City of David (archaeological site)
Template:Short description Template:For Template:Pp-extended Template:Infobox ancient site
The City of David (Template:Langx), known locally mostly as Wadi Hilweh<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> (Template:LangxTemplate:ClarifyTemplate:Cn), is the name given to an archaeological site considered by most scholars to be the original settlement core of Jerusalem during the Bronze and Iron Ages.<ref>Ariel, D. T., & De Groot, A. (1978). "The Iron Age extramural occupation at the City of David and additional observations on the Siloam Channel." Excavation at the City of David, 1985.</ref><ref>Broshi (1974), pp. 21–26.</ref><ref>Reich, R., & Shukron, E. (2000). "The Excavations at the Gihon Spring and Warren's Shaft System in the City of David." Ancient Jerusalem Revealed. Jerusalem, 327–339.</ref><ref name=":1">Template:Harvtxt "The prevailing view among researchers that the early city, the City of David, lay in the southern part of the eastern ridge next to the spring."</ref>Template:Sfn It is situated on southern part of the eastern ridge of ancient Jerusalem,<ref name=":1" /> west of the Kidron Valley and east of the Tyropoeon Valley, to the immediate south of the Temple Mount.
The City of David is an important site of biblical archeology. Remains of a defensive network dating back to the Middle Bronze Age were found around the Gihon Spring; they continued to remain in use throughout subsequent periods. Two monumental Iron Age structures, known as the Large Stone Structure and the Stepped Stone Structure, were discovered at the site. Scholars debate if these may be identified with David or date to a later period. The site is also home to the Siloam Tunnel, which, according to a common hypothesis, was built by Hezekiah during the late 8th century BCE in preparation for an Assyrian siege. However, recent excavations at the site suggested an earlier origin in the late 9th or early 8th century BCE.<ref name="Reich">Template:Cite journal</ref><ref name="DeGroot">Template:Cite journal</ref> Remains from the early Roman period include the Pool of Siloam and the Stepped Street, which stretched from the pool to the Temple Mount.<ref name=ESI2016>Template:Cite web</ref>
The excavated parts of the archeological site are today part of the Jerusalem Walls National Park.Template:Efn<ref name="Greenberg">Template:Harvnb: "Contrast these rather upbeat examples of ethical praxis in public archaeology with the situation in the Wadi Hilweh neighborhood in Silwan, built on the ancient mound of Jerusalem, just south of the Haram esh-Sharif (Temple Mount). Here, the material remains of the past have become completely absorbed in the discourse of political power, as both the Israeli national project of unifying Jerusalem and the settler project of breaking Palestinian Jerusalem apart have joined to disenfranchise the people living above and among the antiquities. The archaeology practiced here is completely subsumed to political and corporate motivations that are, however, largely unacknowledged by its "neutral" practitioners, leading to questionable field practice and overtly skewed interpretations of the past. Instead of going into detail about the issues of excavation and interpretation, which I have discussed at length elsewhere (Greenberg 2008, 2009), I would like to consider if there is any way out of the predicament that is, if there is a way to conduct archaeology ethically in Silwan."</ref> The site is managed by the Israel Nature and Parks Authority and operated by the Ir David Foundation. It is located in Wadi Hilweh, an extension of the Palestinian neighborhood of Silwan, East Jerusalem, intertwined with an Israeli settlement.
Naming
[edit]The name "City of David" originates in the biblical narrative where Israelite king David conquers Jerusalem, then known as Jebus, from the Jebusites. David's conquest of the city is described twice in the Bible: once in the Books of Samuel and once in the Books of Chronicles; those two versions vary in certain details. In his Antiquities of the Jews, 1st century Jewish-Roman historian Josephus repeated the story.<ref>Antiquities of the Jews, Chapter VII, 64-67: "Ἐκβαλὼν δὲ τοὺς Ἰεβουσαίους ἐκ τῆς ἄκρας καὶ αὐτὸς ἀνοικοδομήσας τὰ Ἱεροσόλυμα, πόλιν αὐτὴν Δαυίδου προσηγόρευσε, καὶ τὸν ἅπαντα χρόνον ἐν αὐτῇ διέτριβε βασιλεύων. ὁ δὲ χρόνος ὃν τῆς Ἰούδα φυλῆς ἦρξε μόνης ἐν Χεβρῶνι ἐγένετο ἔτη ἑπτὰ καὶ μῆνες ἕξ. ἀποδείξας δὲ βασίλειον τὰ Ἱεροσόλυμα λαμπροτέροις αἰεὶ καὶ μᾶλλον ἐχρῆτο τοῖς πράγμασι, τοῦ θεοῦ προνοουμένου κρείττω ποιεῖν αὐτὰ καὶ λαμβάνειν ἐπίδοσιν. 66πέμψας δὲ πρὸς αὐτὸν καὶ Εἴρωμος1 ὁ Τυρίων βασιλεὺς φιλίαν καὶ συμμαχίαν συνέθετο· ἔπεμψε δ᾿ αὐτῷ καὶ δωρεὰς ξύλα κέδρινα καὶ τεχνίτας ἄνδρας τέκτονας καὶ οἰκοδόμους, οἳ κατασκευάσειαν2 βασίλειον ἐν Ἱεροσολύμοις. Δαυίδης δὲ τήν τε κάτω3 πόλιν περιλαβὼν4 καὶ τὴν ἄκραν συνάψας αὐτῇ ἐποίησεν ἓν σῶμα, καὶ περιτειχίσας ἐπιμελητὴν 67τῶν τειχῶν κατέστησεν Ἰώαβον. πρῶτος οὖν Δαυίδης τοὺς Ἰεβουσαίους ἐξ Ἱεροσολύμων ἐκβαλὼν ἀφ᾿ ἑαυτοῦ προσηγόρευσε τὴν πόλιν· ἐπὶ γὰρ Ἁβράμου τοῦ προγόνου ἡμῶν Σόλυμα ἐκαλεῖτο..." "When David had driven the Jebusites out of the citadel and had himself rebuilt Jerusalem, he called it the City of David and continued to dwell in it for the whole length of time that he reigned. Now the time that he ruled over the tribe of Judah alone at Hebron was seven years and six months. But after he had chosen Jerusalem for his royal residence, he enjoyed ever more brilliant fortune because of God’s provident care in enhancing it and causing it to increase. Eirōmosa also, the king of Tyre, wrote to him, proposing friendship and alliance, and sent him gifts of cedar wood and skilled men as carpenters and builders to construct a palace in Jerusalem. And David enclosed the lower city and joined it to the citadel so as to form one whole, and, having put a wall around this, appointed Joab keeper of the walls. Thus David, who was the first to drive the Jebusites out of Jerusalem, named the city after himself"</ref> The reliability of the Bible for the time period's history is subject to debate among scholars.
