To understand the existence of the cisterns it was necessary to understand the importance of water. Water was a vital element in all towns and cities of the ancient world as it is today, however it is necessary to see this beyond the context of temperate climates and modern technology. Jerusalem is situated in an arid region with rainfall mostly in early spring and late autumn. Water has always been a scarce commodity.
To ensure a regular supply of water the ancient people of Jerusalem had to build aqueducts to carry it from the nearby hills to the city and build a collection system for rainwater. To store the water a great number of underground shafts, tunnels and cisterns were necessary in addition to its maintenance system in the form of a complex network of stairways and passages. These structures were the subject of a long systematic exploration by the Palestinian Survey Fund in the nineteenth century.
‘Of course since those initial investigations other hydraulic systems have been discovered and described by archaeologists.’
‘Including our friend de Lussac.’
‘No, he discovered nothing, he simple interpreted what others found before him, making it fit into his own theories.’
‘But the system did supply the Temple.’
‘No doubt it did, but not necessarily as your friend has described it. Perhaps we shall never know exactly how. As we already know very little solid evidence exists concerning the Temple. When it was rebuilt by Herod, the Bible tells us a thousand ox carts were used to haul the stones from the quarry to the building site, and that Herod hired 10,000 skilled workmen and trained 1,000 priests as masons and carpenters for the work.’
‘Priests?’
‘Yes, you see only priest could be employed in the sacred areas of the Temple. Then Josephus tells that the Temple itself was completed after a year and a half, but the outer courts took eight years.’
‘Ah yes, we have read that.’
‘A notice was discovered on stone fragments in Greek warning gentiles to proceed no further, they say: No foreigner is to enter within the balustrade and embankment around the sanctuary. Whoever is caught will have himself to blame for his death which follows.
‘An old tradition it seems!’
‘Perhaps, anyway Josephus described the Temple as having four courts. The outer court was open to everybody, including gentiles, though with the exception of menstruating women. All Jewish men and menstrually clean Jewish women were allowed into the second court and the fourth court was only for priests.’
Remember the inscription that says To the place of trumpeting found at the base of the wall at the south-west corner of the Temple Mount. Josephus confirmed this idea when he wrote that a priest stood at that spot and sounded a trumpet to announce the Sabbath.
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Exploration
The Legacy of Solomon Page 49