Western Wall Discovery: Jordanian Ammunition Stash from Six-Day War Found in Cistern

Ten full magazines for a light machine gun, full clip chargers, and two British bayonets were discovered today in Jerusalem’s Old City.

By Ezra Stone, United with Israel

The Western Wall Heritage Foundation and Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) archaeologists announced on Wednesday the discovery of “an ammunition stash from the Six Day War while excavating underneath the lobby of the Western Wall Tunnels.”

“Among the findings uncovered are rifle magazines full of bullets, a bayonet, and other rifle parts,” an official statement from the IAA explains.

The bottom of a British Mandate period water cistern was the precise location where the Jordanian ammunition stash (known as a “slick”) was discovered.

Israeli bomb-disposal experts arrived to check the materials.

According to Dr. Barak Monnickendam-Givon and Tehila Sadiel, directors of the excavation on behalf of the IAA, they were surprised to find “about 10 full magazines of Bern light machinegun, full clip chargers, and two bayonets of a British Lee Enfield rifle.”

“Usually, in excavations, we find ancient findings from one or two thousand years ago, but this time, we got a glimpse of the events that occurred 53 years ago, frozen in time in this water cistern. Apparently, this is an ammunition dump that was purposely hidden by soldiers of the Royal Jordanian Army during the Six Day War, perhaps when the IDF liberated the Old City,” the archaelogists said.

The Western Wall Heritage Foundation added, “Along with other glorious discoveries of our nation’s past from the Second Temple period, we are also happy about discovering findings from the war of this past generation to return the Jewish nation’s heart and be able to cling to the stones of the Western Wall. This discovery is a privilege for us – to be able to acknowledge the miracles of the Creator of the Universe at this site.”