Meleke
Encyclopedia
Meleke — also transliterated melekeh or malaki — is a lithologic
type of white, coarsely crystalline, thickly bedded limestone
found in the Judean Hills in Israel
and the West Bank
. It has been used in the traditional architecture
of Jerusalem since ancient times, especially in Herodian architecture
. Though it is often popularly referred to as Jerusalem stone
, this phrase can refer to a number of different types of stone found and used in, or associated with, Jerusalem.
word that originated in the jargon of local stonemasons. Translated as "kingly stone", (or "queenly"), "royal stone", or "stone of kings", the source of the word's meaning may derive from melekes use in all the monumental tombs of Jerusalem. Israeli building stone authority Asher Shadmon
cites the word as one of the local or colloquial "mason's terms" that have been "adopted by geologists" and are applied in the technical literature.
of the Bina (Baana) Formation of Late Cretaceous
age, a layer about 10 meters in thickness and about 90 million years old. When freshly cut, it is a pure white limestone. It may retain its white color for many years or it may be insolated
to a light golden yellow. The aged stone has a typical golden hue, but may range in tone from pinkish to off-white. When quarried it is soft and quite workable, but upon exposure it hardens and develops a clear surface that will take on a high polish. Meleke withstands natural erosion
very well and provides a high-quality building stone, as well as commercial marble
.
Used as a building material since ancient times, this "royal stone" has been of great importance to the history of the city of Jerusalem
. When it is first exposed to the air it can be soft enough to be cut with a knife, but exposed to the air it hardens to make a stone of considerable durability, useful for building. Hundreds of caverns, cistern
s, tomb
s and aqueduct
s in Jerusalem have been excavated from this stone. According to a long-standing legend, "Zedekiah's Cave
", a large ancient meleke cave/quarry
near the Damascus Gate
in Jerusalem's Old City, was the source of the building material for Solomon
's First Temple. Richard S. Barnett writes that ashlars in the Western Wall
and the outer retaining wall of the extended Herodian
Temple platform were apparently cut from meleke quarries near Bezetha
.
The courtyard of the Tomb of Helena of Adiabene
was originally a meleke stone quarry, and the staircase once a ramp upon which the blocks extracted were hauled. Of the four types of limestone found in the Jerusalem region, two were used in building during the Islamic period in Palestine: meleke and mizzi, the latter being a harder stone, also known as "Palestinian marble".
The use of meleke was popular among the Frankish
stonemasons of the Crusader
Kingdom of Jerusalem
in Palestine
, who quarried it to make fine, carefully drafted building stones for use in door and window features, among other architectural features. Frankish markings from the distinctive diagnol tools used by their stonemasons can be seen on meleke stones put to secondary use in the walls surrounding the Old City of Jerusalem.
have reached bedrock
. Beginning in about the seventh or eighth century BCE, the area where the church is now located was a large quarry, with the city of Jerusalem lying to the southeast. Traces of the quarry have been found not only in the church area, but also in excavations conducted nearby in the 1960s and 1970s by Kathleen Kenyon
in the Muristan
enclave of Jerusalem's Christian Quarter, and by Ute Lux, in the nearby Church of the Redeemer
. Meleke stone was chiseled out in squarish blocks and partially cut ashlar
s still attached to the bedrock after being left by the workers were found. East of St. Helena's Chapel in the Holy Sepulchre Church, the quarry was over 40 feet deep and the earth and ash therein contained Iron Age II
pottery, from about the seventh century BCE.
According to Virgilio C. Corbo, professor of archaeology at the Studium Biblicum Franciscanum in Jerusalem, the quarry continued to be used until the first century BCE, at which time it was filled, and covered with a layer of reddish-brown soil mixed with stone flakes from the ancient quarry. It became a garden or orchard, where cereals, fig
, carob, and olive
trees were grown. It also served as a cemetery, and at least four tombs dating from this period have been found, including a typical kokh tomb thought to be that of Nicodemus
and Joseph of Arimathea
.
A salvage excavation conducted by the Israeli Antiquities Authority in June 2006 in the Sanhedriya neighborhood of Jerusalem exposed another ancient masonry meleke quarry. Larger than the area excavated, the quarry abutted onto the southern end of Second Temple
period Sanhedrin
tombs between which extensive ancient quarries had previously been discovered.
The quarry seems to have been in operation in the Roman period, though precise dating was difficult because the quarrying debris was devoid of coins and potsherds, and modern debris had entered the site. A few pottery fragments from the end of the first century BCE to the first century CE found on the bottom of the quarry units formed the basis for the dating put forward, and the quarry's proximity to the Sanhedrin tombs of the Second Temple period has also led archaeologists to assume it was in use during that time.
