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當神的聖殿坐立在耶路撒冷的日子時,每户家庭須繳付“半舍客勒”銀幣作為維修和供奉聖殿之用。為了要揭開埋藏於聖殿山土堆中的考古秘密,我們的聖殿山篩分工程已進行了超過十年時間。今天,我們到了一個關鍵的轉折點 ── 研究並發表成千上萬件出土文物的成果。為此,聖殿山篩分工程誠意向您作出呼籲,需要您們伸出援手,捐出屬於您們的“半舍客勒”來資助這項重要工作。現在請即把握機會,與我們一同揭示耶路撒冷遠古的輝煌。

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聖殿山篩分工程簡介

自古以來,聖殿山一直是世界三大單一主神論信仰的聖地。已過一千三百年,這裡一直在穆斯林的控制之下; 礙於穆斯林的敏感政治,有系統的考古發掘一直未被批准。 1967年,在六日戰爭後,以色列允許瓦合甫(管理聖殿山的穆斯林信託機構)維持其對聖殿山的控制。

以色列文物法要求,在考古遺址上進行建築工程前必須先進行搶救挖掘。然而,在1999年,瓦合甫無視該法例,為了加建一個清真寺出入口,強行用推土機在聖殿山上挖出一個大坑,傾倒約400輛卡車、重9000萬噸、滿佈考古文物的泥土於附近的汲淪谷(Kidron Valley),

重型機械在挖掘新的入口通往「所羅門馬厩」(1999年11月)。該工程在沒有考古監督下完成,共挖走了9000噸蘊藏了豐富古文物的泥土。

使這些珍貴的文物從此與遺址分離。儘管如此,考古學家Gabriel Barkay博士和Zachi Dvira博士深知這些被棄置的泥土蘊藏了聖殿山歷史的寶貴資料,於是在2004年,他們抓住這個難得的機會,成立了聖殿山篩分工程,目的是搶救這批遠古文物和進行考古研究,從而提高我們對聖殿山考古歷史的認識。

多年來,這項工程已成為一個全球性的教育項目,吸引了超過15萬名自願者參與,參加人數史無前例,超越了世界上其他所有考古工程。這種熱誠印證了聖殿山及其出土文物的重要性。此外,我們還邀請公眾透過一個載有文物圖像的特別網站,協助我們確定一些難以鑑別的文物。這樣一個全球性公眾參與的規模,在考古史上絕無僅有,也成為工程繼續運作和發展的關鍵。

詩篇中生動地表達了這個理念:

“你的僕人原來喜悅她的石頭、恩待她的塵土”(詩102:14-15)

現在,我們誠邀您參與這項工程的下一個階段,伸出援手,資助我們分析出土文物和發表考古成果。

由於聖殿山從未被挖掘過,在這項篩分工程中所發現的遠古文物便提供了前所未有的寶貴資料。縱使這些文物已不在歷史原址,它們大部份仍可以藉著與其他考古遺址出土的文物作比較來識別和鑑定其年代。我們已經開發了新技術來研究聖殿山的出土文物,並應用先進的定量和分析方法,深入了解文物在瓦礫中的分佈的重要性。

聖殿山出土文物發現

我們篩分的每一桶泥土,包含了聖殿山自三千年前建立以來,幾乎每一個時期的古文物 。最常見的類別有陶器碎片、玻璃容器件、金屬物件、動物骨頭、加工石料和馬賽克石嵌片。

除了一般類別以外,還有許多有趣的發現,如石器碎片、珠寶、珠子、陶俑、箭鏃和其他武器裝備、砝碼、衣服輔料、遊戲棋子和骰子、骨頭和貝殼鑲嵌件、家具裝飾、裝飾品、骨頭和象牙製品,以及刻有文字的石頭和陶器碎片。也有一些精巧的建築遺跡,包括柱身和柱頭的碎片、馬賽克地板碎片、花磚飾面(opus Sectile)地磚、壁畫(彩色石膏件)和釉面牆磚。時至今日,篩分工程已發掘出超過五千枚金幣,從公元前4世紀的細小銀幣到近代的鑄幣,其中有一些非常罕見、有趣的硬幣,如半舍客勒銀幣,在下面有更詳細的論述。

Various pieces of jewelry from different periods. Materials include semi-precious stones, glass, bronze, silver and gold.

不同時期的珠寶首飾。材料包括寶石、玻璃、銅、銀和金。

Selected coins from the Second Temple Period

第二聖殿時期的硬幣。

第一聖殿時期(公元前1000年至586年,從大衛王到第一聖殿被毀),有大量碗、盆罐和壺的陶器碎片,以及酒杯、支架、搖鈴和陶俑(主要是四足動物,也有人形女性雕像)。這一時期的其他發現包括投石、石砝碼、所羅門王時期的青銅箭頭、巴比倫軍隊摧毀第一聖殿時所用的罕見青銅箭頭。印刻文物包括陶片(ostraca )(陶刻碎片)和印璽(bullae)。其中一個印章刻有希伯來文的名字אִמֶר和ליהו,意為“(屬於)[…] lyahu(的兒子)Immer”。Immer是耶利米書和歷代志中提到的祭司家族名稱。該印章是迄今首個在聖殿山被發現的古希伯來文刻文,印證了第一聖殿時期的行政活動。其他發現包括一個所羅門王時期的錐形封印,上面描繪了兩隻動物;一個繪有羚羊的黑色石封印,還有一個用藍色青金石製成的封印。

