Archival notes on Robinson's Arch and the Temple Mount/Haram al-Sharif in Jerusalem

Abstract

The archive of the Palestine Exploration Fund is a rich depository of material of historical value, comprising photographs, hand-written letters, maps and drawings, and serving scholars across the world. It includes primary documentation relating to the sacred enclosure of the Haram al-Sharif in Jerusalem, which was the focus of research made by Ermete Pierotti, Charles W. Wilson, Charles Warren, Claude Regnier Conder, Clermont-Ganneau, and Conrad Schick, among others. This paper examines materials relating to the original function of Robinson's Arch, with the suggestion that already in 1867 Warren was the first to recognize it as an arch for a flight of stairs, rather than as part of a viaduct bridge crossing the Tyropoeon Valley which was the consensus of opinion prevailing until late in the twentieth century. This paper also investigates a little-known clash that took place in 1880 between two of the pioneers of Jerusalem archaeology, namely Wilson and Warren. The result of this dispute was the publication in 1884 of the now greatly regarded large format portfolio of maps and plans of the Temple Mount (‘Warren's Atlas’), which has been an enormous boon for research on ancient Jerusalem ever since. Finally, this paper looks at the possibility that subterranean vaulted chambers may have existed within the north-eastern angle of the Haram al-Sharif, if we accept the accuracy of Schick's model of the Haram from 1873 and a description of exploration of subterranean chambers in that area made by Peter Richardson in a letter to the PEF from 1874.

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