Since 2004, the Temple Mount Sifting Project (TMSP) has been sifting soil destructively and illegally bulldozed and removed from the Temple Mount. This archaeological destruction was committed without archaeological supervision to prevent the revelation of hundreds of thousands of important artifacts. These artifacts which would have otherwise been lost, attest to the First and Second Temple periods, the Byzantine period, and the Crusaders – historical periods that are not accessible for archaeological research at the site of the Mount itself.

The TMSP was created in order to save as many ancient artifacts as possible from these thousands of tons of debris, as well to conduct archaeological research in order to shed more light on the history of the Temple Mount - a place of significance to billions of people throughout the world.

During more than a decade of sifting, we've managed to recover more than half a million artifacts that are currently kept in storage. Yet, without being able to publish our finds, it will be as if our 500,000 artifacts had never been found. 

The TMSP has been operating under the direction of Dr. Gabriel Barkay and Zachi Dvira since 2004, under the scientific auspices of Bar-Ilan University. The sifting has always been funded by private donations, initially through the Israel Exploration Society (2004-2005) and the Ir-David Foundation (2005 - 2017). The systematic scientific analysis of the artifacts discovered during the sifting began in 2011 is funded by private donations via the Israel Archaeology Foundation, which has also managed the funding of the sifting operation which was halted in 2017 and resumed in 2019.

The project office is based in Talpiyot, Jerusalem and the sifting activity takes place at the Masu’ot Lookout on Mt. Scopus, near the Hebrew University.

The Temple Mount Sifting Project

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