The exposed quarry is just one of a number of ancient quarries discovered in the Sanhedriya-Mahanayim region whose stones were utilized in the public construction of Jerusalem.
Lithology
The lithology of a rock unit is a description of its physical characteristics visible at outcrop, in hand or core samples or with low magnification microscopy, such as colour, texture, grain size, or composition. It may be either a detailed description of these characteristics or be a summary of...
type of white, coarsely crystalline, thickly bedded limestone
Limestone
Limestone is a sedimentary rock composed largely of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of calcium carbonate . Many limestones are composed from skeletal fragments of marine organisms such as coral or foraminifera....
found in the Judean Hills in Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
and the West Bank
West Bank
The West Bank ) of the Jordan River is the landlocked geographical eastern part of the Palestinian territories located in Western Asia. To the west, north, and south, the West Bank shares borders with the state of Israel. To the east, across the Jordan River, lies the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan...
. It has been used in the traditional architecture
Architecture
Architecture is both the process and product of planning, designing and construction. Architectural works, in the material form of buildings, are often perceived as cultural and political symbols and as works of art...
of Jerusalem since ancient times, especially in Herodian architecture
Herodian architecture
Herodian architecture is a style of classical architecture characteristic of the numerous building projects undertaken during the reign of Herod the Great, the Roman client king of Judea...
. Though it is often popularly referred to as Jerusalem stone
Jerusalem stone
Jerusalem stone is a name applied to various types of pale limestone, dolomite and dolomitic limestone, common in and around Jerusalem that have been used in building since ancient times...
, this phrase can refer to a number of different types of stone found and used in, or associated with, Jerusalem.
Name
Meleke is an ArabicArabic language
Arabic is a name applied to the descendants of the Classical Arabic language of the 6th century AD, used most prominently in the Quran, the Islamic Holy Book...
word that originated in the jargon of local stonemasons. Translated as "kingly stone", (or "queenly"), "royal stone", or "stone of kings", the source of the word's meaning may derive from melekes use in all the monumental tombs of Jerusalem. Israeli building stone authority Asher Shadmon
Asher Shadmon
Professor Asher Shadmon is an Israeli engineering geologist who served as the first President of the International Association for Engineering Geology...
cites the word as one of the local or colloquial "mason's terms" that have been "adopted by geologists" and are applied in the technical literature.
Description
Meleke is quarried from the Upper Turonian StageTuronian
The Turonian is, in the ICS' geologic timescale, the second age in the Late Cretaceous epoch, or a stage in the Upper Cretaceous series. It spans the time between 93.5 ± 0.8 Ma and 89.3 ± 1 Ma...
of the Bina (Baana) Formation of Late Cretaceous
Cretaceous
The Cretaceous , derived from the Latin "creta" , usually abbreviated K for its German translation Kreide , is a geologic period and system from circa to million years ago. In the geologic timescale, the Cretaceous follows the Jurassic period and is followed by the Paleogene period of the...
age, a layer about 10 meters in thickness and about 90 million years old. When freshly cut, it is a pure white limestone. It may retain its white color for many years or it may be insolated
Insolation
Insolation is a measure of solar radiation energy received on a given surface area in a given time. It is commonly expressed as average irradiance in watts per square meter or kilowatt-hours per square meter per day...
to a light golden yellow. The aged stone has a typical golden hue, but may range in tone from pinkish to off-white. When quarried it is soft and quite workable, but upon exposure it hardens and develops a clear surface that will take on a high polish. Meleke withstands natural erosion
Erosion
Erosion is when materials are removed from the surface and changed into something else. It only works by hydraulic actions and transport of solids in the natural environment, and leads to the deposition of these materials elsewhere...
very well and provides a high-quality building stone, as well as commercial marble
Marble
Marble is a metamorphic rock composed of recrystallized carbonate minerals, most commonly calcite or dolomite.Geologists use the term "marble" to refer to metamorphosed limestone; however stonemasons use the term more broadly to encompass unmetamorphosed limestone.Marble is commonly used for...
.
History
History of Jerusalem
During its long history, Jerusalem has been destroyed twice, besieged 23 times, attacked 52 times, and captured and recaptured 44 times. The oldest part of the city was settled in the 4th millennium BCE, making Jerusalem one of the oldest cities in the world....
