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当神的圣殿坐立在耶路撒冷的日子时,每户家庭须缴付“半舍客勒”银币作为维修和供奉圣殿之用。为了要揭开埋藏于圣殿山土堆中的考古秘密,我们的圣殿山筛分工程已进行了超过十年时间。今天,我们到了一个关键的转折点── 研究并发表成千上万件出土文物的成果。为此,圣殿山筛分工程诚意向您作出呼吁,需要您们伸出援手,捐出属于您们的“半舍客勒”来资助这项重要工作。现在请即把握机会,与我们一同揭示耶路撒冷远古的辉煌。

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圣殿山筛分工程简介

自古以来,圣殿山一直是世界三大单一主神论信仰的圣地。已过一千三百年,这里一直在穆斯林的控制之下; 碍于穆斯林的敏感政治,有系统的考古发掘一直未被批准。 1967年,在六日战争后,以色列允许瓦合甫(管理圣殿山的穆斯林信托机构)维持其对圣殿山的控制。

以色列文物法要求,在考古遗址上进行建筑工程前必须先进行抢救挖掘。然而,在1999年,瓦合甫无视该法例,为了加建一个清真寺出入口,强行用推土机在圣殿山上挖出一个大坑,倾倒约400辆卡车、重9000万吨、满布考古文物的泥土于附近的汲沦谷(Kidron Valley),

重型机械在挖掘新的入口通往「所罗门马厩」(1999年11月)。该工程在没有考古监督下完成,共挖走了9000吨蕴藏了丰富古文物的泥土。

使这些珍贵的文物从此与遗址分离。尽管如此,考古学家Gabriel Barkay博士和Zachi Dvira博士深知这些被弃置的泥土蕴藏了圣殿山历史的宝贵资料,于是在2004年,他们抓住这个难得的机会,成立了圣殿山筛分工程,目的是抢救这批远古文物和进行考古研究,从而提高我们对圣殿山考古历史的认识。

多年来,这项工程已成为一个全球性的教育项目,吸引了超过15万名自愿者参与,参加人数史无前例,超越了世界上其他所有考古工程。这种热诚印证了圣殿山及其出土文物的重要性。此外,我们还邀请公众透过一个载有文物图像的特别网站,协助我们确定一些难以鉴别的文物。这样一个全球性公众参与的规模,在考古史上绝无仅有,也成为工程继续运作和发展的关键。

诗篇中生动地表达了这个理念:

“你的仆人原来喜悦她的石头、恩待她的尘土”(诗102:14-15)

现在,我们诚邀您参与这项工程的下一个阶段,伸出援手,资助我们分析出土文物和发表考古成果。

由于圣殿山从未被挖掘过,在这项筛分工程中所发现的远古文物便提供了前所未有的宝贵资料。纵使这些文物已不在历史原址,它们大部份仍可以借着与其他考古遗址出土的文物作比较来识别和鉴定其年代。我们已经开发了新技术来研究圣殿山的出土文物,并应用先进的定量和分析方法,深入了解文物在瓦砾中的分布的重要性。

圣殿山出土文物发现

我们筛分的每一桶泥土,包含了圣殿山自三千年前建立以来,几乎每一个时期的古文物。最常见的类别有陶器碎片、玻璃容器件、金属物件、动物骨头、加工石料和马赛克石嵌片。

除了一般类别以外,还有许多有趣的发现,如石器碎片、珠宝、珠子、陶俑、箭镞和其他武器装备、砝码、衣服辅料、游戏棋子和骰子、骨头和贝壳镶嵌件、家具装饰、装饰品、骨头和象牙制品,以及刻有文字的石头和陶器碎片。也有一些精巧的建筑遗迹,包括柱身和柱头的碎片、马赛克地板碎片、花砖饰面(opus Sectile)地砖、壁画(彩色石膏件)和釉面墙砖。时至今日,筛分工程已发掘出超过五千枚金币,从公元前4世纪的细小银币到近代的铸币,其中有一些非常罕见、有趣的硬币,如半舍客勒银币,在下面有更详细的论述。