公元前10世紀,所羅門王時期的青銅箭頭。這一時期的箭頭很少在以色列發現,或許證明在此期間有軍隊駐守在耶路撒冷和聖殿山。

公元前7世紀的印章,刻有古希伯來文,是迄今首個在聖殿山發現的古希伯來銘文,證明了第一聖殿時期的行政活動。

第二聖殿時期(公元前515年至公元70年),聖殿及其中庭進行了多項建築工程,主要在希律王及其後裔統治期間。這時期的出土文物包括大量的陶器碎片,主要來自煮食用盆罐,還有許多焚燒過的家畜骨頭。這些發現可能與有文字記載的大規模朝聖活動有關。在篩分過程中也發現了建築遺跡碎片,可能是屬於環繞聖殿山的華麗柱廊,甚至可能是聖殿本身的遺跡!

我們其中一個觸目的發現,是一批超過一千件各種形狀、大小和顏色的地磚碎片。這些地磚被鑑定為羅馬帝國時期用來鋪路的花磚飾面(opus Sectile),地磚以各種方式組合成豐富的幾何圖案。弗拉維奧.約瑟夫斯(Flavius Josephus)的著作裡表明了這種技術是用於裝飾環繞聖殿的露天庭院:“整個露天庭院鋪設了各類石頭”(猶太戰史5.5.2)。約瑟夫斯的描述與我們的發現完全一致,讓我們能夠全面重組聖殿山的地台面貌。

我們發掘出羅馬帝國時期的箭頭,可能是用於聖殿被毀前羅馬軍隊的圍攻戰。篩分過的泥土中含有大量遭大火多次焚燒過的灰燼,這也可印證聖殿的被毀。

A fragment of an elaborately decorated frieze. The design is of an acanthus leaf typical of Herodian architecture. The stone has burn marks and may have originated in the Temple itself!

一塊精緻的橫飾帶碎片,採用爵床葉式設計,屬典型的希律建築風格。石塊上有燒過的痕跡,可能是來自聖殿本身!

Floor tiles of various shapes, colors and sizes that were used in the opus Sectile Roman Paving technique in royal structures. This type of floor is mentioned in the writings of Flavius Josephus regarding the floor of the open courts that surrounded the Temple.

各種形狀、顏色和大小的地磚,用於羅馬帝國時期,以花磚飾面來鋪設皇家建築路面。這類地板在弗拉維奧.約瑟夫斯(Flavius Josephus)的著作中有提及,用於鋪設環繞聖殿的露天庭院。

A suggested reconstruction of the Temple courts according to Flavius Josephus’ writings and the floor tiles found at the Sifting Project.

聖殿庭院的重組面貌,根據弗拉維奧.約瑟夫斯(Flavius Josephus)的著作以及聖殿山篩分工程所發現的地磚。

我們在後期羅馬帝國時期(公元70年至324年)的發現並不如其他時期多,但確實反映了當時聖殿在羅馬帝國控制時的異教風俗。這些發現包括泥俑、硬幣、陶器、遊戲棋子及骨頭器具工場的遺跡。

羅馬帝國時期常見的骨頭和象牙骰子。根據猶太經典律法米書拿,凡擲骰賭博的人不能作見證人(Sanhedrim 24 b)。

拜占庭時期(公元324年至638年),也留下了豐富的考古遺跡,包括馬賽克石嵌片、屋頂瓦片、科林斯圆柱、教堂聖壇屏飾和大量硬幣。陶器包括大量油燈,有的刻有錯拼的希臘文字,有的印有十字架形狀的燈手柄。有一組具有不同風格和材料的十字架形吊墜屬重要發現,當中有些顯示了耶穌圖像的浮雕或陰刻圖。這一時期的豐富發現挑戰了傳統認為聖殿山在此期間被荒廢的假設。

Byzantine period marble and limestone architectural fragments.

拜占庭時期的大理石和石灰石建築碎片。

有大量的發現來自早期伊斯蘭時期(公元640年至1099年 ),圓頂清真寺和阿克薩清真寺皆於該時期建成。這些建築在後期進行了重修,包括拆除早期建築元件,建築廢料被傾倒於聖殿山的東側。在16世紀期間,圓頂清真寺外部的華麗鍍金馬賽克被更換為釉面牆磚,或者是在近代時間,圓頂清真寺和Dome of the Chain的地磚被更換過。篩分工程已經發掘出數万件源自圓頂清真寺外牆上的馬賽克的鍍金鑲嵌塊玻璃立方塊,以及許多大理石建築部份。其中一些建築碎片用於伍麥亞(Umayyad) 建築結構中,它們實際上是源自拜占庭,甚至是第二聖殿時期。此外,我們也發掘出銘刻陶器、珍珠母貝鑲嵌、珠寶、遊戲棋子、玻璃和銘文金屬法碼、大量硬幣(包括金幣)、文字石刻陶刻。

篩分工程的發現大大促進了在十字軍時期(公元1099年至1187年)的聖殿山考古和歷史研究。在此時期,聖殿山常與聖殿騎士團聯繫在一起。騎士團以阿克薩清真寺作為他們的總部,並把東南角大片地庫改為馬厩,稱之為“所羅門馬厩”。我們現時篩分的泥土乃源於所羅門馬厩所在位置,並已發掘出許多十字軍活動的遺跡,包括箭頭、典型歐洲中世紀騎兵用的馬蹄鐵釘和鎧甲片。這些發現為首批考古證據,證明聖殿騎士團曾使用過所羅門馬厩。此外,篩分工程在耶路撒冷發掘出迄今在這一時期最大和最多樣化的銀幣收藏,其中有極為罕見的硬幣和獨一無二的聖殿騎士獎章。十字軍時期的發現包括十字形吊墜、陶器和建築遺跡。我們發現了大量的花磚飾面(opus Sectile)地磚,這些地磚本來裝嵌在圓頂清真寺,在後期被拆除,它們將有助我們重組聖殿山縝密的地台面貌。

Crusader era iron horseshoe nails that attest to horses of the knights Templar in Solomon’s Stables.

