Ramat Rahel
Ramat Rahel is located on
a hilltop about halfway between the Old
City of Jerusalem and Bethlehem.
Excavations carried out between 1959 and 1962
uncovered remains of several successive periods
of occupation. The most important are those
of a large citadel and a magnificent palace
of the kings
of Judah, dated to the 8th-7th centuries
BCE.
The site was identified by
the excavator as biblical Beit Hakerem (House
of the Vineyard), one of the places from which
warning fire signals were sent to Jerusalem at the end of the First
Temple period. (Jeremiah
6:1)
The Biblical
Period
During the 8th century BCE, a royal citadel
was built here by one of the kings
of Judah. Of this citadel only a small
section of a casemate wall (a double fortification
wall with compartments), remained. But more
than a hundred seal impressions of the lamelekh (Hebrew, to the King) type, stamped on handles
of storage jars, were found and are associated
with the early days of this citadel. They
are indicative of the site's importance as
an administrative center of the Kingdom of
Judah.
Towards the end of the 7th - beginning of the
6th century BCE, a new royal citadel, much larger
than its predecessor, was built on the site;
it had an outer fortification system, and an
inner citadel with a palace.
The outer fortification system was composed
of a massive, 3 - 4 m.-wide wall. Though only
small portions of it were exposed, it may
be assumed that it encircled an area of some
five acres on the top of the hill. Inside
this wall, no building remains were found.
It is believed that this large courtyard served
for mustering troops and chariotry.
The inner citadel, measuring 75 x 50 m.,
stood at the northeastern corner of the courtyard.
It was surrounded by a 5 m.-wide casemate
wall. The rooms in the wall had floors covered
with a thick, hard plaster, which suggests
that they were storerooms.
The gate to the inner citadel was in the
center of the eastern wall and was reinforced
with buttresses. It had two cells, one on
each side of the entrance, with floors of
massive stone flags. The gate was closed with
inner and outer double doors. A narrower opening
into the inner citadel was located in the
same wall, several meters to the south.
The area inside the citadel was divided into
a stone-paved courtyard with buildings along
the northern and western sides. The northern
building consisted of an open, inner courtyard
surrounded by several rooms, and it probably
served as the king's residence. A narrow,
hidden postern, built of large stones under
the northern wall connected the citadel with
the outside, providing an escape passage.
The royal citadel at Ramat Rahel is one of the
most instructive examples of Israelite-Phoenician
architecture in the biblical period. The construction
of the casemate walls and the buildings of the
citadel was of excellent quality, with smoothed
and squared stones laid in well-fitted courses.
The main gate, built of large, dressed stones
also shows fine workmanship. Several complete
proto-Aeolic capitals were found in the ruins
of the citadel; they once decorated the doorposts
of the main gate and the entrances to the buildings.
Window balustrades consisting of a row of
stone colonnettes, decorated with palmettes
and topped with joined capitals in the proto-Aeolic
style, were also found. They probably adorned
the upper story of the buildings inside the
citadel. These decorative architectural elements
echo a verse in the book of Jeremiah, which
describes the windows in the house of Jehoiakim
king of Judah: and cut out windows for it,
paneling it with cedar, and painting it with
vermilion... (Jeremiah 22:14)
In the debris that covered the citadel after
its destruction by the Babylonians,
many luxury objects, such as imported Assyrian palace ware were found. A unique find is a seal
impression with the inscription to Eliaqim,
steward of Yochin is ascribed to an official
of King Jehoiachin, king of Judah, who was the
son of King Jehoiakim.
Later
periods
Beit Hakerem was a district center during
the Persian
Period, (Nehemiah
3:14) as confirmed by archeological finds.
Dozens of seal impressions on jar handles
from the 4th-3rd centuries BCE were uncovered.
They bear the inscription yehud, the official
name of the province of Judah in this period.
Some are inscribed yehud hphh (the
governor of the district of Judah) while several
others bear only the names of governors. From
the Hasmonean period (2nd century BCE), many seal impressions
on jar handles with the name yrshlm (Jerusalem)
were found.
During the Herodian period (1st century CE), a small settlement
existed at the site. After its destruction in
70 CE, it was abandoned until the 3rd century,
when the Roman Tenth Legion built a villa and
a bathhouse on the hill.
During the Byzantine period (mid-5th century), a large monastery
and a basical church were built here; they
were abandoned in the Early Islamic period (7th century).
Sources: Israeli
Foreign Ministry |