Siebenberg House () is an underground archaeology museum, located below a house, in the Jewish Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem.
The founder of the museum, Theo Siebenberg, moved to the Old City of Jerusalem in 1970 and started excavating underneath his home in order to fulfil his lifelong dream of finding an inextricable link between the Jerusalem of today and the Jerusalem of nearly three thousand years ago.
The excavations carried out underneath the Siebenberg home in the course of 18 years have revealed remains of ancient dwellings, rooms cut from rock, mikvehs (ritual baths) an aqueduct, two huge cisterns and a burial vault, reaching back 3,000 years to the days of King David and the First Temple period, as well as from the Second Temple period. It also shows artifacts, including pottery, glass, mosaics, coins, jars and weapons.http://www.travelnet.co.il/israel/Jerusalem/jeruWALK6.htm
Theo Siebenberg (founder)
Theo Siebenberg was born in Antwerp, Belgium in 1925, into a Zionist home. Theo was educated in the Tachkemoni school. In 1936, at the home of Yechiel Meir and Milka Siebenberg (Theo's parents), the Jewish State Party, which was led by Meir Grossman and had separated from Jabotinsky's Revisionist Movement, was established. In this gathering many of the heads of congregations (rabbis) of major communities in Western Europe were in attendance, including Robert Stricker who was the head of the congregation of Vienna. After being in a Zionist environment for all of his life, Theo, was a budding Zionist himself already. At the age of 10, Theo loved looking at the stamps from the letters his parents received from Jerusalem, depicting Jerusalem's Old City skyline of the Dome of the Rock and the Tower of David. Looking at the stamps, Theo started dreaming about Jerusalem, a place he thought of as his ancestral home.
On May 10, 1940, when Theo was 14, Germany marched into Belgium. The following day Theo and his family fled Belgium, and were on the run for close to a year. They passed through Dunkirk, the Maginot Line, and the whole of France to Marseilles. From there they had to cross the Pyrenees mountains to get into Spain, and from there they went into Portugal where they got onto a boat to America. The boat ride was delayed and took six weeks to get to America because they had to pass through German conveys along the way. Theo and his family reached Ellis Island and gained entry into the United States.
When Theo was a teenager in America, in the early 1940s, he participated in demonstrations and helped raise funds for Israel. After the war ended Theo spent half his time in America and half his time in Antwerp. In Antwerp in 1946, Theo joined the Lehi movement, a Zionist group. On November 29, 1947, Theo went as a journalist to Lake Success, where the United Nations General Assembly was voting on the partition plan.
As a Jew in the diaspora, Theo was yearning and longing to fulfill his dream of coming to live in Jerusalem. In 1970, Theo built his home in the ancient Jewish Quarter in Jerusalem's Old City. Everywhere Theo walked he saw a bridge to the past and it was there that Theo started to fulfill his lifelong dream of finding a direct connection and link between the Jews of today and the Jews in the time of King David and King Solomon. Theo had a hunch that beneath his home he would find archeological evidence of the Jews who lived there nearly 3,000 years ago. In the course of 18 years of excavation, countless historic artifacts have been found. "The sense of the continuity of Jewish history comes right up from the basement," Mr. Siebenberg said. "Here, in one spot, you can see Jewish history vertically. It is not like taking children to a museum and showing them arrowheads with this date on them or jars with that date. It's all here. Here we were and here we are". The museum officially opened its doors in 1987, and eventually the museum and all of its artifacts will be donated to the public.
History
The Siebenberg House tells of three periods of the reign of the Kingdom of Israel. During their millennia-spanning history, the Jewish people have had sovereignty and independence only three times: 3,000 years ago, during the reigns of King David and King Solomon; 2,000 years ago, during the period of the Hasmoneans; and in the present, in the form of the State of Israel.
The Siebenberg House is more than a convergence of the periods of Jewish independence and sovereignty, it contains a timeline of Jewish history and its underlying story all under one house in the center of Jewish life, Jerusalem. The significance of this archaeological find under the modern house is the story and message that history tells to us today. The continuity of the Jewish people. Where apparently the palace of a Hasmonean once stood now resides the Siebenberg family some 2,000 years later.
First Temple Period
According to the Bible Solomon's Temple, also known as the First Temple, was the Holy Temple (Hebrew: בֵּית־הַמִּקְדָּשׁ: Bet HaMikdash) in ancient Jerusalem, on the Temple Mount (also known as Mount Zion). Before its destruction by Nebuchadnezzar II after the Siege of Jerusalem of 587 BCE. The Hebrew Bible states that the temple was constructed under Solomon, King of the United Kingdom of Israel and Judah and that during the Kingdom of Judah, the temple was dedicated to Yahweh, and is said to have housed the Ark of the Covenant. Josephus claims that "the temple was burnt four hundred and seventy years, six months, and ten days after it was built," (Jew. Ant. 10.8.5), though rabbinic sources state that the First Temple stood for 410 years and, based on the 2nd-century work Seder Olam Rabbah, place construction in 832 BCE and destruction in 422 BCE (3338 AM), 165 years later than secular estimates. Because of the religious sensitivities involved, and the politically volatile situation in Jerusalem, only limited archaeological surveys of the Temple Mount have been conducted. No excavations have been allowed on the Temple Mount during modern times.
