Jerusalem dig reveals longest Hasmonean wall foundation ever found, with signs it was deliberately razed after a 132 B.C. ceasefire with Antiochus VII.
Newsroom (10/12/2025 Gaudium Press) Archaeologists have completed excavation of the longest continuous section ever discovered of the massive fortifications that once encircled Jerusalem during the Hasmonean Kingdom, the same era that gave the world the story of Hanukkah.
The newly revealed foundation, nearly 164 feet (50 meters) long and 16 feet (5 meters) wide, lies beneath an abandoned wing of the 19th-century Kishleh compound in the shadow of the Tower of David. According to the Israel Antiquities Authority, the structure once supported walls taller than those surrounding today’s Old City and formed part of a defensive circuit that featured sixty watchtowers rising more than 33 feet, enclosing an area far larger than the present historic quarter.
Perhaps the most intriguing discovery is not the wall’s scale but the manner of its end. The upper courses appear to have been systematically dismantled to a uniform height rather than destroyed by war or erosion.
“That is not natural collapse,” said Dr. Amit Re’em, Jerusalem district archaeologist for the Israel Antiquities Authority. “This was deliberate, orderly deconstruction.”
Re’em believes the evidence may corroborate a dramatic episode recorded by the first-century Jewish historian Flavius Josephus. In 132 or 133 B.C., the Seleucid king Antiochus VII Sidetes—successor to the Antiochus IV whose oppression sparked the Maccabean revolt—besieged Jerusalem. Facing starvation, Hasmonean ruler John Hyrcanus I negotiated a ceasefire. According to Josephus, part of the price was the demolition of the very fortifications Hyrcanus and his father had built.
“Antiochus said, ‘If you want me to lift the siege, raze your own walls,’” Re’em explained. “And they did. We think this section is archaeological proof of that agreement. When history and archaeology meet like this in Jerusalem, it’s magical.”
Not all scholars are convinced the dismantling proves the ceasefire clause was carried out city-wide. Dr. Orit Peleg-Barkat, head of classical archaeology at Hebrew University, notes that other excavated segments of the Hasmonean wall elsewhere in Jerusalem show no similar systematic removal. She suggests the deconstruction beneath the Kishleh may instead relate to King Herod’s later decision, in the late first century B.C., to erect his palace complex directly atop the older foundations as a symbolic assertion of power.
“It’s unlikely Jerusalem remained without defenses for over a century,” Peleg-Barkat said. “More probably, only this stretch was cleared to make way for Herod’s building project.”
The wall lay hidden for centuries beneath what became a military barracks and prison constructed by the Ottomans in 1830. British authorities later used the cells until the 1940s; graffiti in English, Hebrew, and Arabic still scars the plaster, and rusted iron bars dangle from the ceiling.
Excavation began in 1999 but was suspended during the violence of the Second Intifada. Work resumed two years ago, with teams removing by hand the equivalent of two Olympic swimming pools of earth and later debris. Beneath Ottoman and Crusader-era remains, they uncovered not only the Hasmonean foundation but also medieval dye pits believed to have been used for coloring textiles.
With the dig now complete, the abandoned prison wing has been transferred to the adjacent Tower of David Museum. Over the next several years, curators plan to install a transparent glass floor above the ancient remains, transforming the hall into the centerpiece of the new Schulich Wing of Archaeology, Art and Innovation.
As Hanukkah approaches—beginning this year on the evening of December 14—the discovery offers a tangible link to the era the holiday commemorates: the rededication of the Temple in 164 B.C. after its liberation by Judah Maccabee and the subsequent rise of the independent Hasmonean dynasty.
For the archaeologists who spent years in the dim underground chambers, the wall is more than stone. It is a silent witness to siege, compromise, and the ever-shifting layers of power in one of the world’s most contested cities.
- Raju Hasmukh with files from Crux Now
Related Images:
