Editing Temple Mount (section)

=== Byzantine period ===

During his excavations in the 1930s, [[Robert Hamilton (archaeologist)|Robert Hamilton]] uncovered portions of a multicolor mosaic floor with geometric patterns, but did not publish them.<ref name=Baruch13>Baruch et al. (2018). pp. 13-14.</ref> The date of the mosaic is disputed: [[Zachi Dvira]] considers that they are from the pre-Islamic Byzantine period, while Baruch, Reich and Sandhaus favor a much later [[Umayyad]] origin on account of their similarity to a mosaic from an Umayyad palace excavated adjacent to the Temple Mount's southern wall.<ref name=Baruch13/> By comparing the photographs to Hamilton's excavation report, Di Cesare determined that they belong to the second phase of mosque construction in the Umayyad period.<ref name=DiCesare>{{cite book | author = Michelina Di Cesare | chapter = The mosaic pavement beneath the floor of al-Aqṣā mosque: A case study of late antique artistic ''koiné'' | title = A Globalised Visual Culture? | editor = Fabio Guidetti and Katharina Meinecke | publisher = Oxbow | year = 2020 | pages = 289–320 }}</ref> Moreover, the mosaic designs were common in Islamic, Jewish and Christian buildings from the 2nd to the 8th century.<ref name=DiCesare/> Di Cesare suggested that Hamilton didn't include the mosaics in his book because they were destroyed to explore beneath them.<ref name=DiCesare/>