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

不同时期的珠宝首饰。材料包括宝石、玻璃、铜、银和金。

Selected coins from the Second Temple Period

第二圣殿时期的硬币。

第一圣殿时期(公元前1000年至586年,从大卫王到第一圣殿被毁),有大量碗、盆罐和壶的陶器碎片,以及酒杯、支架、摇铃和陶俑(主要是四足动物,也有人形女性雕像)。这一时期的其他发现包括投石、石砝码、所罗门王时期的青铜箭头、巴比伦军队摧毁第一圣殿时所用的罕见青铜箭头。印刻文物包括陶片(ostraca )(陶刻碎片)和印玺(bullae)。其中一个印章刻有希伯来文的名字אִמֶר和ליהו,意为“(属于)[…] lyahu(的儿子)Immer”。 Immer是耶利米书和历代志中提到的祭司家族名称。该印章是迄今首个在圣殿山被发现的古希伯来文刻文,印证了第一圣殿时期的行政活动。其他发现包括一个所罗门王时期的锥形封印,上面描绘了两只动物;一个绘有羚羊的黑色石封印,还有一个用蓝色青金石制成的封印。

公元前10世纪,所罗门王时期的青铜箭头。这一时期的箭头很少在以色列发现,或许证明在此期间有军队驻守在耶路撒冷和圣殿山。

公元前7世纪的印章,刻有古希伯来文,是迄今首个在圣殿山发现的古希伯来铭文,证明了第一圣殿时期的行政活动。

第二圣殿时期(公元前515年至公元70年),圣殿及其中庭进行了多项建筑工程,主要在希律王及其后裔统治期间。这时期的出土文物包括大量的陶器碎片,主要来自煮食用盆罐,还有许多焚烧过的家畜骨头。这些发现可能与有文字记载的大规模朝圣活动有关。在筛分过程中也发现了建筑遗迹碎片,可能是属于环绕圣殿山的华丽柱廊,甚至可能是圣殿本身的遗迹!

我们其中一个触目的发现,是一批超过一千件各种形状、大小和颜色的地砖碎片。这些地砖被鉴定为罗马帝国时期用来铺路的花砖饰面(opus Sectile),地砖以各种方式组合成丰富的几何图案。弗拉维奥.约瑟夫斯(Flavius Josephus)的著作里表明了这种技术是用于装饰环绕圣殿的露天庭院:“整个露天庭院铺设了各类石头”(犹太战史5.5.2)。约瑟夫斯的描述与我们的发现完全一致,让我们能够全面重组圣殿山的地台面貌。

我们发掘出罗马帝国时期的箭头,可能是用于圣殿被毁前罗马军队的围攻战。筛分过的泥土中含有大量遭大火多次焚烧过的灰烬,这也可印证圣殿的被毁。

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!

一块精致的横饰带碎片,采用爵床叶式设计,属典型的希律建筑风格。石块上有烧过的痕迹,可能是来自圣殿本身!

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.

各种形状、颜色和大小的地砖,用于罗马帝国时期,以花砖饰面来铺设皇家建筑路面。这类地板在弗拉维奥.约瑟夫斯(Flavius Josephus)的著作中有提及,用于铺设环绕圣殿的露天庭院。

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

圣殿庭院的重组面貌,根据弗拉维奥.约瑟夫斯(Flavius Josephus)的著作以及圣殿山筛分工程所发现的地砖。

我们在后期罗马帝国时期(公元70年至324年)的发现并不如其他时期多,但确实反映了当时圣殿在罗马帝国控制时的异教风俗。这些发现包括泥俑、硬币、陶器、游戏棋子及骨头器具工场的遗迹。

罗马帝国时期常见的骨头和象牙骰子。根据犹太经典律法米书拿,凡掷骰赌博的人不能作见证人(Sanhedrim 24 b)。

拜占庭时期(公元324年至638年),也留下了丰富的考古遗迹,包括马赛克石嵌片、屋顶瓦片、科林斯圆柱、教堂圣坛屏饰和大量硬币。陶器包括大量油灯,有的刻有错拼的希腊文字,有的印有十字架形状的灯手柄。有一组具有不同风格和材料的十字架形吊坠属重要发现,当中有些显示了耶稣图像的浮雕或阴刻图。这一时期的丰富发现挑战了传统认为圣殿山在此期间被荒废的假设。

Byzantine period marble and limestone architectural fragments.

