Temple-era burned beams in Jerusalem

SCORCHED ANCIENT ARCHITECTURE: Days before Tisha B'Av: Charred wooden beams from First Temple’s destruction unearthed in Jerusalem. The First Temple, built by the biblical King Solomon, was destroyed in 586 BCE at the hands of Nebuchadnezzar II, the second king of the Neo-Babylonian Empire (Miriam Sela-Eitam, Jerusalem Post).

Massive wooden beams charred by the fire that destroyed Jerusalem and the First Temple were unearthed during a recent dig at the Jerusalem Walls National Park in the City of David, the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) announced on Monday morning. ...

IAA and Tel Aviv University archaeologists discovered the burnt beams inside a building that had collapsed in the fire.

"The beams appear to have served as the roof of an inner courtyard in a building from the First Temple period,” noted IAA Excavation Director Efrat Bocher.

The headline is technically correct, but a little misleading, since it could be read to say that the beams are from the First Temple complex. They are not. They are from a building in the City of David near the Temple Mount, but not part of it. The building was destroyed in, presumably, the same fire that destroyed the Temple.

There are also some unburnt cedar beams from the actual Temple Mount which may have part of the First and Second Temple complexes. Noted here and here and links. They have been known about for quite a while.

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