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‘Atiqot 80 (2015)
ISBN 2948-040X
An Excavation in the Courtyard of the Knights’ Palace Hotel in the Christian Quarter, the Old City of Jerusalem
(with a contribution by Ariel Berman)
(Hebrew, pp. 67*–108*; English summary, pp. 145–147)
Shlomit Weksler-Bdolah and Miriam Avissar
Keywords: fortification lines, Iron Age, Hellenistic period, Early Roman period, dressed stones, coins, pottery, Sultan El-Malik El-Mu‘athim ‘Isa, Suleiman the Magnificent
The excavation in the courtyard of the Knights’ Palace Hotel abutted the inner eastern face of the Ottoman City wall. Five strata (V–I) were documented. In the earliest stratum (V), a drainage channel was exposed; it was probably linked to the Byzantine-period drainage system outside the Old City wall. Stratum IV yielded fills and meager construction remains from the Early Islamic period (eighth or ninth to tenth centuries CE). The main architectural remains were uncovered in Stratum III (late Crusader and Ayyubid periods; second half of the twelfth and early thirteenth centuries CE), including a square tower that was incorporated in a wall that was built shortly after it; both were used in the late twelfth century CE. Collapses of large building stones and earthen fills were attributed to Stratum II (the Mamluk period; mid-thirteenth to late fourteenth centuries CE). In Stratum I (the Ottoman period), the Old City wall was founded above the earlier tower. It seems probable that the tower was built toward the end of the twelfth century CE, together with other towers that were constructed between Jaffa Gate and Damascus Gate in 1191–1192 CE, during the rule of Saladin, in anticipation of a third Crusade.