Continuing
from the previous post, in discussing the types of construction that was known
in Jerusalem and Israel in the centuries between David and Lehi, to show what
type of construction that Nephi, Sam and Zoram would have known and lived
around, and no doubt would have implemented in their building of the City of
Nephi and the land of the Nephites in those early years.
As for
individual houses, Israelite homes were built around a central courtyard which
would be used for all household tasks such as preparing and cooking food.
Around it, on the ground, floor, were workshops and storerooms containing, for
instance, the great jars in which oil and grain were stored, while in the upper
story the family slept, four to six to a room, in winter. In summer, they slept
on the cool, flat roofs.
In addition, within Jerusalem and
most cities, space was at a premium, thus the inner courtyard provided
individual privacy as well as security, and buildings were very close together
with narrow streets (like alleys of today). Thus, any individual gardens, such
as that described by Mormon: “it was upon a tower, which
was in the garden of Nephi, which was by the highway which led to the chief
market, which was in the city of Zarahemla; therefore, Nephi had bowed himself
upon the tower which was in his garden, which tower was also near unto the
garden gate by which led the highway” (Helaman 7:10) were typically built on the flat
roofs to save space.
Houses were built next to each other and next to public buildings;
palaces and the temple were behind walls within the walled city. As the city
expanded over time, more walls around it were built, providing several walled
sections within the overall walled city
This
system of building seems to have been developed in answer to the country's
shortage of long straight timbers. Standing timber such as pine and cypress were
mostly used up in the early stage of house-building during the 12th
and 11th centuries B.C., when settled life extended through
Palestine and villages grew into towns. No timber was imported from neighboring
lands except for public buildings erected by the Kings, such as David and
Solomon, the latter using cedars from Lebanon in his temple.
Ruined
houses of the 10th century B.C. rarely have the upper parts of the
walls or the roofs still in place when excavated, but evidence shows that in
the lower stories the rooms were plastered and of medium size, generally 13
to 16 feet square. A house would serve an entire family, from grandparents down
to grandchildren. From the limited number of rooms in each dwelling it seems
likely that they housed between one and two dozen people. One of the rooms on
the ground floor was usually reserved for livestock while provisions were often
stored in the living rooms.
The houses
were probably arranged according to the groupings of different families, the
"beit-ab" for the whole clan being in whatever was considered the
best or most prominent position, a rural organization being thus gradually
transplanted into urban conditions.
In these
homes of Jerusalem that Nephi would have known, the main courtyard was
surrounded by a collection of rooms or huts, sometimes built on pillars. Beside
this, there were other more modest dwellings, like these rooms and group of
houses from Megiddo. Houses like these appear to have been more numerous. A
private lane connected the "big house" and its dependent smaller
ones, while each grouping was separated from the next by an alley. The only
means of communication through the town was along these alleys or, more
probably, through the courtyards. Strict privacy within the family was not
something to be looked for in a town of this period.
Two examples of an ancient house in Jerusalem, with an inner courtyard
and rooms branching off of it on three sides, and a upper story surrounding it
It is most likely that Nephi
would have built his home, and Sam and Zoram as well, after the style, manner
and size of home they were used to at Jerusalem. After all, they certainly had
the building skills, having built a ship that carried them across the ocean,
and also built a Temple like unto Solomon’s. They would have been used to such
homes and their city to be of cut stone just like they had known—in fact, it is
unlikely they would have ever seen anything other than cut stone, both hewn and
unhewn, polished and rough.
To claim, as Great Lakes and Eastern
U.S. theorists do that Nephi and later Nephites built wooden stockades and
forts is not only unlikely, it would have been without precedent for the
Nephites to have done so.
The
lay-out of the walled cities of the period is repeated in many instances.
Inside, and a little distance from the walls was the ring road with houses, the
gap between them and the wall being used as storage silos. Within this frame,
the center of the city followed no discernible plan, but was a closely-built
maze of cramped alleys and dwellings. It was not that land was not available,
but cities were built within an outer wall, and as the city filled with more
and more people and dwellings, the land space within became less and less until no more was available, causing an
extension of the outer wall, i.e., building another outer wall, either further
out, or in a different direction. This usually occurred after several houses
had been built outside the original walled area.
In addition, as the city filled,
streets (alleyways) became smaller until they were quite cramped.
As buildings abutted the streets, the enclosed area became a maze of
rock structures as well as the street itself being paved with cobblestone or
cut stones as seen here in these streets of Jerusalem that Nephi would have
known
While
the family and clan remained the central units of Hebrew society, such
town-construction began to grow around the family clans. During the 12th, 11th
and 10th centuries B.C., tribal bonds weakened and were replaced by a central
government. This gave cities and their organization a new status. They now
featured public buildings and the outer walls were strengthened, main gates
were reinforced and often extended into embrasure enclosures.
Because
the issue was defense, these walls and gates were made of stone, typically
quite thick, and very tall. The eventual wall around Jerusalem grew to thirty
and then forty feet in height. Such was necessary because of the expanding
ability of warfare technique. In the time of the Nephites, they were constantly
under attack or threat of attack from the Lamanites, and their cities from the
very beginning would have been well protected. The walls built around the City
of Nephi called Sacsayhuaman above Cuzco in Peru is a remarkable, nearly
impregnable defensive position. When Nephi built swords for the defense of his
people (2 Nephi
5:14), he obviously would have built defensive walls of stone as he had known
at Jerusalem.
(See the next post, “Ancient
Bible and Book of Mormon Cities – Part IV,” for the final in this series,
showing how Book of Mormon cities should resemble those of 600 B.C. Jerusalem
of which Nephi, Sam and Zoram would have been quite familiar)
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