Sunday, April 1, 2007
(At least I'm pretty sure it's only a First Temple Era wall, not a real wall of the First Temple.]
First Temple [era?] wall found in City of David
The new find, made by Dr. Eilat Mazar, a senior fellow at the Shalem Center's Institute for the Archeology of the Jewish People, comes less than two years after she said she had discovered the palace's location at the site just outside the walls of the Old City.
The monumental 10th century BCE building found by Mazar in 2005 following a six month dig has ignited debate among archaeologists about whether it is indeed the palace built for the victorious David by King Hiram of Tyre as recounted in Samuel II:5.
A 20-meter-long section of the 7-meter-thick wall has now been uncovered. It indicates that the City of David once served as a major government center, Mazar said.
Mazar estimates less than a quarter of the entire wall has been uncovered so far, and says that it is the largest site from King David's time ever to have been discovered.
The dig is sponsored by the capital's Shalem Center, with academic backing from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
You're correct, Sol: this is a First-Temple-ERA discovery. (The First Temple was destroyed, after all.)
But it would be hard to imagine a more significant find from that era, other than actual temple relics. Dr. Mazar went looking for King David's palace; this appears to be what she found, right where it was supposed to be. (I blogged about it at the time.)
It may not seem like much. But the historical finds there, of artifacts directly attributable to the reign of David's dynasty, are incredible already. And this should put to rest, forever, the revisionist claims that King David never really existed at all.
respectfully,
Daniel in Brookline