SECOND REPORT ON THE EXCAVATIONS AT JERUSALEM.
By F. J. Bliss, Ph. D.
The present report, written 16 weeks after my last, will, I hope, be taken as a report of progress. I have to announce the tracing of a splendid line of rock, scarped for fortification, for over 300 feet. We have also followed, inside this scarp, a long line of actual wall in situ, of fine masonry; we have traced a paved street leading to a gate in this wall, which is in all probability the Dung Gate of Scripture. These, then, are the main features of our work, which I shall now proceed to describe in detail.
In my report dated June 6th, two weeks only after the excavations had been begun, I showed how we took up the work on the so-called Rock Scarp of Zion, beginning our digging just outside the Protestant Cemetery; I described the tower built on the rock-scarp (one side of which scarp is visible under the cemetery wall running south-west), and I showed how we had traced the counter-scarp of the ditch for over one hundred feet in a north-easterly direction, following the direction of the rock-scarp as previously known. I intimated that I felt doubts as to whether this ditch belonged to the outer line of wall, as it does not follow a steep contour (such as those found lower down the hill), and leaves outside of it to the south a large gently-sloping tract, between the contours 2489 and 2469, which would naturally have been included within the town.
Besides, Josephus' reason for the single line of wall at the south of Jerusalem is that the valleys were there so steep; and this would lead us to look for the wall along a lower contour, as for example 2429. I showed how, in pursuance of this idea, I sank a shaft on the contour 2469, about 75 feet from the cemetery south-west corner, to the depth of about 20 feet, and then drove in a tunnel, in the direction of the tower on the rock-scarp.
At the time when the report closed we had advanced only a few feet in the tunnel, but in subsequent letters I described our finding the desired outer scarp, at a distance of 48 feet from the mouth of the tunnel, and our following it to the right and to the left.
The windings of the scarp are shown on the Plan. We struck it first at the point H, where we later opened a shaft from above for the double purpose of getting fresh air, and of facilitating the handling of the débris to be removed. We were thus able to find the height of the scarp at this point, as we continued the shaft till we reached the base, which was not much below the level of the tunnel, as it happened. The scarp was here 13 feet high, the top being much broken away. We continued our gallery to the left, following the scarp to point E, where
