Evidence for a Roman Period Trash Dump in the Valley of Hinnom
By Arthur Bud Chrysler © 2024 Arthur Chrysler
In the summer of 1984, I discovered Hinnom’s Jerusalem Dumpsite of the Roman period on the northeastern slope of the Valley Hinnom. Forty years later, it remains undiscovered by archaeologists!
In his article, Gehenna: Hell as Metaphor? What and Where was it? 2019, Patrick Hunt wrote the following (emphasis mine):
“As mentioned in Hebrew biblical texts, this valley just south of ancient Jerusalem was carved by a stream that joined the Kidron Valley. Today the valley marks the limits of Old Jerusalem outside the late medieval Suleimanic Wall – itself roughly paralleling older walls from the Iron Age the first millennium BCE into Roman times – surrounding Mt. Zion, its southeastern confluence with the south running Kidron Valley is near where the Tyropoean Valley (or Maqtesh) descends out of the summit of Old Jerusalem and also where the Kidron had continued southerly under the Ophel or Hill of David. Perhaps ironically, the depth of the Hinnom Valley, so accursed in literature, is immediately adjacent to the blessed context of the height of Mt. Zion. This polarity of sublime blessed height to terrible depth has not been missed by commentators.”
In his article, Gehenna: Hell as Metaphor? What and Where was it? 2019, Patrick Hunt wrote the following (emphasis mine):
“As mentioned in Hebrew biblical texts, this valley just south of ancient Jerusalem was carved by a stream that joined the Kidron Valley. Today the valley marks the limits of Old Jerusalem outside the late medieval Suleimanic Wall – itself roughly paralleling older walls from the Iron Age the first millennium BCE into Roman times – surrounding Mt. Zion, its southeastern confluence with the south running Kidron Valley is near where the Tyropoean Valley (or Maqtesh) descends out of the summit of Old Jerusalem and also where the Kidron had continued southerly under the Ophel or Hill of David. Perhaps ironically, the depth of the Hinnom Valley, so accursed in literature, is immediately adjacent to the blessed context of the height of Mt. Zion. This polarity of sublime blessed height to terrible depth has not been missed by commentators.”
Confluence of the Valley of Hinnom and the Kidron Valley (Photo: Arthur Chrysler)
19th c. map of Jerusalem before modern development (note the location of the Dung Gate).
“Nonetheless, despite the details of II Kings 21 & 23 and II Chronicles 33 noting Manasseh’s sins and Josiah’s reforms and the judgments of Jeremiah (chs. 7, 32) the archaeological evidence for the Hinnom Valley as a place for a Molech shrine of child sacrifice – or a perpetually-burning trash dump in the time of Jesus – is so scanty as to be unverifiable to date. It should be noted, however, as some have, that Josiah’s reforms purportedly would have desecrated the Molech shrines and thus any such evidence might have been destroyed at this time. Whether the Hinnom Valley was used in Roman times as a trash dump with smoking embers – and thus a literal suggestion by Jesus – remains elusive. Despite long but sporadic Rabbinic tradition (Rabbi Yohanan ben Zakkai, Rabbi Jeremiah ben Eleazar, among others) and extended commentary for apocryphal Book of Enoch xxvii.1 as noted in the Jewish Encyclopedia where Gehenna, and possibly by extension the accursed Hinnom Valley, became “a figurative equivalent for hell” and specifically Rabbi David Kimhi claiming a trash dump in the Hinnom Valley, Lloyd Bailey states that “There is no evidence that the valley was, in fact, a garbage dump…” Trash dumps for burning by fire in Jerusalem would be logical south, east and southeast of the city where acrid smoke would blow away from occupation areas. A contemporary 1st c. BCE to 1st c. CE Roman trash dump can be seen to the east in the Kidron valley with many accumulated strata of compacted refuse material.”
Y. Gadot, Kidron’s Jerusalem Landfill of 1st c CE (Courtesy BAS)
“In conclusion, since millennia of alluviation and modern redevelopment in the vicinity has made the Hinnom Valley increasingly difficult to pinpoint any such locus for the kind of activity II Kings, II Chronicles and Jeremiah narrate, complicated by the lack of physical evidence for a Roman period trash dump there to date, the words of Jesus must be at this point figurative. It cannot be fully ruled out that Jesus was describing a real place. Perhaps extended future archaeological research will yet locate a Hinnom Valley trash dump whose “unquenchable fire” was known, and its acrid smoke seen and smelled by Jerusalemites of the Roman period including Jesus who referenced an accursed place to avoid if at all possible” (Patrick Hunt, Electrum Magazine, Gehenna: Hell as Metaphor? What and Where was it? October 2, 2019).