. When it is first exposed to the air it can be soft enough to be cut with a knife, but exposed to the air it hardens to make a stone of considerable durability, useful for building. Hundreds of caverns, cistern
Cistern
A cistern is a waterproof receptacle for holding liquids, usually water. Cisterns are often built to catch and store rainwater. Cisterns are distinguished from wells by their waterproof linings...
s, tomb
Tomb
A tomb is a repository for the remains of the dead. It is generally any structurally enclosed interment space or burial chamber, of varying sizes...
s and aqueduct
Aqueduct
An aqueduct is a water supply or navigable channel constructed to convey water. In modern engineering, the term is used for any system of pipes, ditches, canals, tunnels, and other structures used for this purpose....
s in Jerusalem have been excavated from this stone. According to a long-standing legend, "Zedekiah's Cave
Zedekiah's Cave
Zedekiah's Cave – also known as Solomon's Quarries – is a underground meleke limestone quarry that runs the length of five city blocks under the Muslim Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem...
", a large ancient meleke cave/quarry
Quarry
A quarry is a type of open-pit mine from which rock or minerals are extracted. Quarries are generally used for extracting building materials, such as dimension stone, construction aggregate, riprap, sand, and gravel. They are often collocated with concrete and asphalt plants due to the requirement...
near the Damascus Gate
Damascus Gate
Damascus Gate is the main entrance to the Old City of Jerusalem. It is located in the wall on the city's northwest side where the highway leads out to Nablus, and from there, in times past, to the capital of Syria, Damascus; as such, its modern English name is Damascus Gate, and its modern Hebrew...
in Jerusalem's Old City, was the source of the building material for Solomon
Solomon
Solomon , according to the Book of Kings and the Book of Chronicles, a King of Israel and according to the Talmud one of the 48 prophets, is identified as the son of David, also called Jedidiah in 2 Samuel 12:25, and is described as the third king of the United Monarchy, and the final king before...
's First Temple. Richard S. Barnett writes that ashlars in the Western Wall
Western Wall
The Western Wall, Wailing Wall or Kotel is located in the Old City of Jerusalem at the foot of the western side of the Temple Mount...
and the outer retaining wall of the extended Herodian
Herod the Great
Herod , also known as Herod the Great , was a Roman client king of Judea. His epithet of "the Great" is widely disputed as he is described as "a madman who murdered his own family and a great many rabbis." He is also known for his colossal building projects in Jerusalem and elsewhere, including his...
Temple platform were apparently cut from meleke quarries near Bezetha
Bezetha
Bezetha also called by Josephus the New City are certain suburbs of Jerusalem, north of the Temple, which were outside the second but included within the third wall. Bezeth may be the same place....
.
The courtyard of the Tomb of Helena of Adiabene
Helena of Adiabene
Helena of Adiabene was queen of Adiabene and wife of Monobaz I. With her husband she was the mother of Izates II and Monobaz II. She died about 56 CE. Her name and the fact that she was her husband's sister indicate a Hellenistic origin...
was originally a meleke stone quarry, and the staircase once a ramp upon which the blocks extracted were hauled. Of the four types of limestone found in the Jerusalem region, two were used in building during the Islamic period in Palestine: meleke and mizzi, the latter being a harder stone, also known as "Palestinian marble".
The use of meleke was popular among the Frankish
Franks
The Franks were a confederation of Germanic tribes first attested in the third century AD as living north and east of the Lower Rhine River. From the third to fifth centuries some Franks raided Roman territory while other Franks joined the Roman troops in Gaul. Only the Salian Franks formed a...
stonemasons of the Crusader
Crusades
The Crusades were a series of religious wars, blessed by the Pope and the Catholic Church with the main goal of restoring Christian access to the holy places in and near Jerusalem...
Kingdom of Jerusalem
Kingdom of Jerusalem
The Kingdom of Jerusalem was a Catholic kingdom established in the Levant in 1099 after the First Crusade. The kingdom lasted nearly two hundred years, from 1099 until 1291 when the last remaining possession, Acre, was destroyed by the Mamluks, but its history is divided into two distinct periods....
in Palestine
Palestine
Palestine is a conventional name, among others, used to describe the geographic region between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River, and various adjoining lands....
, who quarried it to make fine, carefully drafted building stones for use in door and window features, among other architectural features. Frankish markings from the distinctive diagnol tools used by their stonemasons can be seen on meleke stones put to secondary use in the walls surrounding the Old City of Jerusalem.
Discoveries in archaeological excavations
High quality, meleke limestone has been found wherever excavations in the Church of the Holy SepulchreChurch of the Holy Sepulchre
The Church of the Holy Sepulchre, also called the Church of the Resurrection by Eastern Christians, is a church within the walled Old City of Jerusalem. It is a few steps away from the Muristan....
have reached bedrock
Bedrock
In stratigraphy, bedrock is the native consolidated rock underlying the surface of a terrestrial planet, usually the Earth. Above the bedrock is usually an area of broken and weathered unconsolidated rock in the basal subsoil...
