Plato
Member
Hi all. Just thought I'd post some stuff in this section about Biblical Holy Land anthropology/ archeology I've researched that people might find interesting or for discussion.
I thought I'd start with Jesus tomb and the Holy Sepulchure Church in Jerusalem. After Roman emperor Hadrian destroyed Jerusalem and removed it from the earth after the last Roman-Jewish War 132-136AD, depopulated Judea and exiled the Jews...he is said to have built a temple to Venus on the spot of ground where Christ's tomb had been, and a temple to Zeus-Jupiter on the temple mount spot where the Jewish Temple had been, for his new all Roman city of Aelia Capitolina on the ground that had been Jerusalem, all by 140AD.
To build the Venus temple he filled in the below ground level ex quarry and cemetery of rock cut tombs where Jesus tomb was with earth for a flat surface and built the temple on top.
After Rome started turning Christian (313AD) the Venus temple was removed 324/325AD. An official Roman government commission sent by emperor Constantine and figureheaded by his mother arrived to find the Christian holy spots in Aelia. They had the soil removed and the quarry/ cemetery uncovered and according to their reports had no trouble locating Christ's tomb from the Christian inscriptions on it. Constantine then had the 1st Holy Sepulchure church built over and around it 325-333AD as a grand affair of interlocking courtyards, Roman collonades and shrines.
The church was improved and rebuilt in the 400's and 500's as rich Christian Romans settled in the holy city (by then renamed Jerusalem) fleeing Rome and Italy which was lost to the Romans in the 400's. By the 500's the church was described as one of the most beautiful buildings in the world, with 3 golden domes, a Roman basilica, and covered in jewels and gold. Each year at Easter a procession was held to it through Jerusalem for 100,000 pilgrims.
In the last Roman-Persian War 608AD-629AD Jerusalem was taken 614 by a Jewish army raised in Persian Iraq, mercenaries for the Persians. They massacred all the city's Christian population they could find and in religious zeal desecrated the tomb and looted the church (much to the Persians displeasure, who wanted the loot for themselves and rich live Christians for taxes and ransom). The Romans/Byzantines won the war by 629 and in 630AD the rededicated church was reopened, but then all the city was surrendered/ lost to Muslim invaders 638AD.
As part of the 638AD surrender terms the Muslims promised to respect all the Christian religious sites, a promise they basically kept until the ****e Fatima Caliph of Egypt al Hakim 996-1021 (the mad Caliph) who tortured, murdered, persecuted everyone who was not a Muslim (and many Muslims too). He had the church totally destroyed and dismantled, the tomb of Jesus desecrated chopped up and removed from the earth. His shocking act was a major cause of the Crusades of the 1090's. With insane Hakim gone in 1021 the Muslims allowed the Christians to start rebuilding at the site by 1050 but not much work was complete by the run up to the Crusades starting in the 1070's.
When the Crusaders took Jerusalem 1099 they rebuilt the church in the fortress style with stone dome that still exists today. They said they found the floor and part of a wall of Christs tomb (all that was left by the Muslims) and this time covered it in stone and concrete for protection in a shrine inside the church. The way the Crusaders left things in the 1200's is pretty much how the church is today.
Modern archeology has uncoved again the 1st century Jewish quarry/cemetery and rock cut tombs under and around the church.
I thought I'd start with Jesus tomb and the Holy Sepulchure Church in Jerusalem. After Roman emperor Hadrian destroyed Jerusalem and removed it from the earth after the last Roman-Jewish War 132-136AD, depopulated Judea and exiled the Jews...he is said to have built a temple to Venus on the spot of ground where Christ's tomb had been, and a temple to Zeus-Jupiter on the temple mount spot where the Jewish Temple had been, for his new all Roman city of Aelia Capitolina on the ground that had been Jerusalem, all by 140AD.
To build the Venus temple he filled in the below ground level ex quarry and cemetery of rock cut tombs where Jesus tomb was with earth for a flat surface and built the temple on top.
After Rome started turning Christian (313AD) the Venus temple was removed 324/325AD. An official Roman government commission sent by emperor Constantine and figureheaded by his mother arrived to find the Christian holy spots in Aelia. They had the soil removed and the quarry/ cemetery uncovered and according to their reports had no trouble locating Christ's tomb from the Christian inscriptions on it. Constantine then had the 1st Holy Sepulchure church built over and around it 325-333AD as a grand affair of interlocking courtyards, Roman collonades and shrines.
The church was improved and rebuilt in the 400's and 500's as rich Christian Romans settled in the holy city (by then renamed Jerusalem) fleeing Rome and Italy which was lost to the Romans in the 400's. By the 500's the church was described as one of the most beautiful buildings in the world, with 3 golden domes, a Roman basilica, and covered in jewels and gold. Each year at Easter a procession was held to it through Jerusalem for 100,000 pilgrims.
In the last Roman-Persian War 608AD-629AD Jerusalem was taken 614 by a Jewish army raised in Persian Iraq, mercenaries for the Persians. They massacred all the city's Christian population they could find and in religious zeal desecrated the tomb and looted the church (much to the Persians displeasure, who wanted the loot for themselves and rich live Christians for taxes and ransom). The Romans/Byzantines won the war by 629 and in 630AD the rededicated church was reopened, but then all the city was surrendered/ lost to Muslim invaders 638AD.
As part of the 638AD surrender terms the Muslims promised to respect all the Christian religious sites, a promise they basically kept until the ****e Fatima Caliph of Egypt al Hakim 996-1021 (the mad Caliph) who tortured, murdered, persecuted everyone who was not a Muslim (and many Muslims too). He had the church totally destroyed and dismantled, the tomb of Jesus desecrated chopped up and removed from the earth. His shocking act was a major cause of the Crusades of the 1090's. With insane Hakim gone in 1021 the Muslims allowed the Christians to start rebuilding at the site by 1050 but not much work was complete by the run up to the Crusades starting in the 1070's.
When the Crusaders took Jerusalem 1099 they rebuilt the church in the fortress style with stone dome that still exists today. They said they found the floor and part of a wall of Christs tomb (all that was left by the Muslims) and this time covered it in stone and concrete for protection in a shrine inside the church. The way the Crusaders left things in the 1200's is pretty much how the church is today.
Modern archeology has uncoved again the 1st century Jewish quarry/cemetery and rock cut tombs under and around the church.