In the summer of 1984, I discovered Hinnom’s Jerusalem Dumpsite/Landfill of the 1st c CE on the northeastern slope of the Valley Hinnom (middle left in my photo).
Ruins of, what the French call, a “charnier” which served as the first Crusader cemetery in the Holy Land. Located on the southeastern slope of the Valley Hinnom, directly across from the, yet undiscovered, Roman period trash dump. Photo: Arthur Chrysler
Archaeological evidence for a Roman period trash dump on the northeastern slope of the Valley of Hinnom (from my journal):
- Thursday August 9,1984 – 16 pot handles and 2 jar tops.
- Friday August 10, 1984 – 6 pot handles.
- Saturday August 11, 1984 – 12 pot handles and 3 jar tops.
- Monday August 13, 1984 – 6 pot handles.
1st century potsherds from the Valley of Hinnom site. Photo: William Chrysler
The confluence of the Kidron and Hinnom Valleys, south of the Old City of Jerusalem, contains one of Jerusalem’s richest concentrations of rock-hewn tombs. This area is located on the periphery of the village of Silwan (facing southeast). Photo: Arthur Chrysler
“The location of the valley has been much disputed. All three of the valleys around Jerusalem have been identified with it—the Kidron to the E, the Tyropoeon in the center, and the Wadi er-Rababi on the W. Early Jewish, Christian, and Mohammedan writers identified it with Kidron, but scarcely anyone does so today. Since the Tyropoean valley was incorporated within the city walls before the time of Manasseh, it is extremely unlikely that it could have been the place of the sacrifice of children, which must have been done outside the walls (2 Kings 21:10-15). The Wadi er-Rababi location has the most support. It begins W of the Jaffa gate, turns S c. a third of a mile, and gradually curves E to join the Kidron valley. If Bir Ayyub is En-rogel, as seems probable, then the Wadi er-Rababi, known traditionally as Hinnom, locates the valley of Hinnom” (Bible Gateway https://www.biblegateway.com).
My newly found friend from the village of Silwan, counting change at the site of En-rogel.
Gehenna, or the valley of Hinnom, is an actual valley in the city of Jerusalem. In Israel's past, it was used as a place of child sacrifice. From the reign of Josiah onward, it was used as a garbage dump. Jesus used Gehenna as an illustration of the final judgment of the wicked.
Having been created in the image of God (Gen. 1:27), man's soul is eternal. Our flesh bodies decay over time, but our soul will carry on into eternity. God would have all of us to reside with Him in eternity, but because of the fall (Gen. 3:6-13), we are all born in sin (Romans 3:23), and therefore must remain separated from God (Romans 6:23 - For the wages of sin is death...). Thankfully, the verse does not end there; it continues - but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Your sin-debt was paid for you when Jesus was crucified. The apostle Paul makes clear the plan of salvation (I Corinthians 15:1-4). If you believe that Jesus paid the sin-debt for you, the gift of eternal life is yours! Study these things out. Jesus compared the dump in the Valley of Hinnom to a place where some will spend eternity; don't be counted among them. For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast (Ephesians 2:8-9).
Having been created in the image of God (Gen. 1:27), man's soul is eternal. Our flesh bodies decay over time, but our soul will carry on into eternity. God would have all of us to reside with Him in eternity, but because of the fall (Gen. 3:6-13), we are all born in sin (Romans 3:23), and therefore must remain separated from God (Romans 6:23 - For the wages of sin is death...). Thankfully, the verse does not end there; it continues - but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Your sin-debt was paid for you when Jesus was crucified. The apostle Paul makes clear the plan of salvation (I Corinthians 15:1-4). If you believe that Jesus paid the sin-debt for you, the gift of eternal life is yours! Study these things out. Jesus compared the dump in the Valley of Hinnom to a place where some will spend eternity; don't be counted among them. For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast (Ephesians 2:8-9).
