Temple Mount Sifting Project

[1] The debris was moved to several locations, with the lion's share (an estimated 350 truckloads) dumped in the Kidron Valley, near the north-eastern corner of the old city.

[2] In 2004, an excavation permit was issued to Israeli archaeologists Gabriel Barkay and Zachi Dvira (Zweig), under the auspices of Bar-Ilan University, who, with funding from private backers through the Israel Exploration Society, proceeded to retrieve most of the heaps of soil and move them to a secure location provided by the Israel Nature and Parks Authority in the Emek Tzurim National Park.

In 2005, after experiencing financial difficulties, the project collaborated with the Ir-David foundation, who took responsibility on the administration of the sifting site, while the scientific oversight retained by Barkay and Dvira.

Objects retrieved from the wet-sifting process are then sorted and cataloged by on-site archaeologists, and transferred to an archaeological laboratory, to be further studied by specialists who prepare the finds for publication.

For example, while comparison to other Iron Age Judahite sites showed a similar distribution of different types of figurines (human, animal, etc.

[13] In the ensuing years, multiple excavation projects in Jerusalem and its environs have adopted the wet-sifting technique,[14] some of them outsourcing the sifting work to the TMSP.

[16] In January 2013, the project announced the development of a statistical method using cluster analysis to partially reconstruct the original context of some of the finds.

[28] The sealing, which bears on its back fiber impressions, was affixed to a cloth sack, pouch, or lid, possibly relating to the Temple treasury.

A number of architectural remains are ascribed to this period, the largest among them being a 75 cm wide Doric capital, which may have topped an 18-foot tall column within Solomon's Porch.

A relatively surprising phenomena was the discovery of a large number of luxurious architectural artifacts from the period – including Opus sectile tiles, roof tiles, Corinthian capitals, chancel screens and a multitude of mosaic tesserae – which led researchers to question the historical sources that depict the Temple Mount as abandoned at the time.

[34] Opus Sectile tiles from this era match up exactly to patterns seen under the Dome of the Rock's carpeting,[35] as well as the church of the Holy Sepulchre.

Over a dozen personal seals dating to this period were found, including one bearing the name of Sheikh Abd al-Fattah al-Tamimi,[37] who would go on to serve as deputy to the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, and Qadi in Ramla, Gaza and Nablus in the early 18th century.