Archaeological evidence
With much of the castle in flames, Saladin slaughtered more than half of the garrison, amassing a mountain of plunder, including 1,000 coats of armour.
'Baldwin got his first despairing glimpse of smoke on the horizon - evidence of the destruction at Jacob's Ford'
By noon, racing northwards, Baldwin got his first despairing glimpse of smoke on the horizon - evidence of the destruction at Jacob's Ford. He was just six hours too late.
In the two weeks that followed, Saladin dismantled the castle of Jacob's Ford, stone by stone. Most of the Latin dead, along with their horses and mules, were thrown into the stronghold's capacious cistern. This was a rather ill-advised policy, because soon after a 'plague' broke out, ravaging the Muslim army and claiming the life of ten of Saladin's commanders.
By mid-October, with his primary objective achieved, Saladin decided to abandon the seemingly cursed site, and Jacob's Ford became a forgotten ruin.
The excavations undertaken represent a massive breakthrough in the field of Crusader studies. This dig offers an astonishingly detailed glimpse of the crusading world - a freeze-frame image of the 12th century - because Jacob's Ford is the first castle to be discovered, as it was in 1179, with its slaughtered garrison still within its walls.
Many of the site's physical and material finds can be dated with incredible precision to the morning of Thursday, 29 August 1179, because they lay beneath buildings known to have burned and collapsed when the fortress fell. The archaeology gives us a palpable, physical sense of crusading warfare.
Published: 2006-01-12