ARCHAELOGY IN PALESTINE.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLVIII, Issue 3650, 11 June 1927, Page 1

ARCHAELOGY IN PALESTINE.

JERUSALEM’S WALL.

That puzzling enigma Jerusalem is gradually becoming.less an enigma, thanks to persistent efforts on the part of modern scholarship and research writes “Xenophon,” in the Xew York “Times.”

Discovery of the third or so-call-ed Agrippa Wall is the first real challenge that Modern Jewish scholarship can offer to the complaints of advocates of Palestine exploration. It was undertaken by the Palestine Hebrew Exploration Society, with the assistance largely of American money.

After Herod’s regime the authorities felt the necessity of enclosing the city with defensive fortifications. The numerous theatres, swimming pools, gymnasia, and so forth built by Herod to make the city worthy of Roman civilisation contributed, no doubt, to the enhancement of the material comflirts of a prosperous population. But the architectural ornaments introduced by Herod and his administration made new works of defence imperative.

The gap was filled by Agrippa, who succeeded to the kingdom of Herod. About 40 A.D., he embarked upon the building of a wall on a grand scale. It was begun in the north end of the city. The Romans ordered the work stopped for strategic and perhaps for political reaso*.~ .

The work was suspended for a while. When resumed it had to be carried on in haste, and therefore the masonry was less solid than in tlie first few layers. Many a modern scholar has sought to locate that wall, whose general direction ■ was more or less known. Excavations recently conducted under, the auspices of Jerusalem and the Hebrew Palestine Exploration Society (directed by Dr. Sukcnik and Dr. L. Meyer), and of the Government Department of Antiquities, brought to light the beginnings of the third wall.

When the diggers had gone down only four feet or so, huge, beautifully chiseled and finished stones were exposed. The stones reminded one of the unique layer of stones at the base of the so-called Jewish Wailing Wall, the western wall of King Solomon’s Temple. But as the excavators progressed they saw that they had to dig far deeper in order to reach the true direction of the wall.

In some places they delved 30 feet down, and the faet that their operations wetre being iconjrlucted opposite the tomb of Helena (as indicated by Josephus in his “Wars of the Jews”), removed doubt as to the authenticity of what they found. Champions of Palestine research and excavation took at first a very cautions, if sympathetic attitude. But as further indications were uncovered even the most sceptical among them began to recede from their attitude of doubt. Recent excavations, though they have by no means revealed finds of a sensational nature, are nevertheless an important landmark in the long and tedious track of Palestine exploration.