Jerusalem

Model of Jerusalem in c.30 CE (Orientalis, Nijmegen)

Jerusalem: capital of Judah or Judea, sacred city of Judaism.

History

Texts

Location

"David's City": between Kidron valley with Gihon springs and Tyropoeon valley
In the south Hinnom valley
In the north Mount Moriah, with temple
In the east Mount of Olives; in the west Mount Zion

Ancient-Warfare.com, the online home of Ancient Warfare magazine

Siloam Inscription (Arkeoloji Müzesi, Istanbul)

Bronze Age

First human occupation end of fourth millennium
New foundation c.1800; wall
King Abdi-Hepa of U-ru-sa-lim mentioned in the Amarna texts (letter to Akhenaten)
Tunnel to Gihon
According to the Bible (Joshua 15.8 and 18.16) between tribes of Judah and Benjamin
According to the Bible (2 Samuel 5.6-9), captured by David

Catapult stones (Citadel of Jerusalem)

Iron Age: capital of Judah

Solomon builds the temple
From this age several Phoenician-style tombs
Two kingdoms
Not mentioned by Shoshenq; looted, according to the Bible
After the fall of Samaria, many refugees; Siloam; expansion to the west
Siege by Assyrian king Sennacherib in 701 bought off
587 captured by the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar; city apparently abandoned (an earlier deportation: text)

Menorah from Jerusalem. Photo Jona Lendering.

Menorah from Jerusalem (Hecht Museum, Haifa)

Second Temple Age

Cyrus defeats the Babylonians; Jews at some point returned to Judah
Ezra
Nehemia rebuilds the walls (mid fifth-century?)
Fortress: Bira
After Alexander, who seizes Judah in 332 (text), the city part of the Ptolemaic Empire
After 200 BCE, city in Seleucid Empire (high priest Simon the Just)
Conflicts within the aristocracy; crisis during the reign of Antiochus IV Epiphanes; second citadel (Akra); rise of the Hasmonaeans
Akra demolished; Bira renamed Baris
Expansion to the west
63 Captured by Pompey
After 40 Captured by Herod the Great; large construction works; splendid temple (inscription), temple terrace, western palace, and so on; Baris renamed Antonia
c.30 Death of Jesus
James the Just is leader of the Christians of Jerusalem
Herod Agrippa: new wall
City destroyed by Romans in 70


Temple and Antonia (Orientalis, Nijmegen)	Inscription from the Temple (Arkeoloji Müzesi, Istanbul)	Burned house	Tile of X Fretensis (Davidson Center)

Basilica of the Holy Sepulcher

Aelia Capitolina

Jerusalem base of X Fretensis
130 Rebuilt by Hadrian; temples of Aphrodite and Jupiter Optimus Maximus on Christian and Jewish sacred sites; cardo; the new name is Aelia Capitolina; the city has the rank of colonia (Ulpian, Digests, 50.15.1).
132-136 Bar Kochba
Constantine converts to Christianity

The Dome of the Rock. Photo Marco Prins.

Dome of th Rock

Late Antiquity

Christian churches (Holy Sepulcher) and monasteries; Helen finds the True Cross
Important diocese (patriarchate 451 Chalcedon)
Byzantine identifications of holy places
Justinian's new buildings (Procopius)
614 captured by the Persian general Shahr-Baraz (fighting for king Khusrau II in the big war between the Sasanian and Byzantine Empire); True Cross seized
630 recaptured by the Byzantines; True Cross returned
636 Battle of the Yarmuk
638 Jerusalem Islamic
689-691 Dome of the Rock

History

Texts

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