Second Discovery- The "Stoning Ground"
As they continued to dig straight down, the cliff face was on one side, forming a solid wall. But on the other side, the earth wall began to exhibit signs of instability and Ron feared that it would soon collapse, perhaps burying them in the hole. He decided that they should move back along the cliff-face to the original site that he had pointed to. He dreaded it because of the huge boulder he had found just under the surface- but he felt he had no choice.
Ron had felt justified in beginning the excavation several yards from the original site, because it was in the same general area. And with the discovery of the niches, he was satisfied that it hadn't been a completely wasted effort- but still he had another purpose for this excavation.
As they began to dig around the huge boulder extending out from the original site, he discovered that here was enough room behind it (between it and the cliff-face) to begin their dig. As they began to dig downward, they very soon came upon another item of interest. Carved out of the cliff-face was a hole which extended through a section of protruding rock allowing a rope or similar object to be threaded through it. The great care obviously devoted to chiseling out this object indicated that it had an important use, but they would learn that later.
The first site they had begun excavating was where the cliff-face was
relatively vertical like a wall. Here, the cliff-face slanted inward, forming
a "roof" over the place they were digging. As they dug down into the earth,
they found open areas beneath the surface which contained a large amount
of pottery shards, and even a few pieces still intact.
They reached bedrock 38 feet below the present ground surface. Carefully removing debris, they found themselves in an approximately 15 foot diameter round chamber carved out of the rock with steps chiseled into the shaft descending from the top in a spiral to the bottom. At some point in time it had been modified and plastered, reused as a cistern. Either of these explanations would explain the presence of the "rope hole" chiseled in the cliff-face (see the above photo)- it was for the rope that held the bucket or jug which was lowered down into the shaft to retrieve grain or water.
Ron chiseled through the plaster and found a large amount of pottery among the dirt and debris used as fill to form the cistern. When he turned these pottery pieces in to Antiquities and they examined them, they informed Ron that some of them date back to the Jebusite time (before David took the city). The latest dated specimens were from the Roman period, which tells us that the grain bin was plastered during Roman times.
As exciting as these discoveries were, again they weren't what Ron was looking for.
As they descended through the earth and debris, they were able to distinguish
the Roman level because of the pottery and coins. Ron decided again that
he needed to keep looking- that these things were not the object of his
search. They covered up the circular shaft, careful to preserve everything,
and began to tunnel under the present ground level along the cliff-face
on the Roman level back in the direction of the first site they had begun
to excavate. Ron was looking for an entrance into a cave or tunnel in the
now underground cliff-face. But his next discovery was so gruesome that
it still reflects in his face when he talks about it.
The grain shaft/cistern was cut into the solid rock. When Ron began his tunnel back in the direction of the cut-out niches, he found that the rock floor abruptly ended about 3 to 4 feet from the edge of the shaft. Digging a 3 foot shaft straight down, he found a massive amount of fist-sized and larger rocks. As he sorted through them, he found several human bones, in particular some finger bones. He believed he knew what this represented- while it is common to find rocks in an excavation, it is NOT common to find them of this particular size in such a massive pile. It certainly wasn't a tomb- and the disarticulated bones among the large rocks led Ron to only one conclusion- this has been the "stoning ground"
ACT 6:57 Then they cried out with a loud voice, and stopped their ears, and ran upon him with one accord, 58 And CAST HIM [Stephen] OUT OF THE CITY, AND STONED HIM:
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