十字軍時期的鐵馬蹄釘,證明當時聖殿騎士的馬被安置在所羅門馬厩。

我們發現了大量源自後期伊斯蘭時期(公元1187年至1917年)的建築部分,最觸目的是蘇丹蘇萊曼大帝用來取代裝飾圓頂清真寺外牆用的玻璃馬賽克的石嵌片。此外,數千枚來自馬穆魯克和奧圖曼時期的硬幣將有助這一時期的錢幣研究。同樣,我們亦計劃詳細公佈這一時期豐富的陶器發現。這一時期的其他發現包括珠寶首飾、衣物、軍事徽章和徽章、舊鳥銃和火石、大量奧圖曼帝國煙斗等等。事實證明,篩分工程已成為一個前所未有、有關聖殿山知識的豐富來源。

在聖殿山地土中埋藏了幾千年的考古文物,現在可以首次用科學方法來分析及發表其考古成果,將揭示聖殿山的過去、它的建造者和重建者、它的宗教和社會意義、它的捍衛者和征服者。

今天,工程已踏入十年,約有一半從聖殿山丟棄的泥土已被篩分過。我們會繼續全力以赴,發掘出更多的文物。

聖殿山和這項研究的重要性

“因我的殿必稱為萬民禱告的殿。” (以賽亞書56:7)

全世界一半以上的人口視聖殿山為聖地。根據聖經,聖殿所在之處乃天與地相遇之處,它被指定為所有宗教和民族生活的中心,亦是神的話擴展到全世界的錨點。今天,它乃是猶太教最神聖的聖地,那裡曾是第一和第二聖殿所立之處,直到今天仍是猶太人懇切禱告的焦點。對基督徒來說,它是耶穌所認識的聖殿所在之處。它是伊斯蘭教第三大聖地,圓頂清真寺和阿克薩清真寺所在之處。在聖殿山發生的任何事都會牽動全球目光。

儘管聖殿山在聖經和其他重要古代史料中被無數次提及,它的過去仍是一個謎。由於它的政治敏感度,那裡從未有過任何考古挖掘。由於缺乏考古資料,許多引起學術爭論的歷史問題尚未得到解答。

Map of the Old City of Jerusalem with the major excavated areas in the last 150 years. Note the large blank rectangle of the Temple Mount where no systematic excavation has ever taken place.

耶路撒冷舊城地圖,顯示過去150年期間主要的挖掘地區。 注意﹕地圖上空白矩形位置為聖殿山,那裡從未有過有系統的挖掘。

聖殿山篩分工程讓你有如置身在聖殿山挖掘一樣。過去十年的發掘成果意味著首次有考古資料直接從聖殿山地土中取得。發表這些成果將揭示這一聖地的悠久歷史,有助於排解眾多學術爭論。

例如,有些學者懷疑聖殿山在公元前10世紀期間(所羅門王時期)被耶路撒冷所吞併,並提出耶路撒冷並非一個省會城市,而只是一個小村莊。我們的考古發現反駁了這個極簡主張,並確認了聖經在此時期對耶路撒冷的有關記載。

不幸的是,許多考古挖掘未能成功發表成科學論文。未發表的考古發現沒有多大考古研究價值,就如同它們從未被發現過一樣。對於如此重要的聖殿山出土文物,我們絕不能讓它們遭同樣厄運。

今天,聖殿山的矛盾和糾紛主要來自無知和假謠言。這是我們地上最具爭議的一塊土地。儘管學者們(包括穆斯林學者)對猶太聖殿的存在毫不置疑,但在近幾十年間,巴勒斯坦穆斯林政治領袖嘗試用新理據來完全否定第一和第二聖殿的存在。聖殿山篩分工程的成果發表將開啟有學術基礎的對話,冀望有助減少政治衝突。無知造就更多的矛盾和糾紛,惟有知識能促進我們彼此的了解。

正是如此,我們需要您支持我們的工作,讓我們能揭開聖殿山的重要歷史,避免這些文物和歷史因著野蠻的違法工程而丟失。

我們的經費預算

我們的實驗室放置了超過五十萬件出土文物等待處理和分析,其研究及成果發表實屬艱鉅任務,需要眾多學者的堅毅和專業知識。篩分工場的運作目前由大衛城基金會(the Ir-David Foundation)資助,但我們欠缺研究和成果出版的經費。

我們需要$770,000美元來完成出土文物的分析,並在未來三年內發表報告。這些經費將幫助我們以下需求:

1. 科學評估,包括碳-14同位素放射性定年法、礦物分析、文物保存、電腦統計分析及類型比較數據挖掘,這些均需要尖端的專業知識和高度專業化的實驗室設備 (工程中最昂貴的部分)