According to the Hebrew Bible, the name "City of David" was applied to Jerusalem after its conquest by David c. 1000 BCE,<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> and is not to be confused with the modern organization by the same name and which showcases relatively small excavated portions of the larger city.<ref>Template:Cite web; Template:Cite web</ref> It is first mentioned in the Hebrew Bible, in Template:Bibleverse, in Template:Bibleverse, in Template:Bibleverse and in Template:Bibleverse, being the name given to Jerusalem after it had been conquered by King David and who is said to have ruled in the city for 33 years.<ref>Template:Bibleverse</ref>
The area's majority Palestinian Arab residents refer to it as Wadi Hilweh, before it was renamed by Israeli authorities as the City of David after 1967, a name which was first applied to the site by French archaeologist Raymond Weill in 1913.<ref name="TT"/><ref>Template:Cite report</ref> Rannfrid Thelle wrote that the title "City of David" favors the Jewish national agenda and appeals to its Christian supporters.<ref name="TT">Professor Rannfrid I. Thelle, Contested Antiquities, Contested Histories: The City of David as an Example; "Even in choosing how to describe the area of the City of David one faces challenges, because the terminology chosen is not neutral... The area referred to as the City of David—a name which was first applied to the site by the French archaeologist Raymond Weill, who excavated there in 1913–14 and makes a very specific historical reference to the Bible’s most famous king, is most often called Wadi al-Hilweh by its current, mainly Arab, residents (Weill, 1920). The name City of David privileges one phase of history, one that resonates with a Jewish national agenda and perhaps even more strongly with its Christian, biblically oriented supporters."</ref>
Location
[edit]The archaeological site is on a rocky spur south of the Temple Mount and outside the walls of the Old City of Jerusalem, sometimes described as the southeastern ridge of ancient Jerusalem.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> The hill descends from the Dung Gate toward the Gihon Spring and the Pool of Siloam.<ref>Meron Rapoport, 'Shady Dealings in Silwan,' Template:Webarchive. Ir Amim for an Equitable and Stable Jerusalem with an Agreed Political Future, May 2009, p.7</ref>
Today, the archeological site is part of the Palestinian neighborhood and former village of Silwan, which was historically centered on the slopes of the southern part of the Mount of Olives, east of the City of David. In the 20th century, the village spread west and crossed the valley to the eastern hill, the site of the ancient city.<ref name=":0">Template:Cite journal</ref> Before 1948, the area was known in Arabic as Wadi al-Nabah, but was renamed to Wadi al-Hilweh after the wife of the local mukhtar who was killed in the 1948 Arab-Israeli War.<ref name=":0" />
Excavations and scholarly views
[edit]
The prevailing view of archaeologists is that the ancient site of the City of David lay on an elongated spur facing north–south, extending outside the wall of the Old City, south of its southeastern corner, in the southern part of the eastern ridge next to the Gihon Spring.Template:Sfn<ref name="YitzhakiA1980">Yitzhaki (1980), pp. 164–172</ref> The City of David was the ancient epicenter of Jerusalem and whose boundaries stretched from the Temple Mount in the north,<ref name="YitzhakiA1980" /> thence southward to the Pool of Siloam,<ref name="YitzhakiA1980" /> including the area marking the Kidron brook in the east and the adjacent dale in the west.<ref name="YitzhakiA1980" /> Its area is about 50 dunams (ca. 12.3 acres).<ref name="YitzhakiA1980" />
The beginning of its settlement dates back to the Chalcolithic period and the Early Bronze Age, largely built-up around the natural spring, although not known then by the name City of David.<ref name="YitzhakiA1980" /> The Old Testament claims that, after the conquest of Jerusalem, an earlier name for the site, Jebus, was replaced by the term "City of David".<ref name="YitzhakiA1980" /> David's son, Solomon, extended the wall to the north and added to it the area of the Temple Mount whereon he built an edifice (Temple) to the God of his fathers.<ref name="YitzhakiA1980" /> From the eighth century BCE, the city began to expand westward beyond the dale.<ref name="YitzhakiA1980" />
The debate within biblical archaeology on whether this site on the hill southeast of the Old City could be identified with what the Hebrew Bible calls Jebus and later the City of David, began in the late 19th century with the excavations of Charles Warren and Hermann Guthe.<ref>Excavations in the City of David Under Ottoman Rule Template:Webarchive, quote: "Warren and Guthe's discoveries triggered the discussion on whether it was this very hill, on the southern outskirts of the Old City of Jerusalem, which was taken by King David and turned into his capital."</ref><ref>Palestine Exploration Fund 1895, including a number of scholarly discussions on the debate around the location</ref> The 1909–11 work of Louis-Hugues Vincent and Montagu Brownlow Parker identified the earliest known settlement traces in the Jerusalem region,<ref>Excavations in the City of David Under Ottoman Rule Template:Webarchive, quote: "One of the peculiar outcomes of this "dig" was that the ancient graves discovered on the upper part of the slope and correctly dated by Vincent to the Early Bronze period, are still the most ancient remains known, not only on the southeastern hill but in all of Jerusalem. This discovery has actually provided the decisive proof that the southeastern hill is the site of the earliest human settlement of Jerusalem and confirms its identification as the biblical City of David."</ref><ref>The Oxford Companion to Archaeology, p.167</ref> suggesting the area was an ancient core of settlement in Jerusalem dating back to the Bronze Age.Template:Sfn<ref>Hillel Geva, 'Western Jerusalem at the End of the First Temple Period in Light of the Excavations in the Jewish Quarter', in Andrew G. Vaughn, Ann E. Killebrew (eds.), Jerusalem in Bible and Archaeology: The First Temple Period, Society of Biblical Literature, 2003, pp.183–208, p.183.</ref>
