It was in a dry moat in old Jerusalem. The Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) reported an interesting eye-catching find. It is the millennia-old imprint of a hand, carved in stone.
It appeared in the centrally located Sultan Suleiman Street, as part of an urban infrastructure improvement project. Construction workers made the find. Suleiman Street runs alongside the city walls, bordering it. A deep moat, dug into the rock, was found there. It would be from the 10th century, “or possibly earlier,” according to the IAA statement. There they saw, then, a handprint, carved into the stone.
Dreaded moat
The moat is 10 meters wide and two to seven meters deep. It surrounded the entire city of Jerusalem at that time, explained Zubair Adawi. He is the AAI’s director of excavations. “The street is built directly over a large moat. Its function was to prevent enemies from approaching the walls,” he said.
The defenses were strong. The Crusader army that arrived in June 1099 took about five weeks to cross the moat. The stone walls of the Old City that are visible today were built in the 16th century. They were built by the Turkish Ottoman Sultan Suleiman I the Magnificent.
“The fortifications of Jerusalem were formidable and complex. They comprised walls and elements to contain the large armies that assaulted the city,” the expert said. “The armies had to cross the deep moat. And behind it, two additional thick fortification walls. Meanwhile the soldiers defending the city on the walls threw fire and brimstone on them.”
The hand in the stone
Burning sulfur, which produces noxious fumes, was used to deter invaders. As if all that were not enough, the moat also had secret tunnels. They allowed soldiers to run out and attack the army before slipping back into the fortifications.
“Many dreamed and fought for Jerusalem. And the city’s fortifications are a silent testimony to that,” noted IAA director Eli Escuzido. “The archaeological finds allow us to almost visualize the dramatic events that the city underwent,” he concluded. The millenary imprint of a hand, surely, lived a convulsive and intense period, which still echoes in its walls.
