My first semester here I was required to do "impression reports" for the Physical Settings class, and I posted most of them to kill two birds with one stone. Since I was required to write about our field studies, I figured I might as well use those to inform friends and family of what I had been doing as well. Since this is Andrew's first time in Physical Settings, now it's his turn to write impression reports. I'll be posting a few of them here too. It won't be anything especially new for those of you who have either read my blog or have been here yourself. Still, it's always good to review, and it can be helpful to get a new perspective. So, without further ado...Here are Andrew's thoughts on his first field study, supplemented with pictures from both him and me.
Impression Report, Old City Field Study
Andrew Sharp September, 9th, 2013
We went to
the garden outback where we discussed our blue books and tools and general
class overview stuff.
Then off we went.
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| Out the gate... |
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| Down the hill.. |
First we walked the watershed ridge,
the high point of the mountains running north and south just west of the rift
valley. The ridge was a “watershed” because it's the geographic point where
water begins to go east into the valley or west towards the sea. This
officially puts Jerusalem in a rain shadow, but not by much, and with the
underground watershed being further west it catches much of what comes off the
ridge, and funnels it into the underground springs that head east, one of which
being the Gihon Spring.
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| On the watershed ridge, looking over to JUC and Mt. Zion |
Next we got
a feel for land marks and major routes through the area in Old Testament times
as well as the names of the valleys. Talking of the Hinnom valley, and how the
western hill was not nearly so occupied as it is now (if at all) in the times
of the Patriarchs.
We discussed
water conditions in light of the water park just across the valley from JUC.
Mentioning how Israel has far less water than many places and how the fresh
water is very valuable and shouldn't be wasted. And yet hundreds if not
thousands are surely wasted at the park each year.
After that
we discussed the old wall, and it's different ages, where it should be built in
order to best work as a defense,
and Alana pretended Vernon was Jesus and
played the part of Zacchaeus climbing a tree to see and hear him.
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| View from the tree |
The Old City
Wall has been knocked down and rebuilt in varying degrees and times leaving the
wall built out of stone that looks visibly somewhat different in cut. It was
also not built on the steepest part of the hill, nor around mt. Zion for which
some foremen were killed. The problem this posed was fairly simple. If your
enemey must climb uphill just to reach your wall, he's moving slower, more
susceptible to large stones tossed down the hill from over the wall, or arrows.
Not to mention it's far more difficult to use a ladder or battering ram in
those conditions, and any hook and rope system used to pull the wall down would
need to be very very long, to avoid pulling the rock down on top of your men.
Next into the
old city and through Zion Gate, then out into the parking lot to look out
towards the south and east, orienting ourselves and looking towards the city of
David and the Tyropean valley between. It turns out Orienting yourself is
facing east, as the east is the direction of the Orient. Which puts the mount
of olives directly into our range of vision, way out past the temple mount.
Then the
Cardo.
The Cardo is the name to the central street in town that runs north
south, and the main street running east west was called the Decumanus. Being
used to divide a city into easy disctricts, it was a Roman concept as they
liked cities squared, and symmetrical. Here we stopped in the cool of the shade
and imagined the many different vendors selling their wares to travelers. An
image not too hard to imagine. Even these days going down the streets in the
Old City is similar, many merchants and stores, all trying to get you to come
take a look and purchase their wares.
Then we went
off to the western wall observation point, and back above the old Cardo.
Then
finally off to the church of the Holy Sepulcher.
Inside we went to the chapel
of Adam under Greek Calvary where Adam is believed to have been buried
according to Greek orthodox theology. And while we were there we had to wait
while a ceremony was held over the stone of unction. The stone of unction being
the kind of stone thought to have been used when removing Jesus body from the
cross. One wonders how those large nails were removed. I'd imagine they would
have been long enough that maybe they were driven through and out the back of
the cross, and a hammer taken to the tip would help them come back out, if not,
I can't imagine a quick easy way to do the job without damaging the body.
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| In the Syriac Chapel |
After that
we went to the first century tomb and took a look around the rotunda and peeked
at the Catholicon. Then we headed on out and home.
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| At another look-out point...Andrew finally escaped! |
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