拜占庭时期的大理石和石灰石建筑碎片。

有大量的发现来自早期伊斯兰时期(公元640年至1099年),圆顶清真寺和阿克萨清真寺皆于该时期建成。这些建筑在后期进行了重修,包括拆除早期建筑元件,建筑废料被倾倒于圣殿山的东侧。在16世纪期间,圆顶清真寺外部的华丽镀金马赛克被更换为釉面墙砖,或者是在近代时间,圆顶清真寺和Dome of the Chain的地砖被更换过。筛分工程已经发掘出数万件源自圆顶清真寺外墙上的马赛克的镀金镶嵌块玻璃立方块,以及许多大理石建筑部份。其中一些建筑碎片用于伍麦亚(Umayyad) 建筑结构中,它们实际上是源自拜占庭,甚至是第二圣殿时期。此外,我们也发掘出铭刻陶器、珍珠母贝镶嵌、珠宝、游戏棋子、玻璃和铭文金属法码、大量硬币(包括金币)、文字石刻陶刻。

筛分工程的发现大大促进了在十字军时期(公元1099年至1187年)的圣殿山考古和历史研究。在此时期,圣殿山常与圣殿骑士团联系在一起。骑士团以阿克萨清真寺作为他们的总部,并把东南角大片地库改为马厩,称之为“所罗门马厩”。我们现时筛分的泥土乃源于所罗门马厩所在位置,并已发掘出许多十字军活动的遗迹,包括箭头、典型欧洲中世纪骑兵用的马蹄铁钉和铠甲片。这些发现为首批考古证据,证明圣殿骑士团曾使用过所罗门马厩。此外,筛分工程在耶路撒冷发掘出迄今在这一时期最大和最多样化的银币收藏,其中有极为罕见的硬币和独一无二的圣殿骑士奖章。十字军时期的发现包括十字形吊坠、陶器和建筑遗迹。我们发现了大量的花砖饰面(opus Sectile)地砖,这些地砖本来装嵌在圆顶清真寺,在后期被拆除,它们将有助我们重组圣殿山缜密的地台面貌。

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

十字军时期的铁马蹄钉,证明当时圣殿骑士的马被安置在所罗门马厩。

我们发现了大量源自后期伊斯兰时期(公元1187年至1917年)的建筑部分,最触目的是苏丹苏莱曼大帝用来取代装饰圆顶清真寺外墙用的玻璃马赛克的石嵌片。此外,数千枚来自马穆鲁克和奥图曼时期的硬币将有助这一时期的钱币研究。同样,我们亦计划详细公布这一时期丰富的陶器发现。这一时期的其他发现包括珠宝首饰、衣物、军事徽章和徽章、旧鸟铳和火石、大量奥图曼帝国烟斗等等。事实证明,筛分工程已成为一个前所未有、有关圣殿山知识的丰富来源。

在圣殿山地土中埋藏了几千年的考古文物,现在可以首次用科学方法来分析及发表其考古成果,将揭示圣殿山的过去、它的建造者和重建者、它的宗教和社会意义、它的捍卫者和征服者。

今天,工程已踏入十年,约有一半从圣殿山丢弃的泥土已被筛分过。我们会继续全力以赴,发掘出更多的文物。

圣殿山和这项研究的重要性

“因我的殿必称为万民祷告的殿。” (以赛亚书56:7)

全世界一半以上的人口视圣殿山为圣地。根据圣经,圣殿所在之处乃天与地相遇之处,它被指定为所有宗教和民族生活的中心,亦是神的话扩展到全世界的锚点。今天,它乃是犹太教最神圣的圣地,那里曾是第一和第二圣殿所立之处,直到今天仍是犹太人恳切祷告的焦点。对基督徒来说,它是耶稣所认识的圣殿所在之处。它是伊斯兰教第三大圣地,圆顶清真寺和阿克萨清真寺所在之处。在圣殿山发生的任何事都会牵动全球目光。

尽管圣殿山在圣经和其他重要古代史料中被无数次提及,它的过去仍是一个谜。由于它的政治敏感度,那里从未有过任何考古挖掘。由于缺乏考古资料,许多引起学术争论的历史问题尚未得到解答。

 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.

