to Biblical scholars, Jacob made his covenant in 1576 BCE.

Around 3250 years ago, 1250 BCE, Joshua restored the fledgling Jewish nation to its inherited land. 

300 years later, the Bible relates that King David reigned in Hebron for 7 years. Then, his army took control over the strategic water passage, underground in Mount Moriah. Water carriers used it daily as their route from the Gihon Spring into the upper city where the main population lived. With control over water David became King of this mountain. He established his palace and united his tribal Kingdom before his son King Solomon realized King David's dream to build Israel's first permanent temple.

Paleolithic through the Early Iron Age 

Development of Mount Moriah and greater Jerusalem

Paleolithic and chalcolithic discoveries at Mount Moriah are few and concentrated around the Gihon Spring at the areas it emptied into the eastern valley. Toward the end of the Middle Bronze Age the scant populations in the eastern valley moved up the hill and the city began periods of expanded development. Abraham, Isaac and Jacob coincided with abundant Middle Bronze archaeology and Joshua with Late Bronze Age archaeology. King David coincided with the onset of the Iron Age (image of city top right).   

Iron Age terraces on
the steep easter slope

Cut through the mountain at the Gihon Spring
 and Iron Age, Israelite City Walls

In 2010 a major discovery was found under 20,000 cubic meters of rubble, half-way up the eastern slope. Buried under the Israelite City Wall lead archaeologist Eli Shukron discovered the remnants of a rock-cut temple, it surprised everyone. After several years of excavation insufficient evidence failed to establish the last used date of the temple. But, in 2018 a study by Weizmann Institute and Cambridge University conclusively resolved the 'last use' issue, by dating organic matter found under and on top of the man-made plaster layer lining a water channel that fed into one or more of the rooms.

 

North end

South end

The Temple Zero excavation (map below) illustrates the significant undertaking that produced the necessary elements for dating. The thick red wall on the northern end, W20005 is the remnant of the Israelite City Wall first built around the time of King Uzziah and Hezekiah, 2600-2700 years ago, 600-700 BCE. Originally the wall continued south, over the bedrock of the Temple Zero complex and joined remnant W20001 on the southern end.

The seeds and organic material from the water channel were located immediately adjacent to wall W17081, and Structure 17044. They were carbon dated to 1500-1600 BCE, 3500-3600 years ago indicating that the channel was last used at that time because the sample above the plaster was undisturbed until sometime in the Iron Age boulders (the red structures) secured it until its recent discovery. The carbon dated material clearly established 1500-1600 BCE as the water channels last date of use, which coincides with Biblical Jacob, the finding was contextual to other dated material, a  stunning result! 

Of thousands of artifacts discovered in the City of David only the standing stone or matzevah of Temple Zero remained complete and in situ, despite the massive Iron Age defensive wall that was built right over it the constructors preserved it in soft soil. It is the significant artifact in the temple that includes an oil press, grain press, altar for sacrifices, holding pen, animal processing, storage, water channel and all the features required of the Jewish temples that were built by and after King Solomon. 

Matzevah on Western Wall

Whether this is the standing stone Jacob, used to enter his covenant, is difficult to assess but, similar to the first and second temples, Temple Zero is oriented to oppose sun worship, which was the common practice of Bronze Age nations.

Altar platform on Western Wall

Priests performing morning services on the altar would have to have turned their backs to the sun, which would be an insult to sun-worshipers. Therefore, its unlikely the installation of this unique matzevah would have been inconsistent with the orientation of the altar and other features. 

Low tethers for young animals, below knee height.

Rituals adopted into Jewish culture emanated 1000 years before the formal establishment of the Torah Nation at Mount Sinai around 3300 years ago. The following 300+ years, before King David, the nation became more familiar with their Biblically prescribed laws, one of which prohibits the erection of a standing stone or matzevah, because of its post-Biblical association with idolatry. For Temple Zero to be Biblically compliant with Jewish law, its erection would have to precede Biblical law, when use of a matzevah was still permitted.

Another law requires that animals, offered as a sacrifice, must be older than 8 days old and unblemished. Typically this meant animals in their first year because they still retained perfect physical features. Tethers secured small animals, tied low on the bedrock walls (images above) and aided their inspection by priests prior to them being sacrificed and offered on the altar. 

The principal features of Temple Zero parallels Biblical law and Jewish ritual emphasized by dating the last use of the water channel to Jacob. The case for Temple Zero's existence and use prior to Jacob and the final form of its features, as recently discovered, invite complex questions related to Biblical events at this ancient location and whether the Jewish people and the modern nation of Israel are obligated by its emergence.  

 

Why Hide Israel's Exodus Evidence?

The Amarna diplomatic letters exposed vassal relationships between field commanders who acted as local kings and Pharaoh their Egyptian ruler. Commanders of field garrisons defended Egyptian territories and at times expressed conflicting interests that triggered a spate of letter writing. Victories, defeats or political turmoil weighed heavily on the writings.

The tablets appear to have been buried with Akhenaten at El Amarna, but they are not the originals, mostly made of clay from areas east of the Jordan River, they are deemed authentic, diplomatic copies. One such letter #254 titled "Neither Rebel nor Delinquent" by Labaya, commander of the Samaria region from Sakmu the biblical city of Shechem, exposed serious allegations against him for having surrendered land to the Habiru (see Deuteronomy 11:30 and Genesis 12:6). This and the related letters further south at Uru-Salem, biblical Jerusalem discuss battles waged by the Habiru. 