2. 高解析度攝影、三維激光掃描、科學繪圖、整理、分類、編輯、修訂和打印初步報告,其全面性和準確性將決定我們最終報告的科學價值

3. 實驗室的日常運作

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半舍客勒運動

聖殿山篩分工程的精神在於志願服務和對公共事務的承擔。

既然您仍在閲讀本文,可見您已明白到這項工程的重要性,並願意與我們一同承擔聖殿山的未來。

在第二聖殿時期,每個人每年須奉獻半舍客勒銀幤作為聖殿的營運經費,以表達他對聖殿的未來的承擔。此稅收的靈感來自聖經出埃及記中記載的義務責任:

“凡被數點的,每人要按聖所的舍客勒,交銀子半舍客勒‥‥半舍客勒作為獻給耶和華。” (出埃及記30:13)

在第二聖殿時期,用來支付該聖殿稅的半舍客勒銀幣是在聖殿山特別鑄造的。我們很幸運地發掘出這樣一個銀幣,該銀幣鑄造於猶太人起義反抗羅馬征服者的第一年間(66/67 CE)!銀幣的一面描繪了三棵石榴,還有“聖城耶路撒冷”的題字(ירושליםהקדושה)。另一面則有一個杯子和刻有“半舍客勒”(חציהשקל)的字樣。這個罕有的發現啟發了我們推出“半舍客勒運動",讓我們每個人都可以有份於這項工程,一同揭開聖殿山不為人知的故事。

A rare silver half-shekel coin found in the sifting. Obverse: A chalice from the Temple topped by the letter aleph, meaning “Year One”. Around it are the words “half a shekel”. Reverse: A branch with three pomegranates surrounded by the words “Holy Jerusalem”. These coins were used for paying the annual Temple tax according to the Biblical commandment in Exodus 30:13-15.

在篩分過程中發現的罕有半舍客勒銀幣。 正面:一隻聖殿聖杯,上面刻有ALEPH字母,意為“元年”,周邊寫著“半舍客勒”。 反面:一條樹枝上有三棵石榴,還有“聖城耶路撒冷”的題字。 這些硬幣用於支付每年的聖殿稅,乃按照聖經出埃及記30:13-15記載的律例。

半舍客勒的現值

舍客勒的現值可以用它在聖經時代的購買力來估算。在會幕中使用的舍客勒相等於二十格拉。“格拉"是當時一個工人的一日工資,因此半舍客勒相當於今天藍領工人十天的工資。

你工作十天能賺多少?

A four gera weight that was found in the sifting (First Temple period)

在篩分過程中發現的四格拉砝碼(第一聖殿時期)

我們不期望每個人都能捐出這一筆款項,但我們期望您有所啟發,意識到任何人都可在某程度上資助我們的工作。若您也與我們一樣關心聖殿山的未來,您的半舍客勒就可用來協助我們揭開聖殿山中埋藏的寶藏。

只要我們每二十位參與者當中有一位捐出50美元,我們便可達到這一關鍵目標。

支持這項工程的其他方式

即使您未能捐出半舍客勒,您也可以透過社交媒體(Facebook、Twitter)分享我們的網站和視頻。您可以在您的社區,甚至是餐桌上,提高人們對聖殿山篩分工程的認識,為這個世界上最神聖聖地之一的歷史來發聲。

若您仍未參觀在耶路撒冷Emek Zurim國家公園的篩分工場,我們鼓勵您帶同朋友前來參觀。請即加入我們,一同來發掘聖殿山的古代遺跡。若要得知如何參加,請點擊這裡

未能達到$ 500K目標的後果

這次募捐所籌集的資金將對這項工程提供極大幫助。我們估計整個出版過程的預算為$ 1,000,000,這包括我們在過去三年中已用於考古研究的初期資金。我們最近成功籌集更多的資金,讓我們能繼續進行這項工作多一年。

我們考古報告的質量有賴於這次募捐所籌集的資金。若資金較少,我們能出版一份基本的考古報告,但更多的資金能讓我們發表更完善的報告,其中將包括先進的科研方法、記錄和分析。

我們決心要出版這份考古報告。現在,我們誠邀您一同參與,來決定考古報告的質量。正如我們上面所提到的,篩分聖殿山的泥土並非一小群考古學家的權利和義務。同樣,資助出版這些篩分所得的考古發現也不應局限於一小群慈善家,而是廣大市民所共享的權利。

幕後團隊

這項運動的推行有賴許許多多的人付出了他們的時間和精力。我們不可能在此逐一的感謝他們,但我們想在此提及一批在幕後孜孜不倦工作的人員和志願者。

首先要提的是篩分工場的工作人員,他們每天都在塵土飛揚下工作,清洗石頭,發掘考古文物,展示給來到工場的訪客。其次是實驗室的考古學家,他們在過去三年艱辛工作,研究眾多文物,準備出版其考古成果。

還有為數眾多的志願者,他們有些幫助撰寫、校對和翻譯文本成各種語言,有些幫助拍攝和剪輯視頻、編寫視頻音樂,並在網絡上推廣這項運動,沒有他們,這項運動將不可能實現。

我們非常感謝過去一直支持這項工程多年的私人捐助者,以及最近有份舉辦籌款活動的捐助者,他們的慷慨捐款使我們能繼續進行研究和推行這項運動。

您的半舍客勒捐獻將有助於揭開聖殿山的故事。您的支持悠關重要。請即點擊,捐贈給我們的工程﹗logos small and spaced outTranslated by Binyamin Cheng

