The discovery of the Acra’s foundations ends over a century of intense speculation over its location, the archaeologists said Tuesday.
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The stronghold ruins were unearthed from beneath a parking lot in Jerusalem, Israeli’s Antiquities Authority said. Hebrew teachings remember Antiochus as the one who issued a ban on Jewish religious rites that prompted the Maccabean Revolt, which Hannukah celebrates. Biblical mentions of the fortress are in the first and second Book of Maccabees, as well as in writings by famous Jewish historian Josephus. Many thought it stood in what is now Jerusalem’s walled Old City, at spots such as the Church of the Holy Sepulchre or by the hilltop where two Jewish temples once towered and now house the Al Aqsa mosque compound.
Archaeologists overseeing the Israel Antiquities Authority excavation project called the discovery “sensational”, explaining that it has allowed them to understand the layout of the city at the time of the Maccabean Revolt. The glacis, which was built next to the wall, is a defensive sloping embankment composed of layers of soil, stone and plaster, created to keep attackers away from the base of the wall.
The Acra fortress remained a symbolic and strategic foothold of Seleucid power in Jerusalem until it was finally conquered by Simon Maccabeus in 141 BCE, after a long siege during which the Hasmonean king essentially starved out the Greek defenders.
The excavations under the parking lot have been going on for over a decade, but it was only in recent months when excavators found evidence of the 2000-year-old fort.
Antiochus, who lived from 215-164 BC, chose the spot for the Acra in order to control the city and monitor activity in the Jewish temple, said Doron Ben-Ami, who led the excavation.
Additional forensic evidence identifying the people inside this fort included numerous coins dated to the time of the Antiochus emperors, and wine jars traced back to the Aegean Sea near Greece. “The Givati excavation continues to uncover numerous artifacts from more than 10 different ancient cultures from Jerusalem’s history”. “We were very interested in their opinions, and once we had everything presented in front of all our colleagues and experts and we had many conversations”, they felt confident in presenting their discovery to the public, Ben-Ami said. Lead slingshots, bronze arrowheads and ballista stones – all stamped with a trident, the symbol of Antiochus Epiphanes’ reign – were dug up next to the massive wall.
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“….and when he had overthrown the city walls, he built a citadel [Greek: Acra] in the lower part of the city, for the place was high, and overlooked the temple; on which account he fortified it with high walls and towers, and put into it a garrison of Macedonians”.
