Turns Out, Jerusalem Really Was Important To Ancient Jews
Obviously, in a historical conflict that revolves over who has a "right" to land, the historical presence or absence of Jews or Arabs in Jerusalem will matter more than an outsider might think it would. And so leaders and opinion makes in the Arab world occasionally try to run the argument that Jerusalem was not really sacred to ancient Jews and that the Temple was in some other city or country entirely. We're not hopeful that new "rational evidence" will slow down this obvious lunacy even a little, but for what it's worth:
Unusually high concentrations of silver have been found during excavations in Jerusalem's Old City by Bar-Ilan University researchers in samples of different types of pottery from late Second Temple period some two millennia ago...The major finding is that samples of pottery from late Second Temple period Jerusalem had anomalously higher concentrations of silver, as compared to samples from all other non-urban sites dated to the same period of time... The geographical distribution of the samples with high silver cannot be explained by natural causes, said the researchers, who deduced that the origin of the silver is related to human activity. The team also concluded that silver was washed into the pottery by the action of groundwater - but it is possible that in some cases the high silver may have been related to the use of the pottery in antiquity. The researchers suggest that the anomalously high silver concentrations they found in the Jerusalem pottery samples may be analytical evidence of the wealth of the city during the period. The findings from this study also suggest that the measurement of silver in pottery may be a useful tool for evaluating archaeological remains and patterns of urban contamination in antiquity. The research team notes that Jerusalem and its Temple was the religious and national focus of Jews throughout the Roman Empire during the period, leading to substantial growth and accumulation of wealth by the city's inhabitants.
There's simply no other way to account for the disproportionate presence of valuable metals except by admitting that Jerusalem was a political, cultural, and spiritual center for many, many decades. Again, this discovery obviously won't stop the conspiracy nuts (at worst, they'll just say that this scientist is a lying Zionist agent), but it's a nice little talking point.
Unusually high concentrations of silver have been found during excavations in Jerusalem's Old City by Bar-Ilan University researchers in samples of different types of pottery from late Second Temple period some two millennia ago...The major finding is that samples of pottery from late Second Temple period Jerusalem had anomalously higher concentrations of silver, as compared to samples from all other non-urban sites dated to the same period of time... The geographical distribution of the samples with high silver cannot be explained by natural causes, said the researchers, who deduced that the origin of the silver is related to human activity. The team also concluded that silver was washed into the pottery by the action of groundwater - but it is possible that in some cases the high silver may have been related to the use of the pottery in antiquity. The researchers suggest that the anomalously high silver concentrations they found in the Jerusalem pottery samples may be analytical evidence of the wealth of the city during the period. The findings from this study also suggest that the measurement of silver in pottery may be a useful tool for evaluating archaeological remains and patterns of urban contamination in antiquity. The research team notes that Jerusalem and its Temple was the religious and national focus of Jews throughout the Roman Empire during the period, leading to substantial growth and accumulation of wealth by the city's inhabitants.
There's simply no other way to account for the disproportionate presence of valuable metals except by admitting that Jerusalem was a political, cultural, and spiritual center for many, many decades. Again, this discovery obviously won't stop the conspiracy nuts (at worst, they'll just say that this scientist is a lying Zionist agent), but it's a nice little talking point.