One of the stated objectives of the Palestine Exploration Fund (PEF) since its establishment in 1865 was to search for the true location of the biblical "City of David" and to report on its findings. However, after 130 years of research, surveys, and excavations in Jerusalem, only a few of the targets relating to the area of the City of David have been achieved and neither the location of the tombs of David and Solomon or the Ophel are known.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
The City of David is one of the most excavated archaeological sites in the country and one of the first to be excavated. Many researchers of Near Eastern history often took part in digs within the City of David, among whom were: C. Warren, 1867–1870; H. Guthe, 1881; F.J. Bliss and A.C. Dickie,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> 1894–1897; R. Weill, 1913–1914<ref>Weill (1920), La Cité de David. Campagne de 1913–1914, Geuthner: Paris</ref> and 1923–1924;<ref>Weill, R. (1947), La Cité de David, --- published in J. Simons, Jerusalem in the Old Testament, Leiden 1952. Mentioned by: Template:Cite journal</ref> M. Parker and L. Vincent, 1909–1911, in which they documented the location of tunnels and artifacts discovered in and on the bedrock in the areas around Warren's Shaft on the eastern slopes of the mountain above the Gihon Spring; R.A.S. Macalister and J. G. Duncan, 1923–1925, who discovered the Ophel ostracon in Wadi Hilweh of the City of David;<ref>R.A.S. Macalister and J.G. Duncan (1926), “Excavations on the Hill of Ophel, Jerusalem 1923-1925”, Palestine Exploration Fund Annual 4, p. 182-185</ref> J.W. Crowfoot and G.M. Fitzgerald, 1927–1928; K.M. Kenyon, in the years 1961–1967;<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Y. Shilo, 1978 to 1985;<ref>Template:Cite book (10 volumes)</ref> and more.
More recent excavations (2000–2008) were conducted by R. Reich and E. Shukron on behalf of the Israel Antiquities Authority, and where they detailed Iron Age II findings in a rock-cut pool near the Gihon spring.<ref>Reich, et al. (2003), pp. 51–53, on a Rock-cut pool near the Gihon spring, and the ancient wall in the City of David</ref><ref>Reich, et al. (2007), pp. 153–169, findings from the Iron Age II from the rock-cut pool near the spring.</ref> In the "City of David Visitors' Center," before it was opened to the public, excavations were conducted in and around the general area of that site by a team of IAA archaeologists, again confirming the existence of a city dating back to the Iron Age II, and continuing unabated to the Early Roman period,<ref>Jerusalem, City of David, Shalem Slopes, Moran Hagbi and Joe Uziel (2017), Hadashot Arkheologiyot – Excavations and Surveys in Israel (IAA)</ref> and which, when the Jewish exiles returned to Jerusalem after the Babylonian captivity in the days of Ezra and Nehemiah, they continued to call the immediate area surrounding the Pool of Siloam by the name "City of David,"Template:Sfn although this name was eventually replaced by the name Accra (Template:Script/Hebrew).Template:Sfn<ref>Cf. Josephus, The Jewish War (5.4.1. 5.136); ibid. (6.6.3. 6.351)</ref>
According to Haaretz, "the prevailing theory in mainstream scholarship, that even if such rulers existed, they were monarchs of a tiny backwater."<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Today, scholars are divided amongst those who support the historicity of the biblical narrative of a united monarchy ruled by David, those who completely deny its existence and those who support its existence but believe that the Hebrew Bible contains theological exaggerations.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> A view held by Finkelstein, Koch & Lipschits (2011) that the City of David is to be placed on the Temple Mount has largely been rejected by scholars of historical geography.Template:Sfn
Archaeological outline
[edit]
Overview
[edit]The area is one of the most intensively excavated sites in the Holy Land.<ref>Light at the End of the Tunnel: Warren's Shaft Theory of David's Conquest Shattered Template:Webarchive, Ronny Reich and Eli Shukron, BAR January/February 1999: 22–33, 72, quote: "The area we are talking about – the eastern slope of the City of David and particularly the strip above the Gihon Spring – has been subject to more archaeological excavations and research than any site in Jerusalem, and even in Israel."</ref> Archaeological practice at the site has been criticized for its practitioners not acknowledging political and corporate motivations, questionable field practice and overtly skewed interpretations.<ref name=Greenberg/>
Location and topography