耶路撒冷旧城地图,显示过去150年期间主要的挖掘地区。注意﹕地图上空白矩形位置为圣殿山,那里从未有过有系统的挖掘。

圣殿山筛分工程让你有如置身在圣殿山挖掘一样。过去十年的发掘成果意味着首次有考古资料直接从圣殿山地土中取得。发表这些成果将揭示这一圣地的悠久历史,有助于排解众多学术争论。

例如,有些学者怀疑圣殿山在公元前10世纪期间(所罗门王时期)被耶路撒冷所吞并,并提出耶路撒冷并非一个省会城市,而只是一个小村庄。我们的考古发现反驳了这个极简主张,并确认了圣经在此时期对耶路撒冷的有关记载。

不幸的是,许多考古挖掘未能成功发表成科学论文。未发表的考古发现没有多大考古研究价值,就如同它们从未被发现过一样。对于如此重要的圣殿山出土文物,我们绝不能让它们遭同样厄运。

今天,圣殿山的矛盾和纠纷主要来自无知和假谣言。这是我们地上最具争议的一块土地。尽管学者们(包括穆斯林学者)对犹太圣殿的存在毫不置疑,但在近几十年间,巴勒斯坦穆斯林政治领袖尝试用新理据来完全否定第一和第二圣殿的存在。圣殿山筛分工程的成果发表将开启有学术基础的对话,冀望有助减少政治冲突。无知造就更多的矛盾和纠纷,惟有知识能促进我们彼此的了解。

正是如此,我们需要您支持我们的工作,让我们能揭开圣殿山的重要历史,避免这些文物和历史因着野蛮的违法工程而丢失。

我们的经费预算

我们的实验室放置了超过五十万件出土文物等待处理和分析,其研究及成果发表实属艰巨任务,需要众多学者的坚毅和专业知识。筛分工场的运作目前由大卫城基金会(the Ir-David Foundation)资助,但我们欠缺研究和成果出版的经费。

我们需要$770,000美元来完成出土文物的分析,并在未来三年内发表报告。这些经费将帮助我们以下需求:

1.科学评估,包括碳-14同位素放射性定年法、矿物分析、文物保存、电脑统计分析及类型比较数据挖掘,这些均需要尖端的专业知识和高度专业化的实验室设备(工程中最昂贵的部分)

2.高解析度摄影、三维激光扫描、科学绘图、整理、分类、编辑、修订和打印初步报告,其全面性和准确性将决定我们最终报告的科学价值

3.实验室的日常运作

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半舍客勒运动

圣殿山筛分工程的精神在于志愿服务和对公共事务的承担。

既然您仍在阅读本文,可见您已明白到这项工程的重要性,并愿意与我们一同承担圣殿山的未来。

在第二圣殿时期,每个人每年须奉献半舍客勒银幤作为圣殿的营运经费,以表达他对圣殿的未来的承担。此税收的灵感来自圣经出埃及记中记载的义务责任:

“凡被数点的,每人要按圣所的舍客勒,交银子半舍客勒‥‥半舍客勒作为献给耶和华。” (出埃及记30:13)

在第二圣殿时期,用来支付该圣殿税的半舍客勒银币是在圣殿山特别铸造的。我们很幸运地发掘出这样一个银币,该银币铸造于犹太人起义反抗罗马征服者的第一年间(66/67 CE)!银币的一面描绘了三棵石榴,还有“圣城耶路撒冷”的题字(ירושליםהקדושה)。另一面则有一个杯子和刻有“半舍客勒”(חציהשקל)的字样。这个罕有的发现启发了我们推出“半舍客勒运动",让我们每个人都可以有份于这项工程,一同揭开圣殿山不为人知的故事。

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.

在筛分过程中发现的罕有半舍客勒银币。正面:一只圣殿圣杯,上面刻有ALEPH字母,意为“元年”,周边写着“半舍客勒”。反面:一条树枝上有三棵石榴,还有“圣城耶路撒冷”的题字。这些硬币用于支付每年的圣殿税,乃按照圣经出埃及记30:13-15记载的律例。

半舍客勒的现值

舍客勒的现值可以用它在圣经时代的购买力来估算。在会幕中使用的舍客勒相等于二十格拉。 “格拉"是当时一个工人的一日工资,因此半舍客勒相当于今天蓝领工人十天的工资。

你工作十天能赚多少?

