This season’s Ophel excavation crew, led by Prof. Yosef Garfinkel
AIBA
Welcome to the 2025 Ophel excavation—a joint project of the Institute of Archaeology of Hebrew University, the Armstrong Institute of Biblical Archaeology, the Israel Antiquities Authority, Daniel Mintz and Meredith Berkman.
This season we will once again be blogging our experience. This page will provide up-to-date information, photos and videos of the 2025 Ophel excavation. Check back often as we follow what we hope to be one of our most exciting excavations to date! The most recent post will be at the top.
On April 2, renewed excavation began in Jerusalem’s biblical royal quarter in preparation for reconstruction work to highlight the ancient city’s famed past. The three-to- four-week excavation is the first return to this particular area of the Ophel since the excavations led by the late Dr. Eilat Mazar in 2009–2010. This current excavation is led by Hebrew University’s Prof. Yosef Garfinkel, staffed by the Armstrong Institute of Biblical Archaeology (aiba) and funded by aiba alongside Daniel Mintz and Meredith Berkman.
The goal of the excavation is to systematically excavate later remains in the area that obscure a monumental First Temple Period building that Dr. Eilat Mazar identified as the “Water Gate” mentioned in Nehemiah 3, yet is still debated by other scholars. Following the excavation, large-scale reconstruction and development work will take place in order to open the area to tourists. This work will be led by the Israel Antiquities Authority and funded by aiba, Daniel Mintz, Merdith Berkman and others.
April 14: The Family Edition
Today was a special day, not just because we had some new developments at the site, but also because our families visited! It added a lot to the day to have our wives and kids on site with us—even lending a helping hand.
The walls are coming down quickly! We also began working within what was once a Byzantine room. We’re working to take the floor down to bedrock. This area was previously excavated, but we’ve still pulled out some interesting finds—and a lot of modern trash.
After all of the work removing walls on day one, the area had to be cleared of stones and sediment before more wall removal could continue. There was also more weeds and foliage that needed to be cleared away.
After a slight delay, work officially began on April 2. After a discussion on safety and goals for the excavation, everyone began working on clearing out foliage and trash. After the first break (hafsekah in Hebrew), work started on removing Byzantine walls.