[edit]It is on a narrow ridge running south from the Temple Mount.<ref name=vehicle>Aviad Glickman, L-4167597,00.html 'Silwan man who stoned Jewish vehicle gets 4 years,' at Ynet 27 Dec 2011.</ref><ref name=UN>United Nations, Report of the Human Rights Council: Twelfth Session (14 September - 2 October 2009) UN 2010 p.98 (j).</ref> The site has a good defensive position, as it is almost surrounded by the Central or Tyropoeon Valley to its west, by the Hinnom Valley to the south, and the Kidron Valley on the east.<ref name=Mazar2009/>
The ridge is currently inside the predominantly Arab neighborhood of Wadi Hilweh, which is part of Silwan, an East Jerusalem suburb.<ref name=vehicle/><ref name=UN/>
Bronze and Iron Age
[edit]It is thought to have been the site of a walled city from the Bronze Age, which enjoyed the defensive advantages of its position.<ref name=Mazar2009/> In the pre-Israelite period, the area is thought to have been separated from the site of the later Temple Mount by the Ophel, an uninhabited area which became the seat of government under Israelite rule.<ref name=Mazar2009>Mazar (2009), p. 21</ref>
In 2014, excavations at the Givati parking lot argued there had been no 10th-century city wall, meaning: no fortified settlement in the City of David during the Iron IIA (c. 1000–925 BCE),<ref name=BenAmi2014/> the time span usually proposed by biblical scholars for the reigns of David, Solomon and Rehoboam.
During the reign of Hezekiah (reign c. 716–697/687 BCE), the walls of Jerusalem were expanded westward, across the Central Valley from the City of David and the Temple Mount, enclosing a previously unwalled suburb in the area known today as the Western Hill of the Old City.Template:Citation needed
Exploration
[edit]Archaeological exploration of the area began in the nineteenth century, with excavations undertaken by Charles Warren in 1867. Warren was sent by the Palestine Exploration Fund. Warren conducted an excavation of the area south of the Temple Mount and recovered a massive fortification. The finding led him to conduct more excavations at the area south of the Temple Mount. There he revealed a vertical shaft descending from a slanted tunnel to an apparent water source. He suggested that the shaft was used to supply water to the city, which he believed was the old biblical city of David. Today this shaft is called after its discoverer "Warren's shaft", but his interpretation has been proven wrong, as the shaft is not man-made and had not yet been discovered by Jerusalem's inhabitants in the 10th century BCE.
There have been numerous excavations since and several digs are currently underway. Complete chronological lists of the digs are available at the website of the Israel Antiquities Authority, dating to following periods:
- Late Ottoman<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
- British Mandate<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
- Jordanian<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
- early Israeli<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
In 2010, an archaeological survey of the City of David was conducted by Rina Avner, Eliahu Shukron and Ronny Reich, on behalf of the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA).<ref>Israel Antiquities Authority, Excavators and Excavations Permit for Year 2010, Survey Permits # A-5982 and A-5852.</ref> In 2012–2013, two teams of archaeologists conducted surveys of the area on behalf of the IAA; one led by Joseph (Joe) Uzziel,<ref>Israel Antiquities Authority, Excavators and Excavations Permit for Year 2012, Survey Permit # A-6546; Excavators and Excavations Permit for Year 2013, Survey Permits # A-6690 and # 6692</ref> and the other by Yuval Gadot.<ref>Israel Antiquities Authority, Excavators and Excavations Permit for Year 2012, Survey Permit # A-6662</ref> Archaeological surveys in the City of David continued in 2014, led by Uzziel,<ref>Israel Antiquities Authority, Excavators and Excavations Permit for Year 2014, Survey Permit # A-7016</ref> and Nahshon Szanton.<ref>Israel Antiquities Authority, Excavators and Excavations Permit for Year 2014, Survey Permit # A-7017</ref>
Dating
[edit]A four-year project started in 2017, called "Setting the Clock in the City of David" and led by Yuval Gadot, an archaeologist at Tel Aviv University together with Elisabetta Boaretto (Weizmann Institute of Science), plus two Israel Antiquities Authority archaeologists, Joe Uziel and Doron Ben Ami, intends to carbon-14 date sites in Jerusalem. At the time only ten reliable carbon dates existed from all of the city's digs. According to Gadot, the chronology of Jerusalem is "an assumption on an assumption on an assumption".<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The results of several studies have been published<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> including for the Gihon Spring Tower<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> and for Wilson's Arch.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
Archaeological sites
[edit]There are several excavated sections known as Area A, B, C, etc., which include city walls, water systems, remains of buildings and more.
The City of David is traditionally considered to be on the ridge squeezed in by the Central (Tyropoeon) Valley to the west and the Qidron Valley to the east, with the Hinnom Valley bordering it from the south, and distinct from the Ophel saddle area to its north and with the city walls ending before the King's Garden to the south. Here is an incomplete overview of archaeological sites inside the presumed city, and adjacent to it.