 

Hidden
8 年 前
$70
Netherlands  Gelderland
Emst
Hidden
8 年 前
$70
Netherlands  Utrecht
Houten
Brian Janeway
8 年 前
$50
United States  Florida
MIAMI
Steeven MALLET
8 年 前
$40
United States  NY
New York
Reuven Goldfarb
8 年 前
$72
Israel
Tzfat
MP Dokken
8 年 前
$25
United States  California
Banning
MP Dokken
8 年 前
$45
United States  California
Banning
Marianne Schwach
8 年 前
$20
Austria  Österreich
Vienna
Elisabeth Berg
8 年 前
$40
Norway
Sandefjord
Arlene Singer
8 年 前
$55
Canada  ON
Burlington
Hidden
8 年 前
$400
Switzerland  BL
Pfeffingen
Daniele Marianucci
8 年 前
$70
Italy  Toscana
Livorno (LI)
James Brown
8 年 前
$20
United States  Illinois
Chicago
Yetta Fox
8 年 前
$40
United States  New York
Clifton Park
נגה שטינמץ
8 年 前
₪120
Israel
תל אביב
Direct Donation
8 年 前
$10,000
United States
Rust Family Foundation (Direct Donation)
8 年 前
$5,000
United States  CT
Cynthia Ann
8 年 前
$40
United States  Washington
Tacoma
Liliane Bernet-Bachmann
8 年 前
$300
Switzerland
Zürich
Greg Brown
8 年 前
$55
United States  IA
Des Moines

January 11th 2016

The Half-Shekel Campaign – Summary and Conclusions

First and foremost, we would like to express our deep gratitude to all those who answered our call and donated to the project and helped disseminate the Campaign. YOUR SUPPORT IS TRULY APPRECIATED. Thank you letters and gifts will be mailed shortly.

Our” Half-Shekel” campaign was launched on September 1st 2015 and lasted for four months. The Temple Mount Sifting Project is all about involving the community, and this campaign was the first time we invited the public to partake in helping fund the project. We chose the crowd funding approach, even though we didn’t know what to expect. This kind of platform, when used by non-profit organizations, is often used to help fund and promote social, medical or political causes, and usually not used for scientific research, let alone for archaeological research although many people find interest and value in it, they still prefer to donate to other causes.

We produced a video with an attempt to tell the story of the sifting project in an interesting and touching way for those who are less-acquainted with the story of the Temple Mount, its history and archaeology, as well as for those who are well acquainted and even for trained archaeologists. We knew that a short video would be essential for it to   become viral, but we weren’t successful   in finding  a way to  consolidate  the story of the project  in addition to explaining our financial needs to the non-aquatint in less than 7 minutes although we managed to have the Hebrew version shorter (5 min).

Eventually the Hebrew video became viral to some extend on Facebook and managed to reach 20 thousand people quite quickly with almost no paid promotion (a total of 27 thousand on both Facebook and YouTube). The English version, which was also available with translation subtitles in many languages, was less successful and eventually reached 50 thousand people (16 thousand people have visited the Half-Shekel Campaign website and more than 270 of them have donated. During the time of this campaign, we eventually managed to raise $35,440.  The donations came mainly from English speaking countries and from Israel, but also from distant parts of the world such as Brazil, Chile, Singapore and other places.

A short while after the inception of the campaign, the political conflict concerning the Temple Mount became a hot topic in the media, and we weren’t sure if it detracted or motivated support of the campaign. We prefer avoiding politics   as much as possible, especially since we are dealing with the most politically sensitive site in Israel, although certain aspects of our research may unavoidably have some political implications. The website has also been translated into Arabic, and attracted a relatively large percentage of visits from Arabic speaking countries, surprisingly, we received only few malicious comments, while hundreds of visitors shared the website and clicked like. Perhaps the scientifically oriented nature of the text helped to some extend to reduce the conflict fed by decisive and ignorant historical claims.

We are still far from reaching the project’s needs, and our funding efforts will proceed. This website will be maintained as a permanent funding website, and we will continue promoting it in various other ways.

You are all invited to continue supporting the project by sending a recurring donation and by sharing the websites of the Temple Mount Sifting Project.

With much gratitude,

Gabriel Barkay and Zachi Dvira

 

January 1st, 2016

The campaign is over. Thank you all for your donations and for distributing this website. We will publish a campaign summary in the coming days.

We will send out the all gifts within the coming month.

Donations could still be done on this website (with gifts) or through our weblogs. This website will be redesigned to a permanent fund raising website.

For further updates about the project please visit our weblogs.

 

Happy New Year

The Temple Mount Sifting Project

 

December 27, 201

In three days we’re about to end our current phase of our crowd funding campaign. After that this website will be converted to a permanent website for donations to the Sifting Project. This campaign has been running for the last four months and has managed to reach 75 thousand people who have watched the campaign video (English 47,914; Hebrew: 27,452). The campaign brought about 16,500 visitors (unique visits) to this website. Since our last update we have doubled the Facebook shares, especially in Arabic and Portuguese (see table below), and currently more 3400 people have shared this website! Thank you all!

Up to this point we managed to raise in this campaign $20,676 by 257 donors (the total sum on the website includes also direct donations that were received recently and were not achieved via this campaign). We are pleased to see that we managed to receive support from all corners of the world.

