A Reexamination of the Archaeological Evidence for the Sasanian Persian Destruction of the Tyropoeon Valley

During their excavations in the Tyropoeon Valley in 1927, J. W. Crowfoot and G. M. Fitzgerald uncovered a 40 m long stretch of a well-preserved street lined with houses. They dated the construction of the street and houses to the Byzantine period (late sixth to early seventh centuries C. E.), and concluded that the street and houses were in use for only a short time before they were destroyed by the Sasanian Persians in 614 C. E. However, their failure to recognize certain later disturbances led Crowfoot and Fitzgerald to misdate some of the architectural and ceramic remains. A reevaluation of the archaeological evidence leads to a revised chronological sequence and reveals that Crowfoot and Fitzgerald found no archaeological evidence for the Sasanian destruction of 614 C. E., or for any other destruction at the end of the Byzantine period. Instead, the street and houses saw continuous occupation from the Byzantine period into the Islamic period.