Underneath what is now the Siebenberg Residence remains the discovery of empty burial vaults believed to have been used for Jewish royalty. According to Jewish Law they couldn't bury the dead in the city limits, so they buried people outside the burial limits. During the First Temple the Jewish people lived in the City of David (Hebrew: עיר דוד) which is present day East Jerusalem, Above the empty burial vaults are two holes which is said to have been made to let the spirit of the person exit the chamber. Since there is not much archaeology from the first temple it is hard to date some of the artifacts found at the Siebenberg Museum. A pillar with the engravings of the Menorah was also found. It is most likely from the Second Temple Period, although the base of the Menorah is in the shape of a tripod in contrast to what is depicted on the Titus Arch, which is just a base.
Second Temple Period
The Second Temple period in Jewish history lasted between 530 BCE and 70 CE, when the Second Temple of Jerusalem existed. The sects of Pharisees, Sadducees, Essenes, and Zealots were formed during this period. The Second Temple period ended with the First Jewish–Roman Warand the Roman destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple. Judean kingdom under Herod experienced a period of growth and expansion. As a close and loyal ally to the Romans, Herod extended his rule as far as Arabia, created ambitious projects of construction and renovated the Temple.
The original Siebenberg home here, said to be a Hasmonean Palace, was destroyed two millennia ago by the Romans. Flavius Josephus tells the story of the conquest of Jerusalem. "Pouring into the alleys [of the Upper City], sword in hand, they massacred indiscriminately all whom they met, and burnt the houses with all who had taken refuge within.….running everyone through who fell in their way, they choked the alleys with corpses and deluged the whole city with blood, insomuch that many of the fires were extinguished by the gory stream."From Flavius Josephus' account of the burning of the Upper City of Jerusalem by the Romans in 70 A.D. The Jewish War, Book VI, 403-407, Loeb Classical Library III, p. 493.
A ritual bath was discovered here, known as a mikveh used by the Jews during the Second Temple. This according to Theo Siebenberg might indicate the ancient family's priestly connections. There are two mikvehs located below the residence. It is said in the Jewish Tractate or Mishnah that in order to warm the ritual baths they would throw hot metal or clay into the water to warm it. No metal was discovered here, however traces of pottery have been. A pillar that was used to support the building was found with ash traces on it. These ashes are dated from a month after the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CD on the 8th of Elul.
Excavations "The archeologists were sure that nothing was there," Siebenberg said. "But it just did not seem right to me. I would stand here and picture myself in the Second Temple Period. The temple was just over there," he said, motioning to the Wailing Wall, which is visible from his home. "Why wouldn't Jews have built here then? Every inch of land near the temple must have been very valuable." Siebenberg asked his architects and engineers if it would be possible for him to conduct an archeological dig under his house. The engineers were incredulous. A retaining wall was built slowly and held down by dozens of steel anchors. The engineers asked Siebenberg where he wanted to build the retaining wall, and he said, "let's build it parallel to the house today." Eight years later the retaining wall of the new house was exactly parallel to the house from 2,000 years ago. The wall was built in sections over eight years, and the Siebenbergs were gradually able to excavate behind each section as it went up.
Sometimes as many as 30 workers were hired. For two years they burrowed, taking the earth out in bucketfuls, carrying it off on donkeys' backs and sifting for signs of the past. They discovered nothing but dirt. Finally, one day in 1972 they hit an archeological mother lode. First, a bronze key ring, probably used by a woman to lock her jewelry box during the Second Temple Period rolled off a pile of dirt. "He came running upstairs," Siebenberg's wife, Miriam, said of that day. "He said it was 'a key ring, a key ring.' I said: 'How do you know? It's just a ball of dirt.' He said, 'I know, I know.'"
The excavations carried out underneath the Siebenberg home in the course of 18 years have revealed artifacts from three distinct periods in Israel's national history, the First Temple Period, the Second Temple period, and the 1948 Arab–Israeli War. The earliest finds date back to nearly three thousand years ago, to the days of King David (first Temple period).
A burial vault was found from the First Temple Period and dates back to nearly 3,000 years ago, however, most of the artifacts that were found were from the time of the Second Temple Period. There are five main finds from the Second Temple Period that have been found: part of an aqueduct, two water cisterns, two mikvahs (ritual bath), Hasmonean stones, a [capital (part of a pillar) with seven menorahs chiseled into it, and supporting pillars with ash from the destruction of the Upper City on the 8th of the month of elul, year 70.