Jewish Pilgrimage, Temple Sacrifices and ‘Disposable’ Cooking Pots

From the time of Herod until the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 CE, there was a steady increase in the number of pilgrims in Jerusalem, reaching tens of thousands during each festival. Extensive supplies of ritually pure food prepared in pure cooking vessels were required for the pilgrims’ sacrificial meals in the Temple and throughout the city. A large quantity of cooking pots had to be supplied within a short period of time, and these vessels were like ‘disposable’ cooking pots as they had to be broken at the end of the pilgrimage. In this paper, I suggest identifying the Jerusalem International Convention Center site (JICC, also designated Binyene Ha-Umma), located on the city’s periphery, as the main production center for these cooking pots, the site expanding from the time of Herod onward to supply the needs of the thriving pilgrimage phenomenon. At the end of the pilgrimage events, some of these cooking pots were buried in an intentional manner in the city’s waste disposal site on the eastern slope of the City of David hill.