ARCHAEOLOGICAL FIND IN JERUSALEM

Rotorua Morning Post, Issue 5320, 5 February 1947, Page 7

ARCHAEOLOGICAL FIND IN JERUSALEM

May ythrow new light on CHRISf'S TRIAL. JBRUSAIJEflVI. 13 An important archaelogical discovery which may thrqAV neAV light on the site of Christ eJsus' trial has been made inside the courtyard of the Citadel of the Tower of David near the Jaffa Gate of the old city of Jerisalem. . The 70-year-old work on archaelo-, gical excavation resumed in the battlemented Citadel after a wartime lapse of six years, has been concentrated on a "wall" buried for more than 200-0-years amder the Citadel's courtyard. This wall has long been believed to be the "first wall" of the Jerusalem of the Old Testament. Soundings made 30 feet below "the courtyard by an expert of Palestine's Departmetn of Antiquities now indicate taht the wall is only a later extension. This theory, if backed up by further investigation, may result in the revision of the boundaries of the first city of Jerusalem. The Citadel discovery terads to confirm the early Christian belief that Christ Jes'us walked to Mount Calvary where the Church of the. Holy Sepulchre now stands from the south. At the Citadel to-day Arab workmen were busy sifting a mass of coins and pottery, found buried against thei scarred masonry of the "wall." In a cloistered corner of the courU yard, they unearthed a skeleton, later identified as that of a Crusader. The more than 2000-year-old "wall" on which the archaelogical spotlight, now is set is linked with Herod's Upper Palace, which stood on a site now covered by the Citadel's conrtyard and of which no trace now remains. The search for the Palace or traces of it, which is the next stage in this archaelogical hunt, may provide the missing piece in this historical puzzle. To Herod's Upper Palace came the Roman procurators, including Pontius Pilate, from Caesarea( then the "Roman seat of Government in Palestine. It now is considered possible that Pilate tried Jesus in the Upper Palace and not in the Upper Palace, which was caled Antonia after Mank Anthony. This theory, if authenicated, would lead to the remapping of the route of the Via Dolorosa, the path along whichJesus carried the Cross to his Crucifixion. Presen ttradition says Christ eJsus carried the Cross to Mount Calvary from the east of Jerusalem