In our next update we will provide a summary to this campaign and details about the phase.

See below the statistics for more detailed and interesting results:

 

Top Website Visitors by Country

——————————————– 

Country Website Visitors Frequency (1 per x Internet Users)
Israel 4,962 1,195
Jordan 526 6,417
Pal. Authority 133 9,774
Iraq 143 18,937
Venezuela 594 24,492
El Salvador 51 34,173
Norway 124 39,483
Honduras 31 51,695
Ukraine 292 57,702
Canada 521 63,340
United States 4,446 68,203
Bolivia 52 76,357
Portugal 86 81,576
Netherlands 177 91,208
Hong Kong 63 91,291
Brazil 1,045 103,180
Australia 204 103,807
Turkey 285 124,066
Belarus 34 142,852
Austria 44 162,163

 

Top Donors by Country

——————————–

Country Donors Donors Percentage of Website Visitors
United States 116 2.6%
Israel 90 1.8%
Canada 11 2.1%
United Kingdom 8 2.4%
Australia 7 3.4%
Brazil 3 N/A
Italy 3 N/A
Norway 2 N/A
Austria 2 N/A
Belgium 2 N/A
Netherlands 1 N/A
Turkey 1 N/A
New Zealand 1 N/A
Singapore 1 N/A
Finland 1 N/A
Sweden 1 N/A
Germany 1 N/A
Mexico 1 N/A
Chile 1 N/A

 

Website Visitors by Language

—————————————–

Language Visitors
English 7,291
Hebrew 3,382
Spanish 1,286
Arabic 1,224
Russian 708
French 514
Turkish 338
Korean 274
Chinese-Traditional 153
Chinese -Simplified 126
Norwegian 182
Italian 207
Portuguese 454
German 127
Dutch The Netherlands 141
Farsi Iran 40
Hungarian 53

 

Facebook Shares by Language

—————————————–

Language FB Shares
English 2100
Arabic 353
Spanish 312
Portuguese 200
Hebrew 111
Russian 89
French 63
Turkish 36
Persian 32
Norwegian 19
Chinese (simplified) 19
Korean 16
Italian 16
Chinese (traditional) 12
Deutsch 11
Nederland 10
Hungarian (Magyar) 0
Total 3399

 

December 15, 2015: We are now capable of providing Tax-Deducible receipts from the U.K. as well.

December 12, 2015: See Report in Jerusalem Post: Byzantine-era potsherd from Temple Mount may contain engraving of holy site’s menorah

December 8, 2015:

Three months have passed since we launched the crowdfunding campaign; the current campaign is scheduled to end on Dec 31, 2015. Since we are still far from reaching our final goal, we will probably continue fundraising with this website, but change the format so it will suit an ongoing fundraising campaign and not one that is limited by time.

We would like to update you about several things that we’ve been working on. Many of you have probably already seen the news reports about the “Hezekiah seal” found in the Ophel excavations south of the Temple Mount, which were directed by Dr. Eilat Mazar. This seal impression was found in 2010 at our sifting facility in Tzurim Valley, when we assisted with wet-sifting earth from this excavation. Until recently, the reading of this bulla was ‘לחזקיהו … מלכיהו  (Hezekiyahu ?? Malkiyahu), but when Reut ben-Ariyeh, who studied the seal impressions from the Ophel excavation, noticed a dot between מלכ andיהו , and the unclear letter of the second name, the reading became clear: “Hezekiyah (son of) Ahaz King of Judah”. This is the first time that a Judean king seal or seal impression is found by a controlled archaeological excavation!  We are proud that the Temple Mount Sifting Project took part of this great discovery. Click here to read the press release.

We are about to publish a new article, based on finds from the sifting project, about reconstructing Crusader floors which were situated in the Dome of the Rock. This will be published on Dec 20th in an international conference at Haifa University marking 150 years of the PEF (Palestine Exploration Fund). (Click here to see the full program).

And one last thing for Chanukah – two days ago we published an image of a potsherd with an incised design of what appears to be the Temple Menorah; the potsherd is probably from the Byzantine period. What was the purpose of this drawing? What can we learn from it about the rabbinic medieval interpretation of the Menorah shape? These questions were sent out to our community of followers and supporters whose opinion we cherish. . You are welcome to add your suggestion or comment in our Facebook page or blog.

Happy Chanukah,

The Temple Mount Sifting Project

 

October 26, 2015:

When we launched the campaign 50 days ago, the Hebrew video immediately went viral and reached 10,000 people within three days, while the English video was less successful and reached 3,500 people. Up to date the videos were watched (30 sec views and more) on Facebook and YouTube by 43,797 people.  12,050 people have visited the website and 199 people have donated a total sum of $21,940. We intend to continue the campaign until the end of 2015.

The video has the potential to reach a very wide audience, especially these days when the Temple Mount is in the focus of the news. Since many ignorant comments are being heard in the media and distorted articles are published in major newspapers, this story and archaeological information is essential for establishing an educated debate.

The Temple Mount Sifting Project does not have a political agenda, and as open minded academic researchers we are open minded for any conclusion that can be deducted from the finds. We oppose ignorance. All scientific or academic research eventually serves humanity by helping us make better decisions. If the sifting project finds could help reduce tensions that are rooted by ignorance – we would be happy to serve this goal as well.

It is worthwhile to mention that about 15% of the website visitors are Arab speakers, and there are about 353 shares and hundreds of likes to the Arabic version of the website. It seems like the Arab world is very interested in this story.

