ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, August 28, 1996 TAG: 9608280050
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-9 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: JERUSALEM
SOURCE: KARIN LAUB ASSOCIATED PRESS
ARCHAEOLOGISTS have found a stretch of road in Jerusalem that served as a hub of commerce in the time of Jesus Christ.
A moment frozen in time: Roman soldiers topple the chariot-sized limestone blocks of the Jewish Temple, burying the shops that line Jerusalem's main street.
Digging along the western side of the Temple complex two millennia later, archaeologists have uncovered that scene on a 70-yard stretch of the road that served as Jerusalem's main street in the time of Jesus.
The heap of chiseled beige boulders, the stone-walled shops no bigger than ticket booths, the ancient coins that could have been used by moneychangers - all were unveiled Tuesday in an archeological park.
``This is the drama here. When you see these stones, you can imagine them being rolled down from the Temple Mount,'' said Israeli archaeologist Ronny Reich, director of the dig.
The dozen stalls excavated so far have yielded hundreds of small bronze coins, called prutot, including two found Tuesday by workers dusting the site.
Reich and his colleague, Jacob Billig, said some stalls may have been used by moneychangers who exchanged pilgrims' foreign currency for local silver shekels. Pious Jews were required to pay half a silver shekel a year in ``temple tax.''
But Billig said the episode of Jesus overturning the tables of moneychangers - described in the gospels of Mark, Matthew and John - probably took place inside the Jewish Temple, not outside its walls.
``Down here, money changing was legitimate because it was a center for shopping,'' Billig said, standing on the ancient street and looking up at the Western Wall, the only remaining portion of the Temple complex.
The excavation of the ancient street began about two years ago and was partially funded by William Davidson, a Detroit businessman. The site is at the southwest corner of the Temple Mount - south of the plaza used by Jews to pray before the Wall.
Archaeologists sifted through six yards of soil to reach the street, which was paved with boulders.
Heaps of limestone blocks - testament to the temple's destruction in 70 A.D. - covered the whole 70-yard stretch. Archaeologists left one pile in place to illustrate the havoc wreaked by Rome's 10th Legion, and in the other areas removed the blocks with cranes to reveal the shops underneath.
At the time of Jesus, Jerusalem was a major metropolis with a population of about 100,000, said Ian Stern, director of Jerusalem's Archaeological Seminars.
During major Jewish holidays, tens of thousands of pilgrims flocked to the temple, easily doubling the city's population, he said.
The Second Temple, rebuilt by King Herod a few years before the birth of Jesus, was one of the largest holy places of its time. The builders used 10,000 workers and hundreds of carts to move stones weighing dozens of tons.
The park displays reconstructions of two devices probably used by Herod's workers. Carpenters from Israel's Antiquities Authority used the manuscripts of Roman master builder Vitruvius to reconstruct the contraptions.
One is a set of wooden wheels, about two yards in diameter, built around a rectangular limestone block weighing 41/2 tons. In Roman times, such carts were used to roll heavy stones from the quarry to the construction site, Billig said.
Nearby, five workers on Tuesday tested a 30-foot wooden pulley also built according to Vitruvius' notes.
LENGTH: Medium: 73 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: AP. A pile of masonry lies behind archaeologicalby CNBworkers, who have found a 70-yard stretch of road that was
Jerusalem's main avenue two millennia ago.