The Necessity for Historical Interpretation and Imagination

Andre Benveniste

                                                                 Photo of Jerusalem' layers below Western Wall

    

    The book From the Reliable Sources: An Introduction to Historical Methods captures the essence of history. Meaning, in the parts we read this week, history is presented as a field based on interpretation rather than pure factual claims. This idea, more than any other, suggests that the lack of access to the past has caused modern-day historians to make educated inferences on what distant pieces of history must have looked like. This view of history is especially relevant when we examine a city as old as Jerusalem; a city of just over 5,000 years. This means that we are never going to fully and accurately uncover Jerusalem’s rich history, most of which is still underground. Therefore, when discussing Jerusalem’s history, it is more important to adopt this understanding of history than with any other place on earth. 

Jerusalem’ multiple underground layers, each from far-apart historical periods, indicates that gathering sufficient information to paint the past is an incredibly high order. After all, as I was there in 2023, I saw a few of Jerusalem’s layers below the Western Wall. Layers that are only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Jerusalem’s abundant history. The most important part that I learned, however, was that most of the layers will forever remain below the city’s current surface. This is because a “host of international organizations denounce any excavations—no matter how impeccable the scientific method—in areas considered occupied,” which quite frankly is most of old Jerusalem (Lawler). For instance, excavations and digging of any kind is prohibited on the Temple Mount, or otherwise known as Jerusalem’s crown. For both Muslims and Jews alike, it is the holiest place in the city. Therefore, since this prohibition to dig in that area will not be repealed anytime soon, we will just have to stick to the sources that we have and, most of all, use our imagination. 

This being said, our sources for Jerusalem’s long past are limited. Actually, “Yet until recently, researchers’ understanding of what took place in Jerusalem in the subsequent four centuries came almost entirely from scripture” (Lawler). This constitutes for interpretation because we do not have a model of the past. However, interpretation does not mean guessing, but rather to use context that does exist in the history surrounding Jerusalem. By both equipping a logical imagination, along with using the resources at hand, we can grow closer to Jerusalem than any artifact can ever tell us. 

Sources:

(Article)

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/jerusalem-archaeology-modernizes-but-runs-into-ancient-problems/

(Image)

https://www.patternsofevidence.com/2021/08/06/hidden-complex-found-beneath-western-wall/