Military correspondence from Canaan, in Egypt it was known as Retenju 

Dating and sources of the Amarna letters are thought to span Egyptian Pharaoh's Amenhotep III, Akhenaten, through possibly Smenkhkare or Tutankhamun around 150 years. These Pharaoh's may have overlapped the Israelite presence, enslavement in or exile from Egypt, early Canaanite wars and land resettlement. However, published chronologies have left much open to speculation, here we propose a resolution: The Labaya tablet #254 and others reference Pharaoh in his 32nd year of reign leaving only Amenhotep III who held power for 36-38 years during the Amarna period. According to the classic chronology Amenhotep III died in 1351 BCE.

The Bible describes Israel's 40 year sojourn after leaving Egypt, before it entered the land of Canaan where Joshua, the Israelite leader is said to have ruled 32 years after that. If there is a Biblical relationship to the Habiru, even if only some Habiru were Hebrew Israelite's raiding Canaan then letter #254 must have been written during the overlap of Amenhotep III and Joshua's 32 year reign, which according to the Biblical record ended in 1245 BCE. To align Amenhotep III and Joshua, the 100 year gap between the Bible and the Amarna records needs to be closed.

The eldest son of Amenhotep III, Prince Thutmose, died in the third decade of his fathers reign. Stepping in, his younger brother Amenhotep IV (also known as Akhenaten) became the "strange" Pharaoh as depicted in uncharacteristically abstract art from his reign. From evidence at Amarna we know the mummified elite of Egypt had a poor state of health despite opposite representations reflected in artwork of the time. Amarna depicts how distance enabled diplomatic façade, appearance of control and power, yet reality was always different. For Akhenaten losing control of Retjenu (Canaan) may have been his diplomatic inheritance and retrospective downfall in Egyptian art.

From the evidence, toward the end of the 13th century BCE, Papyrus Anastasi III, Merneptah Stele (1203 BCE), Egyptian late bronze age temple at Jerusalem's École biblique and tombs north and north-west of Jerusalem's Mount Moriah we learn about a prolonged Egyptian commitment and interest in Canaan during the approximately 250 years of military activity from Amenhotep III to Merneptah. In addition to its strategic and regional benefits, a long term commitment to hold Canaan may have been etched in the psyche of Egyptian leaders by Egypt's founder and first Pharaoh Khem (the ancient name given to Egypt km.t). According to the Biblical record Khem (Biblical Ham) may have incestuously fathered Canaan which explains why Canaan had no place in Egypt. The place name Canaan is common throughout Egyptian and Biblical records.

This 250 year, most tumultuous military period directly overlaps Israelite tribes who were displacing local Canaanite leaders and populations, long connected with Egypt, as they settled their indigenous land and entitlements east and west of the Jordan River. This re-settlement spanned a period of 300 years from Joshua until King David culminating the Israelite inheritance consistent with biblical teachings and tribal agreements.

In one letter, Adoni-Tzedek pleaded to convince Akhenaten to take the faster coastal route to rescue his dire situation in Jerusalem. And a letter, early in the reign of Akhenaten showed that the coast road was still open (pg278) which King Dusratta (Mitanni Empire) had written to his son-in-law Akhenaten twenty years later, but no help appears to have been sent. If this letter #254 describes the Biblical events that took place in 1273 BCE, at the beginning of Joshua's reign, which included a raid on Jerusalem, the Egyptian chronology, immediately prior to the Amarna period, would have to be revised forward by around ~100 years. This would be difficult for classical Egyptologists to digest. Joshua must then have overlapped Amenhotep III and Akhenaten, which if we wind back 40 years, would make Thutmose IV the prime candidate at the time of the Israelite Exodus led by Moses. 

Even though the lower Galilee was, for some few years subdued, under Philistia and Syria it was reconquered by Rameses II, whose battle relief also mentions "Shalem" (Jerusalem). However, historians have revealed that neither Rameses II or his garrisons ever entered the Judæan mountains because they were impassable for chariots, Egypt's supreme weapon of war. Seemingly, Jerusalem had been abandoned by Rameses II as well.

The events placed in these time frames may help us to better understand Egypt's political events, that pre-dated Moses, when "Pithom and Rameses", Egyptian cities built by Israelite slaves, may have underwritten the economic and political impetus that promoted the "House of Rameses" to ultimately obtain the status of Pharaoh over all of Egypt. By the time Rameses I and II became Pharaoh's it was already the latter half of Israel's 300 year resettlement of Canaan as recorded in The Book of Judges.

Often overlooked is the earliest recorded use of the Hebrew language by Eber (great-grandson of Noah) preceding Biblical Abraham, whose father, Terach and their extended families continued to live in Haran, northern Syria. They were the Ivri or Ibri also likely referred to as Habiru, but their various lineages were not Israelite. Regardless, the Habiru referred in the Amarna letters are certainly those Israelites, the Hebrew speakers, who had arrived from Egypt to conquer and re-settle Canaan.