The Ophel area at dawn at the end of the 2022 excavation season
Photo by Sasson Tiram
Welcome to the 2026 Ophel excavation—a joint project of the Institute of Archaeology of Hebrew University and the Armstrong Institute of Biblical Archaeology.
This season we will once again be blogging our experience. This page will provide up-to-date information, photos and videos of the 2026 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.
Much like the previous phases (2022, 2023, 2024 and 2025), the 2026 season will focus primarily on revealing Second Temple Period structures and material. This year, there are three areas of concentration—Area D, Area D1 and a short probe of Area P. We plan to continue removing Byzantine domestic structures, shedding more light on an impressive monumental building from the Early Roman Period that functioned during the days of the Second Temple. Several impressive ritual baths (mikvaot) have already been discovered in relation to this building, as well as a complex drainage system and an even earlier ritual purification structure, in use prior to the construction of the main Early Roman Period building. Our excavation will continue to reveal these features, as well as several phases of later Byzantine occupation that will be excavated along the way.
The third week got off to a strong start today, with much dirt and stones moved via several bucket chains into rows of balot (construction site bags). Among the many finds of today we had dozens of coins and significant quantities of pottery, in particular many pilgrim flasks of the late Second Temple period. Excited to see what the rest of this week will have in store!
With three more days of hard work, we completed a productive second week.
In Area D, we exposed more of the southern room—with the first glimpse of bedrock in the northern corner. In this room, we found more coins, which will be important for dating. Further north, we are removing fill material inside the complete arched vault, which was plastered from the inside and likely used as a cistern in the Byzantine Period. Besides additional work in two other rooms, two more areas on the west were opened in Area D, where Iron Age material was quickly revealed.
Area D1 made good progress in a number of chamber-like rooms and passages around the area. Quantities of Early Roman, Hellenistic and Iron Age pottery continue to emerge from different locations—including additional Iron Age horse figurine fragments (the subject of today’s show-and-tell) and a complete vessel—with greater clarity coming for the dating of different phases of the site. On the northwest side of the site, the full continuation of the beautifully constructed early “royal mikveh” has been discovered.
On the final day of the week, we welcomed four more Armstrong volunteers who arrived in Israel on Wednesday after performing in the Celtic Throne Irish dance show, which just completed its North American tour. We closed the week with another tour of progress in each area.
At the beginning of this second week of excavation, we continued excavating Byzantine walls and exposing a Herodian vault in Area D. In Area D1, we continued work excavating low fills and probing the northeast corner of the large Ophel pool. In all loci, progress was steady, digging through fills and recording an ever increasing amount of finds, including interesting metal objects, a ring, Iron Age horse figurine fragments and, today, an ornate bone distaff, discovered by Deepika in Area D1. A distaff is an object used to hold fibers as they are spun into a spindle—evidence of fabric production on our site. This special object was the topic of show-and-tell at breakfast.
We finished off the first week with good progress in all areas. At the end of the day, Professor Leibner thanked all the volunteers for their work and presented certificates to those leaving. Afterward, the area supervisors—Chris, Akiva and Amir—gave a tour of their respective areas and explained the progress we made this week. On to week two!
In Area D, we continued working in rooms of the Second Temple Period monumental structure we are revealing. Here’s a summary of what is happening in those rooms—from the perspective of the large iconic four-sided Ophel pool (looking northwest): The chamber on the far left is spanned by a later Byzantine wall that crosses the room. Behind the wall is a fill that the crew is working through. The chamber to the right contains a mikveh (ritual bath), still obscured by a deep fill that Azariah and Eva are working to remove. Further to the right is a chamber with beautifully dressed stones, also obscured by a Byzantine wall and destruction remains from the Great Revolt, and further right again is a complete vault that we have been working to expose.
In Area D1, we dismantled a large part of a modern reconstructed wall on the east side of the area and dug through fills in several chambers adjacent to the Second Temple Period drainage system. There is a lot of good Second Temple Period material—and a growing amount of First Temple Period finds! Additionally, on the northeast side of the large Ophel pool (where we removed the steps last week), we opened a small probe that revealed the remains of earlier pool phases. Finally, on the northwest side of D1, we excavated steps adjacent to the large cistern.
On Wednesday, Area P supervisor Akiva returned to lead excavators to further probe the southwest side of the large Ophel pool, unveiling some early walls.
And, finally, we had a tour! After the dig day ended on July 6, the crew received a tour of the Temple Mount.
Finally, the first day of excavation! As we walked to the dig site there was some welcome cloud cover that stayed through much of the morning. All the volunteers showed up to the dig site ready to go, and after an orientation and safety briefing by Prof. Uzi Leibner and a short tour around the Ophel from Prof. Orit Peleg-Barkat, the hustle and bustle of excavation work started in Areas D and D1—dismantling walls, excavating through fills, and noting down levels, with some smaller finds along the way.
This year, Area D is supervised by Amir Cohen-Klonymous, assisted by Shoham, and our own Chris Eames is supervising Area D1 assisted by Gall.
On to more dismantling and moving stones in preparation for the excavation today. Final preparations were made as we wrapped up the week. Excited to start excavating on Sunday!
We were back at the pool today, where we finished dismantling the top row of steps. The steps contained plastic and the remains of a beer bottle, confirming our suspicions that they were part of a modern reconstruction from the 1980s.
We also moved all of the office equipment from Hebrew University to the cleaned up office space. With weeding and cleaning mostly complete, we turned our attention to Area E in preparation for the second excavation this summer.
And, finally … shades! After the first three days working in the hot sun, the help of Yedidia setting up shades over the area was much appreciated.
No dismantling today. Akiva will be back on Wednesday and Thursday to continue in Area P. We spent the day weeding, constructing and cleaning/organizing the office space to get ready for the arrival of the rest of the volunteers on Sunday.
On the second day of the excavation preparation week, we began dismantling steps in Area P (the pool/mikveh area that was opened during last year’s excavation). Under the supervision of area supervisor Akiva Goldenhersh, assisted by Shlomo, a few Armstrong volunteers carefully dismantled the northeastern steps adjacent to Area D1.
The rest of the crew spent the day weeding; constructing safety railings, platforms and steps; and organizing the office space in the Monastery of the Virgins. It was another very productive day!
The Armstrong crew began cleaning the site in preparation for excavation to start next week. It was a hot day with no shades, but everyone was excited to be out at the site! You can see the results of a day’s labor in a few before-and-after shots.
