Here are our plans. Make sure to stop by and say Hello!
21:00 (May 23rd – the night before) – Hebrew Lecture at Ohel Nechama by Zachi Dvira. 3 Shufan St. They have activities beginning at 19:55.
8:00 AM – tour of the Temple Mount. Please email development@tmsifting for more information.
ALL DAY!! We are talking 9AM to 9PM sharing some of our special finds and selling some of our amazing replicas in the Old City. Stop by and touch a piece of the Second Temple floor. Drop a shekel in our Tzedakkah box or buy your mom a replica coin as a belated Mother’s Day gift. We will be in the main square of the Jewish Quarter by the Moriah jewelry store.
We have a number of important updates to share with you.
Current Campaign Stats:
189,200 shekel
pledged by 550 backers.
That’s 76% of our goal!
BUT…
Our momentum has slowed because of two statements issued by the Prime Minister’s Office and the Israel Antiquities Authority assuring everyone that they are taking care of our project. We appreciate all the help that we can get, but unfortunately, these two statements are based on vague promises not actions, and have detrimentally affected our campaign. Everyone we have spoken to or reached out to has said, “but isn’t the government now taking care of it?”
In short, the answer is no. None of these offices have given us any concrete pledge or solution.
We need your help to share the truth of the situation and help us get the momentum of our campaign running again. So here are the facts:
Facts:
This campaign is all or nothing. According to the rules of this campaign, if we do not reach our initial target amount (250,000 NIS), your credit card will not be charged and we will not receive a single shekel that has been donated so far. That is over $50,000 that we will not see.
The Prime Minister’s Office issued a statement saying that our problems had been resolved, but in practice, even a meeting had not yet been scheduled.
The Antiquities Authority also issued a statement that they were searching for a solution to our problem, but we have not even been contacted to discuss this.
Even if the government eventually steps in, they will provide support – not funding for the whole project. This will also take time we do not have before we have to close our doors.
At this stage, we are raising the funds necessary to complete our research on the artifacts already discovered by our project.
Only once we have funded our research will we be able to move on to our second goal which is to publish this research and then resume the sifting of the rest of the material from the Temple Mount.
The sifting activity currently taking place at Emek Tzurim through Ir David is no longer related to our project. They are not sifting material from the Temple Mount, but rather material from various IAA excavations.
Unfortunately, and as we all know, promises are not actions. Please help us spread the word that these official statements from the different government offices are not telling the full truth of the situation.
How can we reach our goal? With YOUR help.
Please massively distribute the link to our project’s campaign to your circles of influence with an explanation of its importance and a warm recommendation to support our crowdfunding campaign.
Send it to your email list, publish it on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, family, friends, neighbors, colleagues and more.
You are the heart and motivation of the sifting and research of the heritage of the Temple Mount and for this you have our deepest thanks.
Please help us complete this process.
In Other News:
Our arrowhead replicas are ready to go (and available as gifts on our campaign website)!
NEW! Guided Tours!
June 8th – Tour the Temple Mount itself with our Director Zachi Dvira who has been studying this holy and complex site for the last 18 years. (Hebrew)
June 15th – Tour Ir David with one of its excavators. Learn the inside scoop about the history of this fantastic city. (Hebrew)
Join a tour by clicking on the appropriate gift in our crowdfunding campaign. Not only will you learn something, have a great day out on the (ancient) town, but you will do a huge mitzvah in helping our project too!
Can’t make it?
Form a group of 10+ and we can schedule a private tour in English or Hebrew.
As you know, the first 25 donors from our Annual Appeal are going to receive a clay seal impression (Bulla in Hebrew) that we made from one of our 10th century BCE stamps found in the sifting. Those lucky few will get a bulla and a whole explanation, but we thought we would share the process with all of you as well!
The 10th century BCE falls within the Iron Age and is the time period of the Jebusites, from whom David conquered Jerusalem—as well as the construction of the Temple by his son, King Solomon. Other similar seals found in Israel dating from the late 11th to the beginning of 9th centuries BCE allow us to date our seal to this time period as well. The stamp seal that we used is conical in shape and made of brown limestone. Two animals, one above the other, are carved on its circular base, maybe representing predator and prey. The seal is perforated which enables it to be hung on a string and worn.
!0th Century BCE Stamp Seal showing 2 animals
10th Century BCE stone Stamp Seal
Imer Bulla. Notice it is broken and there is an impression of the sack on the back
In antiquity, legal or administrative documents, or other objects or goods that needed to be authenticated and approved were “signed” using a stamp seal. (Personal items could also be stamped. We have a number of stamped handles from clay vessels that have been found in the sifting.) But how do we get bullae? A document was rolled and tied, or a package of goods was tied with a string. On the knot of the string was a piece of clay that was then stamped with a seal. These seals could either be worn on a string, like the one that we used, or set into a piece of jewelry such as a ring. The bulla is the clay seal impression left behind. In order to open the document or package, the bulla would be broken. This was a great form of protection, but could also be the reason than all of the bullae we have found are broken.
Bulla made in our lab
How We Made the Bullae
First, we mixed regular store bought clay with some of the ashy Temple Mount soil left over from the sifting. This is called tempering the clay. Untempered clay will shrink and crack during drying or firing. In ancient times, as today, different forms of temper are added to wet clay in order to provide greater strength. Sand, crushed rock, or even crushed broken pottery can be used as temper, and each material, and the percentage of temper used, affects the finished product. Haggai added about 5% Temple Mount soil to the clay. (Right)
Next, a marble sized piece of clay was then folded around a string. We then used the stamp seal to impress the clay onto a sack. (The seal is stone, and was therefore unaffected by the clay. Don’t worry! We take care of our artifacts!) The impressions are real, but they are modern and not an antiquity. We therefore wrote “copy” on the back so that none of these bullae will be mistaken for antiquities or sold on the black market.
Finally, the impressions were burned in a fire. Because fires, unlike ovens, do not have a consistent temperature, some of the bullae blackened while others maintained their brownish color. Some also fell into the ashes. All of this actually made these bullae look much like the seal impressions that we have found at the Sifting Project.
We then boxed them up in the cardboard finds boxes that archaeologists know so well and gave them their own artifact tag. Archaeologists need to label where their important finds were found, so tags always include the site, the area, the locus, and the basket number designating the place that the artifact was found. They also include the date and a short description. Our seal impressions don’t have a real provenance, so the numbers on our tags are the actual numbers from the seal itself!
Watch the whole process!!
I don’t know about you, but this whole process has made me want my own stamp seal. I could send letters sealed in wax! I wonder what the post office would think… I have vivid memories of doing that with my dad and sealing letters with old coins and green wax.
ur arrowhead replicas are ready to go (and available as gifts on our 
We then boxed them up in the cardboard finds boxes that archaeologists know so well and gave them their own artifact tag. Archaeologists need to label where their important finds were found, so tags always include the site, the area, the locus, and the basket number designating the place that the artifact was found. They also include the date and a short description. Our seal impressions don’t have a real provenance, so the numbers on our tags are the actual numbers from the seal itself!
The Temple Mount Sifting Project 