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

在筛分过程中发现的四格拉砝码(第一圣殿时期)

我们不期望每个人都能捐出这一笔款项,但我们期望您有所启发,意识到任何人都可在某程度上资助我们的工作。若您也与我们一样关心圣殿山的未来,您的半舍客勒就可用来协助我们揭开圣殿山中埋藏的宝藏。

只要我们每二十位参与者当中有一位捐出50美元,我们便可达到这一关键目标。

支持这项工程的其他方式

即使您未能捐出半舍客勒,您也可以透过社交媒体(Facebook、Twitter)分享我们的网站和视频。您可以在您的社区,甚至是餐桌上,提高人们对圣殿山筛分工程的认识,为这个世界上最神圣圣地之一的历史来发声。

若您仍未参观在耶路撒冷Emek Zurim国家公园的筛分工场,我们鼓励您带同朋友前来参观。请即加入我们,一同来发掘圣殿山的古代遗迹。若要得知如何参加,请点击这里。

未能达到$ 500K目标的后果

这次募捐所筹集的资金将对这项工程提供极大帮助。我们估计整个出版过程的预算为$ 1,000,000,这包括我们在过去三年中已用于考古研究的初期资金。我们最近成功筹集更多的资金,让我们能继续进行这项工作多一年。

我们考古报告的质量有赖于这次募捐所筹集的资金。若资金较少,我们能出版一份基本的考古报告,但更多的资金能让我们发表更完善的报告,其中将包括先进的科研方法、记录和分析。

我们决心要出版这份考古报告。现在,我们诚邀您一同参与,来决定考古报告的质量。正如我们上面所提到的,筛分圣殿山的泥土并非一小群考古学家的权利和义务。同样,资助出版这些筛分所得的考古发现也不应局限于一小群慈善家,而是广大市民所共享的权利。

幕后团队

这项运动的推行有赖许许多多的人付出了他们的时间和精力。我们不可能在此逐一的感谢他们,但我们想在此提及一批在幕后孜孜不倦工作的人员和志愿者。

首先要提的是筛分工场的工作人员,他们每天都在尘土飞扬下工作,清洗石头,发掘考古文物,展示给来到工场的访客。其次是实验室的考古学家,他们在过去三年艰辛工作,研究众多文物,准备出版其考古成果。

还有为数众多的志愿者,他们有些帮助撰写、校对和翻译文本成各种语言,有些帮助拍摄和剪辑视频、编写视频音乐,并在网络上推广这项运动,没有他们,这项运动将不可能实现。

我们非常感谢过去一直支持这项工程多年的私人捐助者,以及最近有份举办筹款活动的捐助者,他们的慷慨捐款使我们能继续进行研究和推行这项运动。

您的半舍客勒捐献将有助于揭开圣殿山的故事。您的支持悠关重要。请即点击,捐赠给我们的工程﹗ logos small and spaced outTranslated by Binyamin Cheng

Harry Fruhman
2年 前
$18
United States  NJ
East Brunswick
Sandra Allen
2年 前
$80
United States  AZ
Sierra Vista
Hidden
2年 前
$10
Israel
Haifa
Gordon Govier
2年 前
$40
United States  WI
Fitchburg
Allan Leicht
2年 前
$35
United States  Bronx
New York
jaime Bell
2年 前
$25
United States  TX
Spring
Hidden
2年 前
$7
United Kingdom  Essex
Ilford
Hidden
2年 前
$50
United States  WA
Redmond
David Parks, Trustee Parks/Jakubiak Family Trust A
2年 前
$250
United States  CA
Pinole
Hidden
2年 前
$36
United States  New Jersey
Englewood
Stephen Halpern
2年 前
$195
Canada  Ontario
Toronto
Hidden
2年 前
$100
United States  AZ
Phoenix
Hidden
2年 前
₪55
Israel
Hidden
2年 前
₪55
Israel
Hidden
2年 前
₪60
Israel
Hidden
2年 前
₪720
Israel  ישראל
ירושלים
Income from Sifting Participation Booking
2年 前
₪25,662
Israel
Jerusalem
משה דויטש
2年 前
₪300
Israel
גבעתיים
Rabbi Reuben Israel Abraham
2年 前
$50
United States  PA
Philadelphia
אודי שלוי
2年 前
₪200
Israel
הר אדר

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’”.