Monastery of the Virgins

The large number of Christian items found in the structure have led to its identification with a monastery described by Theodosius the archdeacon in his De Situ Terrae Sanctae ('On the Topography of the Holy Land'). Theodosius describes a monastery of nuns at the foot of the Temple Mount's southeastern corner:^[1][4]

Down below the pinnacle of the Temple is a monastery of virgins, and whenever one of them passes from this life, she is buried there inside the monastery. All their lives they never go out of the door by which they entered this place. The door is opened only for a nun or a penitent who wishes to join the monastery, but otherwise the virgins are always shut in. Their food is let down to them from the walls, but they have their water there in cisterns.^[14]

The excavators believe that the monastery had initially occupied the entire structure. In the 5th century, however, Jerusalem was granted patriarchal status and the following century saw the city develop and expand. As population density in Jerusalem grew, the needs of numerous pilgrims to the holy city led to a reduction in the monastery's area in favour of public facilities. In the mid-6th century, two wings were detached from the monastery and sealed off, the northern wing to act as a public kitchen and the southern converted into a row of shops.^[4][6] Food for the monastery was prepared in the public kitchen and delivered through two windows left open between the two sections of the building.^[2]

Adjacent buildings have aided the identification of the building as a monastery. 6 feet (1.8 m) from the Temple Mount wall, behind the monastery, stood a vaulted chamber with a sloping floor. This has been identified as a collection vat for wine, above which once stood a winery, a common feature of Byzantine monasteries. A two-story structure to the east of the monastery may have served as a hospice. Thirty well-preserved rooms were found on its ground floor, as was a red cross painted on a lintel in the building, and large watering pool on the outside.^[7]

While the building certainly was a monastery, certain finds nevertheless cast doubt on its identification with Theodosius' Monastery of the Virgins. Theodosius's description dates from the early 6th century, while the structural modifications isolating the central portion have only been dated to the mid 6th century, and possibly later. Furthermore, Greek inscriptions found in the building feature no women, only men, including one reading "for the offering and salvation of the Timotheus the priest".^[5]

The identification of the site with Theodosius' monastery was first proposed by Yizhar Hirschfeld. Yoram Tsafrir has suggested that the monastery may have been located on the slopes below of the Temple Mount which have not yet been excavated or even in the hollows of the Temple Mount itself, within Solomon's Stables. No evidence has been found to corroborate either suggestions.^[2]

Underneath the coarse stones of the Byzantine walls, the walls of the monastery were built of large finely dressed stones, plastered and molded at the joints, a feature of Herodian construction. The monastery had been built over the remains of a large Second Temple-era building which had stood adjacent to a major entrance to the Herodian Temple Mount. Benjamin Mazar had suggested that this may have been a courthouse of the Sanhedrin, the supreme Jewish judicial and legislative body, a building referred to in the Mishnah, Tractate Sanhedrin 11.2. Additional support for this identification comes from a fragment of a Hebrew inscription found nearby. The inscription contained the word "[z]kenim" ('elders'), probably referring to the Sanhedrin.^[7]

Although completed in 1977, the results of the Temple Mount excavations had not been published by Benjamin Mazar's death in 1995. In 1996, the Institute of Archaeology of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem authorized his granddaughter, Eilat Mazar, to publish the finds. Eilat Mazar had been her grandfather's research assistant, an area supervisor in the nearby City of David excavations, and had directed her own excavation in the Ophel in 1986-1987. The excavation report for area XV and the Monastery of the Virgins was finally published in 2003.^[5][7]

• Mazar, Eilat (1999). The Monastery of the Virgins - Byzantine Period - Temple Mount Excavations in Jerusalem. Institute of Archaeology, Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
• Mazar, Eilat (2002). The Complete Guide to the Temple Mount Excavations. Jerusalem: Shoham Academic Research and Publication. ISBN 965-90299-1-8.
• Mazar, Eilat (2003). The Temple Mount Excavations in Jerusalem 1968–1978 Directed by Benjamin Mazar Final Reports Vol. II: The Byzantine and Early Islamic Periods. Qedem. Vol. 43. Jerusalem: Institute of Archaeology, Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
• Wilkinson, John (1977). Jerusalem pilgrims before the Crusades. Aris & Phillips. ISBN 978-0-85668-078-6.