The most ancient rooftiles found in the Land of Israel were discovered in the City of David

The researchers: “This find is a tangible connection with the story of Hanukkah.”

Up till now, little evidence of the Greek Seleucid presence has been discovered in Jerusalem. * The finds will be presented to the public at the Israel Antiquities Authority Conference: “In Those Days At This Time” that will take place on Hannuka in Jerusalem. Admission Free.

Greetings from Antiochus Epiphanes! The earliest evidence to date for the use of ceramic rooftiles in the Land of Israel has been uncovered in the City of David National Park surrounding the walls of the Old City of Jerusalem. Sixteen Hellenistic-period rooftile fragments dating from the 2nd century BCE were found in archaeological excavations conducted by the Israel Antiquities Authority and Tel-Aviv University at the Giv‘ati Parking Lot Excavations which are funded by the City of David Foundation. According to the researchers, Dr. Yiftah Shalev and Dr. Filip Vukosavović from the Israel Antiquities Authority, and Prof. Yuval Gadot from Tel-Aviv University:

“It is surprising how such a small discovery can open a tiny window into a vast world of research.”

The finds, dated to the time of the Greek Seleucid King Antiochus IV, the oppressor known from the story of Hannukah, will be exhibited  for the first time on Monday, 11th December 2023, at the Israel Antiquities Authority Conference “In Those Days At This Time–The Hasmoneans are Coming.”  

Ceramic roofing tiles were invented in Greece as early as the 7th Century BCE, their durability and resistance to water, specifically rainwater and precipitation, gaining them a positive reputation and ensuring their rapid adoption in neighboring areas. However, 500 

years went by until they began to appear in the material culture of the Land of Israel. In fact, it aspires that the person who brought them to Israel was none other than Antiochus IV Epiphanes –known to all of us from the story of Hanukkah. 

“The representatives of the Seleucid King, Antiochus IV, who reigned over vast areas from Syria to Persia, brought the knowledge and tradition of constructing tiled roofs from Seleucid-controlled Syria,” say the researchers.

According to the story in the book of the Maccabees, in 168 BCE, Antiochus IV undertook a military expedition to Jerusalem, which led to the outbreak of the renown Maccabean 

Revolt. In order to establish his control of the city, Antiochus constructed a mighty fortress that was known as the “Acra.”

The Greek soldiers residing in the fortress continued to rule the city after the Maccabean cleansing of the Jerusalem Temple, and according to the descriptions in the books of the Maccabees and in the later writings of Flavius Josephus, the fortress embittered the lives of the Jewish residents in the city and the Temple. Despite several descriptions of the fortress in the Jewish and external literary sources, its exact location within the city still remains a puzzle debated by scholars.

According to Dr. Ayala Zilberstein of the Israel Antiquities Authority and Tel-Aviv University, “The architectural remains uncovered over recent years have reopened the debate, and they actually strengthen the identification of the fortress on the City of David hill. The discovery of the rooftiles constitutes additional evidence and further reinforcement from a different direction, for the identification of the Hellenistic presence in the City of David, characterized by foreign construction traditions. Further research on many more tiles that were discovered in the previous archaeological expedition directed by Dr. Doron Ben-Ami and Dr. Yanna Tchekhanovets of the Israel Antiquities Authority, may shed more light on this issue.”

“Tiles were very rare in our region during this period, and they were alien to local construction traditions, indicating that the technique of using tiles to roof parts of a tower 

or a structure inside that famous fortress was brought from Greek-controlled areas by foreign rulers.”

According to Dr. Filip Vukosavović of the Israel Antiquities Authority:  

“Until now, we had little material evidence for the presence of the Seleucid Greeks in Jerusalem. The new tiles discovered in the City of David provide tangible remains  of the Seleucid Greek presence in the region, linking us with the story of Hanukkah. It’s very exciting to encounter the Seleucid ruler Antiochus IV ‘face-to-face’, almost 2,200 years after the events of Hanukkah.”

Dr. Vukosavović explains, “The climate and the relatively low precipitation in Israel, as well as other factors, do not justify the use of tiles for roofing, yet Antiochus still chose to make use of these rooftiles, probably for cultural reasons and to make a statement, by introducing Greek monumental material culture in the country at a short distance from the Jewish Temple. It is therefore probably not incidental that with the collapse of Seleucid rule and the ascent of the Hasmoneans, roofing tiles disappear from Jerusalem, until the arrival of the new Roman conquerors.”

According to Eli Escusido, Director of the Israel Antiquities Authority, “It is interesting to discover that rooftiles have been a standard roofing component throughout the world, although their design, shape and size have evolved over the centuries; its amazing how such an everyday item can teach us so much.”