New Perspectives about the Foundation of Aelia Capitolina

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MrMacSon
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New Perspectives about the Foundation of Aelia Capitolina

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The Foundation of Aelia Capitolina in Light of New Excavations along the Eastern Cardo

Shlomit Weskler-Bdolah
Israel Antiquities Authority

Israel Exploration Journal 64 (2014): 38–62
I start with a quote from the beginning of the 2nd paragraph of the 'Summary and Conclusion' -
Shlomit Weskler-Bdolah wrote:
The construction of the new Roman city of Aelia Capitolina is generally thought to be associated with Hadrian’s well-known visit to Judaea around 129/130 (Stern 1980: 390–407 and references therein). On the basis of the finds from the Eastern Cardo, we now suggest that the Roman city was planned and its main thoroughfares paved in the early years of Hadrian’s reign, about a decade before his visit to the East.

https://www.academia.edu/7924123/Aelia_ ... tern_Cardo
Then the first paragraph of the 'Summary and Conclusion' -
Shlomit Weskler-Bdolah wrote:
The Hadrianic date for both phases of construction of the Eastern Cardo — the preparation of the infrastructure (probably around the 120s, as stated above) and the actual paving of the street (some time later) — implies, in my opinion, that the decision to rebuild Jerusalem as a Roman city was made by Hadrian shortly after his accession to the throne in 117/118 CE (Weksler-Bdolah et al. 2012: 47). Around this date, a city plan of the Roman colony of Aelia Capitolina was most probably prepared and the construction of the main thoroughfares started.13

13 see Mintzker, Y (1977) 'Notes on the Plan of Aelia Capitolina' in Broshi M, El-Gad U, Sofer M, & Urbach Y. (eds) Between Hermon & Sinai, Memorial to Amnon, Jerusalem:129–135 (Hebrew)
Then more from the 2nd paragraph -
Shlomit Weskler-Bdolah wrote:
... the finds support the 'accepted view'[?] that the foundation of the Roman city predated the Second Jewish Revolt against the Romans (the Bar-Kokhba Revolt,132–135/6CE).15 The opposing view —namely, that the decision to rebuild Jerusalem as a Roman city followed the suppression of the Jewish revolt16— is no longer accepted, because of numismatic evidence (Eshel and Zissu 2002; Eshel 2007). An important matter that has been clarified following our excavations is that the establishment of the city preceded the uprising by about a decade.

https://www.academia.edu/7924123/Aelia_ ... tern_Cardo

15 As Cassius Dio’s text suggests (Historia Romana, LXIX, 12:1): ‘At Jerusalem he[Hadrian] founded a city in place of the one which had been razed to the ground,naming it Aelia Capitolina, and on the site of the temple of the god he raised a new temple to Jupiter. This brought on a war of no slight importance nor of brief duration,for the Jews deemed it intolerable that foreign races should be settled in their city and foreign religious rites planted there…’
Then excerpts from the 3rd and 4th paragraphs -
Shlomit Weskler-Bdolah wrote:
Another aspect illuminated by the finds is the physical reshaping of the urban topography, which took place during the transformation of the Hellenistic-Jewish city of Jerusalem into the pagan Roman colony of Aelia Capitolina ...

...the monumental remains of the Eastern Cardo ... demonstrate the enforcement of the Roman orthogonal ‘grid’ layout upon the local topography, while destroying almost everything that was left of the Second Temple/Hellenistic city. In the eyes of the people residing in the vicinity of Jerusalem, pagans and Jewish alike, the reshaping of the urban topography must have appeared as a total destruction of whatever was left of the Herodian city.21

https://www.academia.edu/7924123/Aelia_ ... tern_Cardo

21 Weksler-Bdolah and Rosenthal-Heginbottom, 'forthcoming' [as of 2014] -
  • Reflections on Appian of Alexandria: ‘… and Hadrian did the same in our time…’(Syriacus Liber, 50:252). Two Aspects of the Transformation of Jerusalem into the Roman Colony of Aelia Capitolina, in Patrich, J. (ed.), Festschrift in Honor of Leah Di Segni, Collectio Maior of the Studium Biblicum Franciscanum - http://www.artbooks.com/titles/131/Item131286.htm
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Peter Kirby
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Re: New Perspectives about the Foundation of Aelia Capitolin

Post by Peter Kirby »

Thanks for sharing this. Hope that you don't mind having it in the JT&H forum.
"... almost every critical biblical position was earlier advanced by skeptics." - Raymond Brown
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MrMacSon
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Re: New Perspectives about the Foundation of Aelia Capitolin

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Peter Kirby wrote:Thanks for sharing this. Hope that you don't mind having it in the JT&H forum.
No. Good idea: probably where I should have put it in the first place.
Secret Alias
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Re: New Perspectives about the Foundation of Aelia Capitolin

Post by Secret Alias »

Makes sense.
“Finally, from so little sleeping and so much reading, his brain dried up and he went completely out of his mind.”
― Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, Don Quixote
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MrMacSon
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Re: New Perspectives about the Foundation of Aelia Capitolin

Post by MrMacSon »

Secret Alias wrote:Makes sense.
What makes sense? Putting the thread in the 'Jewish Texts & History' section? Or the contents of the article?
Secret Alias
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Re: New Perspectives about the Foundation of Aelia Capitolin

Post by Secret Alias »

The conclusions of the author. It does possibly put the story of Hadrian plowing over the capital with oxen in a new light.
“Finally, from so little sleeping and so much reading, his brain dried up and he went completely out of his mind.”
― Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, Don Quixote
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