 

October 25, 2015

When we launched the campaign 50 days ago, the Hebrew video immediately went viral and reached 10,000 people within three days, while the English video was less successful and reached 3,500 people. Up to date the videos were watched (30 sec views and more) on Facebook and YouTube by 43,797 people.  12,050 people have visited the website and 199 people have donated a total sum of $21,940. We intend to continue the campaign until the end of 2015.

The video has the potential to reach a very wide audience, especially these days when the Temple Mount is in the focus of the news. Since many ignorant comments are being heard in the media and distorted articles are published in major newspapers, this story and archaeological information is essential for establishing an educated debate.

The Temple Mount Sifting Project does not have a political agenda, and as open minded academic researchers we are open minded for any conclusion that can be deducted from the finds. We oppose ignorance. All scientific or academic research eventually serves humanity by helping us make better decisions. If the sifting project finds could help reduce tensions that are rooted by ignorance – we would be happy to serve this goal as well.

It is worthwhile to mention that about 15% of the website visitors are Arab speakers, and there are about 353 shares and hundreds of likes to the Arabic version of the website. It seems like the Arab world is very interested in this story.

 

October 12, 2015

Since our last update – with the organic exposure of the website and some paid ads – we tripled the number of visitors to the website. Up to this point we managed to raise $19,607 by 171 donors. The number of people who viewed the YouTube video (26,759 views) and those who visited the website (10,432 unique visitors) also increased.

There is great interest among Middle Eastern Arabs, leading to more than 300 shares and 500 likes of the Arab version of the website. We are still waiting to see who will be the first one among the Arab supporters to be courageous enough to make a donation.

In our last report Canada was first place but it has now been replaced by the United Kingdom with the highest percent of donors relative to website visitors, followed by Australia.

See below for more interesting results:

 

Top Video Views Frequency by Country*

Country Internet Users YouTube Video Views Frequency (1 per x Internet Users)
Israel 5928772 2630 2254
Palestine Authority 1300000 78 16667
El Salvador 1742832 77 22634
Canada 33000381 1450 22759
Jordan 3375307 146 23119
New Zealand 4162209 167 24923
Costa Rica 2511139 100 25111
Norway 4895885 182 26900
United States 303229759 11223 27019
Australia 21176595 684 30960
Puerto Rico 2027549 64 31680
Singapore 4453859 136 32749
Venezuela 14548421 430 33834
South Africa 24909854 666 37402
Paraguay 2005278 51 39319
Panama 1899892 43 44184
Guatemala 2716781 61 44537
Honduras 1602558 33 48562
Netherlands 16143879 317 50927
Finland 5117660 98 52221
Uruguay 2017280 37 54521
Iraq 2707928 49 55264
Philippines 39470845 624 63255
Ecuador 6012003 90 66800
United Kingdom 57075826 809 70551
Hungary 7388776 101 73156
Malaysia 12150362 164 74088
Bolivia 3970587 51 77855
Chile 11686746 135 86568
Hong Kong 5751357 64 89865
Poland 25666238 278 92325
Sweden 8581261 91 94300
Switzerland 7180749 72 99733
Denmark 5419113 53 102247
Belgium 9441116 91 103749
Colombia 25660725 223 115071
Argentina 24973660 217 115086
Ireland 3817491 33 115682
Dominican Republic 5072674 39 130069
Ukraine 16849008 125 134792

* Not including over 23,000 Facebook views. At this point we cannot access this data categorized per country from Facebook.

                                                     

Top Website Visitors by Country

Country Website Visitors Frequency (1 per x Internet Users)
Israel 2771 2140
Jordan 518 6516
Palestinian Authority 123 10569
Iraq 142 19070
Venezuela 590 24658
El Salvador 49 35568
Norway 83 58987
Ukraine 277 60827
Bolivia 52 76357
Portugal 77 91111
Canada 305 108198
United States 2,413 125665
Hong Kong 44 130713
Turkey 252 140313
Brazil 735 146698
Netherlands 104 155230
Australia 120 176472
South Korea 216 209788
Spain 163 214787
Austria 32 222974
Belgium 39 242080
Taiwan 64 291246
Italy 115 318208
France 131 423125
United Kingdom 126 452983
Egypt 74 544751
Mexico 61 834804
Germany 53 1353350
Russia 50 1688756
India 51 4768606

 

Top Donors by Country

Country Donors per Visitors Rate Donors
United States 3.4% 83
Israel 1.9% 53
Canada 3.0% 9
United Kingdom 4.8% 6
Australia 4.2% 5
Norway N/A 2
Italy N/A 2
New Zealand N/A 1
Netherlands N/A 1
Finland N/A 1
Chile N/A 1
Sweden N/A 1
Brazil N/A 1

 

Website Visitors by Language

Language Visitors
English 4,051
Hebrew 1,728
Spanish 1,231
Arabic 1,117
Russian 495
French 438
Turkish 299
Korean 299
Chinese-Traditional 123
Chinese -Simplified 123
Norwegian 118
Italian 108
Portuguese 106
German 79
Dutch The Netherlands 72
Persian 21
Hungarian 21

 

 Facebook Shares by Language

Language FB Shares
English 1500
Arabic 352
Spanish 152
Hebrew 111
Turkish 35
Persian 32
Russian 27
Norwegian (Norsk Bokmal) 19
Chinese (simplified) 19
Thai 16
Chinese (traditional) 12
French 9
Italian 6
Netherlands 3
German 2
Hungarian (Magyar) 0
Portugese 0

October 5, 2015

We realized that promoting this website will take longer than we expected, so we decided to extend the campaign until December 31st.