Moat
[edit]An at least 70-metre long, 30-metre wide and 9-metre deep moat, separating the Southeastern Ridge from the Ophel and the top of the Temple Mount, was identified in 2023 in the Givati parking lot dig, with an additional segment to the east discovered by Kathleen Kenyon in the 1960s and now understood as part of the same defensive ditch.<ref name= TA50>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref name= ToI24>Solving mystery, archaeologists find vast moat that protected Jerusalem’s biblical kings, by Times of Israel staff, posted & accessed 21 July 2024. Includes Youtube clip with archaeologists Yuval Gadot and Yiftach Shalev, "After 150 years: archaeologists in the City of David uncover a monumental fortification".</ref> It is not possible to determine when it was hewn out of the bedrock, but it was in place by the Late Iron Age IIA, around 900 BCE.<ref name= TA50/><ref name= ToI24/> It reached from Jerusalem's central valley (Josephus' Tyropoeon Valley) in the west, to the western slopes of the Qidron Valley north of the Stepped Stone Structure, thus either protecting the northern walls of the Bronze Age city if it is indeed that old, or separating the Iron Age II, so Israelite acropolis, which possibly included the Temple Mount, from the residential part of the city.<ref name= TA50/><ref name= ToI24/> Researchers tentatively connected it to a passage from the Hebrew Bible, Template:Bibleref, where a gap in the walls of David's city is mentioned.<ref name= ToI24/> After significantly modifying Jerusalem's topography for centuries, the moat disappeared again in the Late Hellenistic period, when it was backfilled as part of construction activities.<ref name= TA50/>
Upper (northern) area
[edit]In the uppermost (northern area):
City of David archaeologist Eilat Mazar believes that a so-called Large Stone Structure she has discovered at the upper area of the site and tentatively dated to the tenth to ninth century BC, may be the palace of King David.<ref>Mazar (2009)</ref> Not far from that excavation area a number of bullae (seal impressions) were unearthed, bearing the names of Yehucal son of Shelemiah and Gedaliah son of Pashhur, two officials mentioned in the Book of Jeremiah.
Gihon Spring and water systems
[edit]
Template:Jerusalem sidebar The Gihon Spring is a major water source used in several successive ancient water systems.
The remains at the site include several water tunnels, one of which, the Siloam Tunnel, was built by King Hezekiah and still carries water, along with several pools including the Pool of Siloam known from the Old and New Testaments.
- The Gihon Spring, which lies on the eastern slope of the southeastern hill of Jerusalem aka the City of David, and is generally considered the very reason why the city first emerged at this specific location.<ref name=Mazar2009/> It has been noted that above the Gihon Spring was found a massive town wall, which wall is used to determine the location of the ancient settlement.Template:Sfn
The ancient water systems connected to the Gihon Spring<ref name=Mazar2009/> include natural, masonry-built, and rock-cut structures, such as
- The Spring Tower
- Warren's Shaft, a natural shaft, once thought to have been a water supply system. Although within the bounds of the City of David, it is thought to have been inaccessible during the period attributed to King David.<ref>Reich, et al. (1999), pp. 26–33</ref>
- The Siloam Channel, a Canaanite (Bronze Age) water system that preceded the Siloam Tunnel
- The Siloam Tunnel (also known as Hezekiah's Tunnel), an Iron Age water supply system where the Siloam inscription was found
- The Siloam Pool - two connected pools, an upper one from the Byzantine period at the exit of the Siloam Tunnel, and the recently discovered, lower pool dating to the Hasmonean part of the Second Temple Period.
Eastern slope
[edit]On the eastern slope of the ridge, towards the Qidron Valley:
- City walls and towers, a columbarium, rock-cut vaulted tunnels once interpreted as royal Judahite tombs (T1 and T2), a rock-cut pool where the Theodotus Inscription was discovered (for associated synagogue see here), etc.
Central Valley street and channel
[edit]- The Jerusalem Water Channel, a large drainage system running down the Central (Tyropoeon) Valley, covered by the following:
- A monumental stepped street probably used by Second Temple-period pilgrims and built over the Jerusalem Water Channel.
South of the city
[edit]Outside the walls to the south:
- King's Garden (excavated in 1894–1897 by Bliss and Dickie).<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Givati area west of Central Valley
[edit]The Giv'ati Parking Lot excavations extend over an area of about 5 dunams (1.2 acres).Template:Sfn
Here archaeologists claim to have found the remains of the Acra,<ref>Eisenbud, D. (2015). "Archeological find in Jerusalem's City of David may answer ancient mystery", Jerusalem Post.</ref> a fortress built by Antiochus Epiphanes to subdue those Jerusalemites who were opposed to Hellenisation.
