Archaeologists sifting through piles of rubble discarded by Islamic officials from the Temple Mount have found rare artifacts dating to 3,000 years ago. The artifacts were found in the last five months in a city garbage dump used by Islamic officials six years ago when they built a mosque at an underground area of the Temple Mount. In the process they trashed more than 10,000 tons of rubble in a construction project that the head of Israel's Antiquities Authority called "an unprecedented archaeological crime."
     Bar Ilan University archeology professor Gabriel Barkay gained private funding last year to sift through 68 truckloads of the rubble from the garbage dump. Although Barkay and his volunteers have only sifted about 15 percent of the rubble, they already have uncovered scores of history-rich artifacts, from the First Temple Period to more recent times.

Sources: United Press, Washington Times (15 April 2005)