TEMPLE MOUNT WATCH: Gabriel Barkay and his team appear not to have run out of money yet. They're still sifting rubble from the Waqf's illicit excavations of the Temple Mount. Christianity Today has the latest:

70 Truckloads of Treasures
Temple Mount dig uncovers new finds.
by Gordon Govier | posted 07/21/2005 09:00 a.m.

Overlooking Jerusalem at Tzurim Valley National Park, archaeologists and volunteers work on one of Jerusalem's most unusual excavations. They are sifting tons of dirt removed in 1999 by Islamic work crews who were remodeling an underground area of the Temple Mount—known as Solomon's Stables—to create the Marwani Mosque (CT, March 6, 2000, p. 27).

[...]

The biggest surprise has been large amounts of remains from the early Christian or Byzantine period.

Barkay said part of Jerusalem's history will have to be rewritten. Most historians thought the Temple Mount was largely deserted then.

Although they are only about halfway through the 70 truckloads of dirt, Barkay planned to stop the process at the end of June in order to analyze the finds. He said he doesn't know when they'll start up again. Funding remains a critical issue.

Indeed. Michael Pahl ask whether this might not be "a not-so-implicit appeal to wealthy American evangelicals to fund the project?" I hope some of them take it as such.