. Beginning in about the seventh or eighth century BCE, the area where the church is now located was a large quarry, with the city of Jerusalem lying to the southeast. Traces of the quarry have been found not only in the church area, but also in excavations conducted nearby in the 1960s and 1970s by Kathleen Kenyon
Kathleen Kenyon
Dame Kathleen Mary Kenyon , was a leading archaeologist of Neolithic culture in the Fertile Crescent. She is best known for her excavations in Jericho in 1952-1958.-Early life:...
in the Muristan
Muristan
The Muristan is a complex of streets and shops in the Christian Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem...
enclave of Jerusalem's Christian Quarter, and by Ute Lux, in the nearby Church of the Redeemer
Church of the Redeemer
A number of churches, usually Lutheran/Protestant or Episcopal, are called Church of the Redeemer:-Canada:*Cathedral Church of the Redeemer, Calgary, Alberta*Church of the Redeemer, Toronto, Ontario-Germany:*Church of the Redeemer, Bad Homburg, Hesse...
. Meleke stone was chiseled out in squarish blocks and partially cut ashlar
Ashlar
Ashlar is prepared stone work of any type of stone. Masonry using such stones laid in parallel courses is known as ashlar masonry, whereas masonry using irregularly shaped stones is known as rubble masonry. Ashlar blocks are rectangular cuboid blocks that are masonry sculpted to have square edges...
s still attached to the bedrock after being left by the workers were found. East of St. Helena's Chapel in the Holy Sepulchre Church, the quarry was over 40 feet deep and the earth and ash therein contained Iron Age II
Iron Age
The Iron Age is the archaeological period generally occurring after the Bronze Age, marked by the prevalent use of iron. The early period of the age is characterized by the widespread use of iron or steel. The adoption of such material coincided with other changes in society, including differing...
pottery, from about the seventh century BCE.
According to Virgilio C. Corbo, professor of archaeology at the Studium Biblicum Franciscanum in Jerusalem, the quarry continued to be used until the first century BCE, at which time it was filled, and covered with a layer of reddish-brown soil mixed with stone flakes from the ancient quarry. It became a garden or orchard, where cereals, fig
Ficus
Ficus is a genus of about 850 species of woody trees, shrubs, vines, epiphytes, and hemiepiphyte in the family Moraceae. Collectively known as fig trees or figs, they are native throughout the tropics with a few species extending into the semi-warm temperate zone. The Common Fig Ficus is a genus of...
, carob, and olive
Olive
The olive , Olea europaea), is a species of a small tree in the family Oleaceae, native to the coastal areas of the eastern Mediterranean Basin as well as northern Iran at the south end of the Caspian Sea.Its fruit, also called the olive, is of major agricultural importance in the...
trees were grown. It also served as a cemetery, and at least four tombs dating from this period have been found, including a typical kokh tomb thought to be that of Nicodemus
Nicodemus
Saint Nicodemus was a Pharisee and a member of the Sanhedrin, who, according to the Gospel of John, showed favour to Jesus...
and Joseph of Arimathea
Joseph of Arimathea
Joseph of Arimathea was, according to the Gospels, the man who donated his own prepared tomb for the burial of Jesus after Jesus' Crucifixion. He is mentioned in all four Gospels.-Gospel references:...
.
A salvage excavation conducted by the Israeli Antiquities Authority in June 2006 in the Sanhedriya neighborhood of Jerusalem exposed another ancient masonry meleke quarry. Larger than the area excavated, the quarry abutted onto the southern end of Second Temple
Second Temple
The Jewish Second Temple was an important shrine which stood on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem between 516 BCE and 70 CE. It replaced the First Temple which was destroyed in 586 BCE, when the Jewish nation was exiled to Babylon...
period Sanhedrin
Sanhedrin
The Sanhedrin was an assembly of twenty-three judges appointed in every city in the Biblical Land of Israel.The Great Sanhedrin was the supreme court of ancient Israel made of 71 members...
tombs between which extensive ancient quarries had previously been discovered.
The quarry seems to have been in operation in the Roman period, though precise dating was difficult because the quarrying debris was devoid of coins and potsherds, and modern debris had entered the site. A few pottery fragments from the end of the first century BCE to the first century CE found on the bottom of the quarry units formed the basis for the dating put forward, and the quarry's proximity to the Sanhedrin tombs of the Second Temple period has also led archaeologists to assume it was in use during that time.
The exposed quarry is just one of a number of ancient quarries discovered in the Sanhedriya-Mahanayim region whose stones were utilized in the public construction of Jerusalem.