The Pottery from the Byzantine Street (Area S2), Jerusalem

The Byzantine street segment exposed in Area S2 revealed pottery dated primarily to the Byzantine and the beginning of Early Islamic period, including from well-stratified contexts; these finds are accompanied by a handful of Early and Late Roman period pottery types which should be treated as residuals of pre-Byzantine activity in the area. The Byzantine- and Early Islamic-period pottery illuminate the chronology of the street and some later nearby features, providing important new data on the development of the Byzantine building projects west and southwest of the Temple Mount. Based on the ceramic analysis, the Byzantine street was built somewhat later than the Byzantine cardo, namely in the mid- or late sixth century CE. The street’s latest phases of use are attributed to the very end of the Byzantine period or the beginning of the Early Islamic period, i.e. the seventh to early eighth centuries CE. The end of the Byzantine street, dated to the first half of the eighth century, can be associated with the construction of the late Umayyad governmental complex to the west and southwest of the Temple Mount and with contemporaneous industrial activity identified in a nearby excavation.