Content area
Full Text
Kay Prag, Excavations byK.M. Kenyon in Jerusalem 1961-1967, V, Discoveries in Hellenistic to Ottoman Jerusalem, Centenary Volume: Kathleen M. Kenyon 1906-1978. Levant Supplement Series 7, Oxbow Books, Oxford 2008, 501 pp., 276 figs, 32 color plates, ISBN-978-1-84217-304-6. (Ronny Reich)
This is the 5th excavation report pertaining to the excavations carried out in the years 1961-1967 by Dame Kathleen M. Kenyon in Jerusalem. At that time, Kenyon served as director of the British School of Archaeology, the institute which was later named after her. It is edited, and partly written by Dr. Kay Prag, Kenyon's assistant on site, and in charge of Kenyon's scientific legacy since her death in 1978.
The present volume consists of two parts. The first part is dedicated to the final reports of some of the excavation areas, one of which is located in the City of David (Area V); three are located on the eastern slope descending from Mount Zion located west of the City of David (areas B, D, E). The other areas are located in the area traditionally identified with the Ophel, which is immediately south of the Temple Mount (Haram ash-Sharif). Of these, some are intra muros of Jerusalem Ottoman city wall (Areas G, J just to the south of the al-Aqsa mosque), and some extra muros (Areas SI-VI).
In the foreword, Prag specifies Kenyon's considerations on locating these areas. In this way, for example, Areas E and D were placed in order to examine "the earliest occupation on the western hill." This, however, proved to be a fatal decision, because upon the finds discovered, or better yet, based on the finds that were not discovered in these areas, Kenyon founded her minimalist theory on the city's boundaries in the Iron Age II, saying that the city did not extend its boundaries to the western hill. These excavation areas played an important place in the development...