TEMPLE MOUNT WATCH: The San Francisco Chronicle has a summary of the current state of play regarding the Iron Age II artifacts found on the Temple Mount during the Waqf's latest digging project.

Temple Mount discovery leads to dispute in Jerusalem

Matthew Kalman, Chronicle Foreign Service

Sunday, November 18, 2007

(11-18) 04:00 PST Jerusalem --

Israeli archaeologists say that ancient remains from the era of Solomon's Temple were discovered last month for the first time on the holiest site for Judaism, reigniting a historical and political debate over an area that also is holy to Muslims.

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Much of it is a rehash of old news, but the following is new:

However, Yusif Natsheh, a Waqf archaeologist, disputed the findings.

"I was present throughout this work and neither I, nor any Waqf official, recall seeing these items in the trench," said Natsheh. "I only heard about them in the press, weeks after the work was finished. If they were found, then why were they taken outside the compound?"

Natsheh said the trench was less than 3 feet deep and wondered how the Israeli archaeologists could hit a layer dating back to the First Temple without first slicing through the Byzantine and Roman periods, which logically would be above them.

"All of this archaeology and science in Jerusalem is manipulated for different political attitudes," said Natsheh. "It is not archaeology, it is not history, it is just spoiled politics."

Seligman dismissed Natsheh's accusation as "outrageous. Categorically, 100 percent of these findings came from the Temple Mount, and we stake our reputation on that."

I simply do not believe that the Israeli archaeologists are salting the site. As for the stratification, the Herodian architects presumably used a lot of fill from the demolition of the previous site when they built the Temple Platform, and it's not surprising to find pockets of earlier material in the mix. Or at least that's one possible guess at what's going on. When people take it upon themselves to carry out construction without controlled scientific excavation on an important site like this one, this is what you get.