Reconstructing the High Priest’s Palace

In the 1980s, Israeli archaeologists excavated a large residential building not far from the Temple Mount, which they conjectured had belonged to the high priest or kohen gadol—the direct descendent of Aaron responsible for performing the most important rituals in the Temple. Leen Ritmeyer describes the building, and provides photographs of the excavation along with his own intricate drawings of its layout:

This mansion may have been built by Annas who was high priest from 6 until 15 CE, as he was one of the few people who could have afforded to build such a large and lavishly decorated residence. The family of Annas was very wealthy as they controlled the Temple market that was set up in the Temple courts and out of bounds for normal moneychangers. Josephus called one of the sons of Annas “a great hoarder of money.”

This building covers 600 square meters and is one of the largest residences dating from the Second Temple period ever uncovered, not only in Jerusalem, but in the whole of the country. This mansion is located on the eastern edge of the southwestern hill that slopes down to the Tyropoeon Valley. Overlooking the Temple Mount, it would have been considered prime real estate in the 1st century CE, as indeed it is today.

The structure is built on two levels, each consisting of two stories and has many rooms built around a central open courtyard. The walls of several of these rooms were decorated with fresco and stucco designs. Seven rooms had mosaic floors, three of which were decorated with colorful carpets.

Eight mikva’ot (ritual baths), catering to the purification requirements of the residents, were found in the mansion, indicating that the complex was occupied by priests who served in the Temple.

Read more at Ritmeyer Archaeological Design

More about: Ancient Israel, Archaeology, High priest, Jerusalem

What a Strategic Victory in Gaza Can and Can’t Achieve

On Tuesday, the Israeli defense minister Yoav Gallant met in Washington with Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin. Gallant says that he told the former that only “a decisive victory will bring this war to an end.” Shay Shabtai tries to outline what exactly this would entail, arguing that the IDF can and must attain a “strategic” victory, as opposed to merely a tactical or operational one. Yet even after a such a victory Israelis can’t expect to start beating their rifles into plowshares:

Strategic victory is the removal of the enemy’s ability to pose a military threat in the operational arena for many years to come. . . . This means the Israeli military will continue to fight guerrilla and terrorist operatives in the Strip alongside extensive activity by a local civilian government with an effective police force and international and regional economic and civil backing. This should lead in the coming years to the stabilization of the Gaza Strip without Hamas control over it.

In such a scenario, it will be possible to ensure relative quiet for a decade or more. However, it will not be possible to ensure quiet beyond that, since the absence of a fundamental change in the situation on the ground is likely to lead to a long-term erosion of security quiet and the re-creation of challenges to Israel. This is what happened in the West Bank after a decade of relative quiet, and in relatively stable Iraq after the withdrawal of the United States at the end of 2011.

Read more at BESA Center

More about: Gaza War 2023, Hamas, IDF