Ophel area north of the city
[edit]Finds by period
[edit]Chalcolithic (4500–3500 BCE)
[edit]Chalcolithic remains include bits of pottery found in clefts in the bedrock by Macalister and Duncan.<ref name="Macalister, R.A 1926">Macalister, R.A. and Duncan, J.G., Excavations on the hill of Ophel, Jerusalem, 1923-1925; being the joint expedition of the Palestine Exploration Fund and the 'Daily Telegraph', London, 1926.</ref> The expedition also discovered a number of places where the bedrock had been cut in various ways. These included areas where the rock had been smoothed and others where it had been cut to form flow channels. There were also several groups of small basins, sometimes called cup marks, cut into the bedrock. These are assumed to have been used for some form of agricultural processing. Macalister and Duncan speculated that they were used in olive oil processing.<ref name="Macalister, R.A 1926"/> Edwin C. M. van den Brink, who notes that similar carved basins have been found at Beit Shemesh and near Modi'in-Maccabim-Re'ut, speculates that they may have been created by repeated grinding and crushing activity, such as the grinding of grain or the crushing of olives.<ref>Edwin C. M. van den Brink, "A New Fossil Director of the Chalcolithic Landscape in the Shephelah and the Samarian and Judaean Hill Countries: Stationary Grinding Facilities in Bedrock", IEJ 58.1 (2008), pp.1-23.</ref> Eilat Mazar speculates that they were used to collect rainwater.<ref name=Mazar2009/>
Early Bronze Age (3500–2350 BCE)
[edit]Pieces of pottery have been found.
Middle Bronze Age (2000–1550 BCE)
[edit]Middle Bronze Age Jerusalem is mentioned several times in Egyptian texts from the 19th–18th centuries BCE.<ref name="Mazar, Eilat 2007, p. 23">Mazar, Eilat, "Excavations at the Summit of the City of David, Preliminary Report of Seasons 2005–2007," Shoham, Jerusalem and New York, 2009, p. 23.</ref>
Late Bronze Age (1550–1200 BCE)
[edit]
Pottery and bronze arrowheads dating form this period have been found.<ref name=Mazar2009/>
In 2010, a fragment of a clay tablet dating from the 14th century BCE was uncovered, making it the oldest written document yet uncovered in Jerusalem. It is dated by the writing it bears, in an ancient Akkadian cuneiform script. The text was deciphered by graduate student Takayoshi Oshima working under professor Wayne Horowitz. According to Horowitz, the quality of the writing indicates that this was a royal inscription, apparently a letter from the king of Jerusalem to the pharaoh in Egypt.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> Professor Christopher Rollston points out that there is no mention of any personal names or titles and no place names in the document. He notes that the quality of the script is good but that this does not show that it is "international royal correspondence." He also suggests that caution should be taken before positing a definite date as it is not a stratified find, having been discovered after excavation in a "wet sieving" process.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
Iron Age I (1200–980/70 BCE)
[edit]In 2024, several researchers published a number of radiocarbon tests conducted in five different parts of the City of David which they argue provide evidence for the existence of an urban settlement in Jerusalem all through the 12th–10th centuries BCE.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
Iron Age IIa (1000–925/900 BCE)
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The period of the tenth and ninth centuries BCE has been the subject of an intense scholarly dispute, as well as of ongoing archaeological investigations.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
The 2005 discovery by archaeologist Eilat Mazar of a Large Stone Structure, which she dated to the tenth century BCE, would be evidence of buildings in Jerusalem of a size appropriate to the capital of a centralized kingdom at that time. Others, most notably Israel Finkelstein of Tel Aviv University, argue that the structure could, for the most part, be from the much later Hasmonean period.<ref name="Finkelstein2007">Israel Finkelstein, Ze'ev Herzog, Lily Singer-Avitz and David Ussishkin (2007), Has King David's Palace in Jerusalem Been Found?, Tel Aviv: Journal of the Institute of Archaeology of Tel Aviv University, 34(2), 142-164</ref> However, new evidence continues to emerge from the dig. Mazar's date is supported by 10th century imported luxury goods found within the Large Stone Structure, including two Phoenician-style ivory inlays once attached to iron objects. Comparable objects found in a Phoenician tomb at Achziv suggest that they may have decorated a sword handle.<ref>Mazar, Eilat, Excavations at the Summit of the City of David, Preliminary Report of Seasons 2005-2007, Shoham, Jerusalem and New York, 2009, pp. 52-3.</ref> A quantity of luxury round, carinated bowls with red slip and hand burnishing support both the tenth century date and a sophisticated, urban lifestyle.<ref name="Mazar, Eilat 2007, p. 52">Mazar, Eilat, Excavations at the Summit of the City of David, Preliminary Report of Seasons 2005-2007, Shoham, Jerusalem and New York, 2009, p. 52.</ref> A bone has been radiocarbon dated by Elisabetta Boaretto at the Weizmann Institute, showing a probable date between 1050 and 780 BCE.<ref name="Mazar, Eilat 2007, p. 52"/> A large section of a "delicate and elegant" black-on-red jug, also found in the structure, is of a kind dated to the second half of the tenth century BCE.<ref>Color photo in Mazar, Eilat, Excavations at the Summit of the City of David, Preliminary Report of Seasons 2005-2007, Shoham, Jerusalem and New York, 2009, p. 53.</ref><ref>Herzog, H. and Sinver-Avitz, L., Redefining the Center: The Emergence of State in Judah, Tel Aviv, 31/2, 2004, pp. 209-44.</ref>
