They were stopped by inspectors from the Israeli Antiquities Authority but managed to retrieve a few artifacts from the dump and displayed them at a conference about new studies on Jerusalem.

Gabriel Barkay, one of Israel’s most senior archaeologists, joined forces with Zachi Dvira, and together they organized a project for systematically sifting the debris from the Temple Mount.

Since the Temple Mount has never been excavated, the artifacts retrieved from the debris could still provide valuable information, even though they are out of context.

[2] Dvira has found remains of structures that existed on the Temple Mount during the Byzantine era, which appears to disprove the claim that the site was abandoned in that period.

[clarification needed][citation needed] His dating of the mosaics found by Hamilton to the Byzantine period has been contradicted though by fellow archaeologists in 2018, who date them to the Umayyad period based on their similarity with mosaics excavated in Umayyad Palace III next to the Temple Mount's southern wall.