September 27, 2015

Jerusalem Post: Jewish history’s greatest archaeological crime

 

September 24, 2015

Rare 3,000-year-old King David era seal discovered by Temple Mount Sifting Project

See full report at our weblog: templemount.wordpress.com

See Media Reports at:

Jerusalem Post

Times of Israel

 

September 22, 2015 – Second Update

Until now the campaign has been going on with organic promotion, and soon we are going to promote the video and the website with paid ads and media news. Now is a good time to see how well we are doing.

Up to this point we managed to raise $17,085 by 116 donors. That’s not much when taking into account the number of people that viewed the video (15562 views) and those that visited the website (3440 unique visitors). It seems like people are really interested in this story, but only a small percentage choose to donate. Our goal is to reach 1 million video views which mean that in order to reach our goal we need to dramatically increase the exposure of the video and the website. We will continue to fundraise through philanthropic foundations and these donations will be marked as “direct” on the funders list.

Following are statistical tables that demonstrate how well the video and the website were received in various countries. We calculated frequencies in relation to each country’s population of internet users. This will allow us to compare our support among various countries.

As you can see below, after Israel, the Canadians have the best score – 1 per 37,931Canadians has seen the video. They also have the best donation rate (5.5% of website visitors). The website is also popular amongst Arab populations.

See below for more interesting results:

Top 20 Video Views Frequency

Country Internet Users Video Views Frequency (1 per x Internet Users)
Israel 5928772 1485 3992
Canada 33000381 870 37931
Norway 4895885 124 39483
New Zealand 4162209 94 44279
United States 303229759 5948 50980
Australia 21176595 413 51275
South Africa 24909854 481 51788
Palestinian Authority 2000000 38 52632
Singapore 4453859 80 55673
Puerto Rico 2027549 30 67585
Finland 5117660 72 71079
Iraq 2707928 29 93377
Netherlands 16143879 169 95526
United Kingdom 57075826 522 109341
Poland 25666238 229 112080
Malaysia 12150362 88 138072
Sweden 8581261 59 145445
Philippines 39470845 247 159801
Belgium 9441116 59 160019
Hong Kong 5751357 35 164324
Switzerland 7180749 39 184122


Top 25 Website Visitors

Country Website Visitors Frequency (1 per x Internet Users)
Israel 1283 4621
Palestinian Authority 111 18018
Iraq 134 20208
Norway 67 73073
Jordan 21 160729
Canada 128 257815
Australia 82 258251
United States 1026 295546
Egypt 67 601665
Switzerland 10 718075
United Kingdom 68 839350
Netherlands 19 849678
Italy 36 1016499
Mexico 50 1018461
Colombia 17 1509454
Argentina 14 1783833
Poland 14 1833303
Spain 16 2188142
France 23 2409973
Germany 24 2988648
Russia 26 3247607
Brazil 13 8294064

 

 Top Donors

Country Donors per Visitors Rate Donors
United States 3.62% 43
Israel 2.11% 41
Canada 5.48% 8
United Kingdom 3.90% 3
Finland 14.29% 2
Chile 16.67% 1
Sweden 14.29% 1
New Zealand 10.00% 1
Brazil 6.67% 1
Netherlands 5.00% 1
Italy 2.33% 1
Norway 1.20% 1
Australia 1.20% 1

 

Website Visitors by Language

Language Visitors
English 2028
Hebrew 512
Arabic 408
Spanish 180
French 83
Norwegian 89
Russian 93
Italian 76
Portuguese 14
Chinese – Simplified 16
Chinese – Traditional 27
German 13
Dutch 8
Persian 9
Hungarian 8
Korean 8
Turkish 7

 

Facebook Shares by Language

Language FB Shares
English 799
Spanish 149
Arabic 116
Hebrew 81
Persian 32
Russian 19
Norwegian 19
Italian 4
Chinese (traditional) 4
Chinese (simplified) 1
Turkish 1
German 0
French 0
Dutch 0
Hungarian (Magyar) 0
Portuguese 0
Korean 0

 

August 31st 2015. First Update

The website was launched on September 1st, and will end on November 27th, 2015. It is currently available in 17 languages! To the best of our knowledge no such crowdfunding campaign – addressing such a wide audience – has ever taken place, and we are also not aware of any archaeological projects that have used this funding method.

The idea to “crowd fund” the Temple Mount Sifting Project was originally suggested by Aran Yardeni about a year ago. He claimed that raising funds in this method would best suit our project, which allows the public to take an active role. The more we thought about it, we realized that in addition to the funding aspect, a crowd funding campaign can be a great tool through which to gain public exposure for the story of the Temple Mount and the Sifting Project.

We quickly realized the high potential of this campaign, and decided to translate the contents to many languages. . We believe that this cause is universal, and are very curious to see how this campaign will be received around the world.

The texts were mostly translated by volunteers. Please let us know if you notice any errors or have any suggestions. We also welcome volunteers who can translate the website to additional languages.

This page will continuously update developments in the campaign, as publish data concerning the exposure and donations from the various countries. Please stay tuned.

Now, let’s see who will gain the title of “‘the first donor on the website Wall of Fame’”.