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During July 2004, a trial excavation was conducted in the Muristan area of the Old City of Jerusalem (Permit No. A-4211; map ref. NIG 221885/631635; OIG 171885/131635), prior to renovating a shop. The excavation, undertaken on behalf of the Israel Antiquities Authority and underwritten by property owner A. El-‘Azim Wazwaz was directed by Z. ‘Adawi, with the assistance of V. Essman, V. Pirsky and T. Kornfeld (surveying), T. De‘adle and B. Tori (field assistance), C. Amit (studio photography) and C. Hersch and I. Lidski (finds drawing).
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The Muristan compound is located in the heart of the Old City, west of the Butchers’ Market (the ancient cardo), south of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, north of David Street and east of the Christian Quarter Road (Fig. 1). This is the location of Aelia Capitolina’s forum from the Roman period and in the Byzantine period, the Church of Saint John the Baptist was built in its southwestern corner. Remains from the Byzantine and Early Islamic periods were exposed in Kenyon’s excavations, Area C, which is owned by the Monastery of St. George. In the ninth century CE, Charlemagne built here a large Latin center for the Christian pilgrims that included a hospital, a library and a church. In the eleventh century CE, the Amalfi merchants had rebuilt and enlarged the center, which included a Latin monastery, a convent and a hospital. In the Crusader period, the compound was rebuilt once again or renovated; this time it included a hospital that consisted of several wings, which contained storerooms and residential quarters for the Hospitallers. The hospital extended into the western part of Muristan. The Church of Saint John the Baptist stood to the south and the Patriarch’s bathhouse was between them. The area also included two monasteries and majestic Romanesque churches alongside them. The first monastery was a convent and next to it was the Church of Santa Maria Maggiore. The second was the Benedictine monastery, with the Church of Santa Maria Latina next to it. In addition, a market square that extended into the south and southeast of the Muristan was built. In the Ayyubid period, the El-‘Omariya Mosque was built to the north of the Muristan, near the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. Charles Warren was the first scholar to study the Muristan in 1867. He excavated channels and a shaft and hoped to find remains from the time of Jesus. Conrad Schick surveyed the area in 1899–1900, prior to the construction of the Church of the Redeemer in the northeastern corner of the compound and the construction of the market and shops in its center. He mapped the building remains he discovered, most of which dated to the Crusader period (Fig. 1). During 1990–2000, archaeologists of the Israel Antiquities Authority documented remains from the Crusader period in the compound (A. Re’em, J. Seligman, Z. ‘Adawi and R. Abu Raya, in preparation. Crusader's Remains in the Muristan Jerusalem, OldCity). An excavation conducted in 1999 (Permit No. A-3171) revealed the main apse of the Church of Santa Maria Maggiore.
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The current excavation was carried out in the center part of the Muristan compound, in two separate squares (each 3 × 8 m) along the southern side of the Church of Santa Maria Maggiore. Three construction phases that included two massive walls, three channels, a cistern and several floors were exposed (Fig. 2). The remains were dated from the Byzantine until the Ottoman periods.
The First Phase. A channel (T1; length 5 m), oriented east–west, was ascribed to this earliest phase. It contained fill (Loci 107, 153; thickness 1 m) that was devoid of any datable finds. The floor of the channel consisted of small plastered fieldstones, unlike its unplastered sides. It was covered with five large fieldstone slabs (average size 0.3–0.4 × 0.6–0.8 m, thickness 0.15–0.35 m). One of the slabs was cracked and small fieldstones were placed below it for support, possibly when the channel was no longer in use. Walls 1 and 10 formed the southern side of the channel and Wall 2, built of nine courses, was its northern side. Wall 10, aligned east–west, was built on an incline of ashlar stones and only three of its courses were exposed (length 2. 7 m, height 0.6–0.8 m, average width 1.5 m). The layers of fill to the south of W1 (L204) contained pottery vessels; some dated to the Byzantine period and included a jar (Fig. 3:8), whereas most dated to the Early Roman period (first century BCE–first century CE) and included cooking pots (Fig. 3:1–6) and a jar (Fig. 3:7).
Wall 1 was built of two–three courses (width 1.4 m, height 0.7–0.8 m) and deviated 0.1 m north of W10’s line, which was below it and may have served as its foundation. If this was the case, then W1 probably belonged to the second phase. A tamped level of small white stones (L203) that was only discovered in the western part of the square abutted the base of W1.
The Second Phase. A floor (F2), two channels (T2, T3) and a wall (W3) were ascribed to this phase. The floor (F2) consisted of beige-colored limestone (thickness 2–5 cm) on top of very small stones (average size 5 × 10 cm). Two openings were discerned in the floor; the first, in the northwestern corner of the square, belonged to a built cistern that was filled with silt and whose opening was blocked with a stone slab at floor level. The second opening (20 × 30 cm) was the top of Channel T2, which was built of small fieldstones and a small fieldstone blocked it. Although the function of the channel (length 3 m, width 0.3 m, depth 0.3 m) is unclear, it was probably used to feed the cistern or convey overflow. Its northwest-southeast direction may have connected it to Channel T1.
Channel T3, aligned east–west (length 1.8 m, width 0.2 m, depth 0.3 m), was discovered at a lower level than Channel T2; it may have been connected to the opening in the northwestern corner of the built cistern and it was probably used as a feeder channel or for overflow. The two channels (T2, T3) were coated with gray plaster that contained limestone/lime, fine gravel and charcoal.
Wall 3 (length 2.5 m, height 1 m), built of roughly hewn fieldstones, was preserved three courses high; it crossed the middle of the square in an east–west direction and probably served as the southern wall of the cistern. The fill above the wall (L104) contained fragments of pottery vessels that included the base of a bowl (Fig. 4:7), with a double slip, a dark yellow monochrome glaze and sgraffito decoration, dating to the Fatimid and Crusader periods (beginning of eleventh to middle of the thirteenth centuries CE) and a plain bowl (Fig. 4:5) that dated to this time period. Hence, the cistern was dated to the Fatimid period or at the latest to the beginning of the Crusader period, which was consistent with the finds documented by Schick north of the excavation area and the historical sources that claim the building had existed in the Early Islamic period and was renovated in the Crusader period.
The fill along the sides of W3 (Loci 105, 106, 108) contained potsherds that dated to the Early Islamic period, including bowls (Fig. 4:1, 2), glazed bowls with a double slip on the interior and exterior of the rim (Fig. 4:4, 6), a glazed Fayumi-type bowl (Fig. 4:3) and jars (Fig. 4:8–11).
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The Third Phase. The upper floor of beige-colored limestone (F1; thickness 3–7 cm) belonged to this phase. It abutted the foundations of the shops’ walls in the west and was disturbed in the east by the setting of a modern concrete floor. Earthen fill (Loci 101, 202; thickness 10–15 cm) that contained a jar fragment (Fig. 4:12), dating to the Ottoman period, was exposed below the floor.
A lamp (Fig. 4:13) that dated to the Mamluk period was found in the fill on the surface.
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To view the figures, click on the figure caption
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