A moat once dug against invading Crusader armies has been discovered beneath the Old City of Jerusalem and sheds light on some of the bloodiest and most iconic battles of the late Middle Ages. What’s even more interesting is that while excavating the ancient defense line, archaeologists also found a handprint carved into the trench wall. But we still don’t know who left this mark or what it means.
The moat that protected the city surrounded the famous city walls and is thought to have been dug no later than the 10th century AD. The ditch was at least 10 meters wide and 2 to 7 meters deep, said Zubair Adawi, excavation director for the Israel Antiquities Authority.
“The function of this ditch was to prevent the enemy besieging Jerusalem from approaching the walls and entering the city,” Adawi said in a statement to IFLScience. The trench here was dry, its width and depth a barrier that slowed the attacking army.”
Archaeologists say the famous ramparts and gates that surround the Old City today were built in the 16th century by the Ottoman Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent, but the old city walls protecting Jerusalem before that point were much more impenetrable.
Jerusalem regional director of the Israel Antiquities Authority, Dr. “In the ages of knightly wars, swords, arrows, and attacking cavalry, the walls of Jerusalem were a formidable and complex system of walls and elements to stop the large armies attacking the city,” says Amit Re’em.
Considering the age of the trench, it can be estimated that it saw many serious struggles during the Crusades as European armies tried to capture Jerusalem many times between the 11th and 13th centuries. “The historians who accompanied the First Crusade describe the Crusaders’ arrival on the walls of Jerusalem in June 1099,” Re’em says. Underneath, with the tactics deployed, and at the cost of so many casualties, they managed to cross the ditch.”
To enter the city, the crusaders would have to cross the moat and the two thick walls that surrounded the city while “the defenders of the city on the walls rained fire and sulfur upon them.” A series of secret tunnels also allowed those in Jerusalem to enter the moat and surprise the enemy before retreating to the safety of the city.
Who does the mysterious handprint belong to?
Among the most intriguing elements discovered by the team is a handprint on the ditch wall. It is not known whether the hand that left the mark belonged to a city defender, an invading knight, or someone else.
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