In 2010 Mazar announced the discovery of what she believed to be a 10th-century BCE city wall. According to Mazar, "It's the most significant construction we have from First Temple days in Israel," and "It means that at that time, the 10th century, in Jerusalem there was a regime capable of carrying out such construction." Aren Maeir, an archaeology professor at Bar Ilan University, said he has yet to see evidence that the fortifications are as old as Mazar claims.<ref>Jerusalem city wall dates back to King Solomon, Jerusalem Post, Fe. 23, 2010, [1]</ref>
Doron Ben-Ami wrote in 2014 that, on the basis of his own excavations in the Givati parking lot area bordering on the "City of David" from the north-west, there was apparently no 10th-century city wall: "Had a fortified settlement existed in the City of David, then the course of the city wall on the west would have had to pass through the Givati excavation area. No such city wall has thus far been found. This means that the Iron Age IIa settlement [c. 1000–925 BCE] was not fortified."<ref name=BenAmi2014>Ben-Ami (2014), pp. 3–19</ref> Ben-Ami's findings stand in stark contrast to those of R. Reich and E. Shukron who, on the basis of their findings, have disproved Warren's theory that King David (c. 1000 BCE) captured Jerusalem by entering into the city through the shaft now known as Warren's Shaft, and have concluded that the shaft was largely in disuse at that time,Template:Dubious although it was within the city and the city was, indeed, encompassed by a monumental wall which they had excavated.Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn This ancient wall, found on the eastern-most flank of the Kidron valley in the ancient City of David, rather than in the Giv'ati Parking Lot, was preserved in its full height (6 m.), measuring 2 m. in width.<ref>Reich & Shukron (2003), p. 52, who wrote: "The excavation along the eastern face of the wall reached a depth of c. 6 m., where the wall was preserved to its full height. The earth that accumulated along the eastern face of the wall contained ceramic finds from the end of the Second Temple period and it was the bottom of a large refuse dump from this period that covered the entire eastern hillside of the City of David. The area on the western side of the wall had only been excavated to a shallow depth, to date. Nevertheless, it was already obvious that the earth on this side contained only pottery fragments from Iron Age II, the period when the wall was used and perhaps built as well."</ref>
The discrepancy can perhaps be attributed to the limited confines of the Giv'ati Parking Lot and where Ben-Ami and his team were expecting to find a wall when, in fact, the ancient wall went beyond the bounds of the excavated Parking Lot.
Iron Age IIb (c. 925–720 BCE)
[edit]Ben-Ami goes on saying that his Givati findings indicate that "the fortified city of the Iron IIB, which encompassed both the City of David and the Western Hill, had no need for a fortification line between these two sectors of the city."<ref name=BenAmi2014 /> Nevertheless, subsequent excavations at Givati and other sites have shown that 9th century Jerusalem "included an acropolis to the north and a city on the lower, southeastern, ridge with a barrier separating the two."Template:Sfn
The related necropolis (9th–7th centuries BCE)
[edit]Template:Main The elaborate rock-cut tombs of the Israelite period, forming what is known as the Silwan necropolis and dating from the 9th to the 7th centuries BCE, are found outside Wadi Hilweh/the City of David, on the ridge on the opposite, eastern side of the Kidron Valley in and under the Arab village of Silwan.<ref name=Ussishkin70>"The Necropolis from the Time of the Kingdom of Judah at Silwan," Jerusalem, David Ussishkin, The Biblical Archaeologist, Vol. 33, No. 2 (May, 1970), pp. 33–46,</ref> These are large, elaborate tombs of skilfully cut into the stone face of the eastern slope, such as could only have been built by the highest-ranking members of a wealthy society. According to David Ussishkin, "here ministers, nobles and notables of the kingdom of Judah were buried."<ref name=Ussishkin70 />
The architecture of the tombs and the manner of burial is different "from anything known from contemporary Palestine. Elements such as entrances located high above the surface, gabled ceilings, straight ceilings with a cornice, 13 trough-shaped resting-places with pillows, above-ground tombs, and inscriptions engraved on the facade appear only here."<ref name=Ussishkin70 /> However, the stone benches were carved with headrests in a style borrowed from the Egyptian Hathor wig.<ref>Joffe, Alexander, "The Rise of Secondary States in the Iron Age Levant", Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient, Vol. 45, No. 4, 2002, pp. 425–467.</ref> Ussishkin believes that the architectural similarity to building styles of the Phoenician cities validates the biblical description of Phoenician influence on the Israelite kingdoms, but speculates that some or all of the tombs may have been built by Phoenician aristocrats living in Jerusalem.<ref name=Ussishkin70 />
Although only three partial inscriptions survive, the paleography makes the dating certain<ref name=Ussishkin70 /> and they suffice for most archaeologists to identify one tomb with the Biblical Shebna, steward and treasurer of King Hezekiah.<ref name=Rahmani2>"Ancient Jerusalem's Funerary Customs and Tombs: Part Two," L. Y. Rahmani, The Biblical Archaeologist, Vol. 44, No. 4 (Autumn, 1981), pp. 229–235.</ref>
Iron Age IIIb (8th century – 586 BCE)
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This is the period that corresponds to the biblical Kings Hezekiah through Josiah and the destruction of the Kingdom of Judah by Nebuchadnezzar II.
