(Jewish Daily Bulletin)
A copy of the annual report of the American School of Oriental Research at Jerusalem has been received here by Dr. George A. Barton, of the University of Pennsylvania, who is secretary of the Board of Trustees of the Jerusalem institution.
Dr. W. F. Albright, director of the School, writes that excavations have been made lately along the line of the Agrippan wall by the Jewish Palestine Exploration Society, under the direction of Dr. L. Mayer and E. L. Sukenik.
Dr. Albright reports that the excavations, in connection with previously made explorations, reveal that, in his opinion, the wall was a Roman city wall, evidently that begun by Agrippa and hastily completed by the Jews before the final siege of the city.
Archaeologists, including the Americans, Robinson, Merrill and Paton, have been attempting to locate the Holy Sepulcher in which Jesus was placed after the crucifixion, and the excavations have been made for that purpose. According to the New Testament, Jesus suffered “without the gate.” Just where this gate was is a matter of old dispute, but it had been believed by some it was along the wall now determined as that started by Agrippa. Since this wall was completed by the Jews shortly before the year 70 of the Christian era, or just before Titus destroyed Jerusalem, it has become certain it played no part in the life story of Jesus.
Another wall in Jerusalem that has been excavated is believed by Dr. Albright to have been part of the Roman city of Aelia Capitolina, built about 130 of the Christian era, on a portion of the old site of Jerusalem, long after the destruction of the city by Titus.
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