King Hezekiah secured the city's water supply against siege by employing his men to dig a Template:Convert conduit deep within the meleke limestone bedrock and, in so doing, to divert the waters of the Gihon Spring to a place on the west side of the City of David,<ref>Template:Bibleverse</ref> and covering over all signs of the source of the spring and the fortifications that had surrounded it in earlier periods. He built the Pool of Siloam as a water reservoir. Hezekiah then surrounded the new reservoir and the city's burgeoning western suburbs with a new city wall.<ref>Jerusalem: an archaeological biography, Hershel Shanks, Random House, 1995, p. 80.</ref><ref>Jewish Quarter Excavations in the Old City of Jerusalem: The finds from areas A, W and X-2 : final report Volume 2 of Jewish Quarter Excavations in the Old City of Jerusalem: Conducted by Nahman Avigad, 1969-1982, Nahman Avigad, Hillel Geva, Israel Exploration Society, 2000.</ref>
Bullae with the names of Yehucal son of Shelemiah and Gedaliah son of Pashhur, two officials mentioned in the Book of Jeremiah, have been found.<ref>Proof of Jeremiah Unearthed in Jerusalem, by Hana Levi Julian, Arutz Sheva, March 08, 2008.</ref><ref>“Strata: Seals of Jeremiah’s Captors Who Urged Imprisonment,” BAR, September/October 2015.</ref>
In 2019, during the excavations of the Givati Parking lot, a seal bearing Paleo-Hebrew inscription was discovered, belonging to "Natan-Melech the King’s Servant".<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
Babylonian and Persian periods (586–322 BCE)
[edit]Two bullae in the Neo-Babylonian style, one showing a priest standing beside an altar to the gods Marduk and Nabu.<ref>Mazar, Eilat, Excavations at the Summit of the City of David, Preliminary Report of Seasons 2005-2007, Shoham, Jerusalem and New York, 2009, pp. 77-8.</ref> A polished, black, scaraboid stone seal showing a "Babylonian cultic scene" of two bearded men standing on each side of an altar dedicated to the Babylonian moon god Sin. The scaraboid is understood to have been produced in Babylonia, with space left below that altar for a personal name. In that space are Hebrew letters that Peter van der Veen has read as the name Shelomit.<ref>Mazar, Eilat, Excavations at the Summit of the City of David, Preliminary Report of Seasons 2005-2007, Shoham, Jerusalem and New York, 2009, pp. 78-9.</ref>
Hasmoneans, Herodians and Roman governors (167 BCE – 70 CE)
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Major archaeological finds include the Pool of Siloam, and the monumental stepped road built by Pilate and drained by an impressive channel. Active Roman-era excavations are also underway at the Givati Parking Lot dig site,<ref name=hoard /><ref name=ESI2016 /> where the remains of a palace attributed to Queen Helena of Adiabene were discovered in 2007.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
Byzantine period (324–628 CE)
[edit]The Byzantine-period mansion called the "Eusebius" house stood in the area now underneath the visitor's center, atop the central part of E. Mazar's Large Stone Structure.<ref>Archaeology in the shadow of the conflict, at "3. The City of David Visitors' Center". Emek Shaveh booklet, 10 September 2010, accessed 23 June 2022.</ref><ref name="Daily Telegraph' 1926">Macalister, R.A. and Duncan, J.G. (1926). Excavations on the hill of Ophel, Jerusalem, 1923-1925: being the joint expedition of the Palestine Exploration Fund and the 'Daily Telegraph', London: Palestine Exploration Fund.</ref>
During the excavation of the area adjacent to the west, the so-called Givati Parking Lot dig, many Byzantine-period finds were made, including a hoard of 264 gold coins from the time of Emperor Heraclius (7th century CE).<ref name=hoard>Template:Cite journal</ref>
Controversies
[edit]In 2018, a leaked report by the European Union cited the area as one being developed for tourism to justify Israeli settlements, considered illegal under international law, and insist on Jewish heritage at the expense of its Palestinian context.<ref>Oliver Holmes, "Israel using tourism to legitimise settlements, says EU report," The Guardian 1 February 2018: "Archaeology and tourism development by government institutions as well as private settler organisations established what it said was a 'narrative based on historic continuity of the Jewish presence in the area at the expense of other religions and cultures'. Chief among them, the report warned, was the City of David, a government-funded archeological park in the Palestinian neighbourhood of Silwan that provides tours in the ruins of ancient Jerusalem. The site is operated by a settler organisation 'promoting an exclusively Jewish narrative, while detaching the place from its Palestinian surroundings'."</ref>
Israeli archaeology at the site has been criticized; Tel Aviv University Professor Rafi Greenberg stated that archaeological practice at the site is "completely subsumed to political and corporate motivations that are, however, largely unacknowledged by its 'neutral' practitioners, leading to questionable field practice and overtly skewed interpretations of the past".<ref name="Greenberg" />
In a 2015 report on Israeli archaeology, the National Academy of Sciences criticized the political use of archeology and the extensive cooperation between Elad and the Nature and Parks Authority. Elad's head, David Be'eri, declined to appear before the committee and said the report was biased against Elad.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
Tourism
[edit]The entire site, including the Gihon Spring and the two Pools of Siloam, is incorporated in an archaeological park open to the public. Visitors can wade through the Siloam Tunnel, through which the waters of the ancient spring still flow.<ref>Archaeology and the City of David, Rick Sherrod, Good News: A Magazine of Understanding, [2] Template:Webarchive</ref> Because of a change in the water table the once-intermittent karstic spring is artificially maintained through pumping.
References
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[edit]Sources
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- Broshi, M. (1974). "The expansion of Jerusalem in the reigns of Hezekiah and Manasseh." Israel Exploration Journal, pp. 21–26
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- [3]Garth Gilmour, "Final Report of Excavations on The Hill of The Ophel by R.A.S. Macalister and J. Garrow Duncan 1923–1925 - Catalogue and Examination of the Finds in the Collections of the Palestine Exploration Fund", London: Routledge, 2025 Template:ISBN
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- Mazar, Eilat (2009), "The Palace of King David, Excavations at the Summit of the City of David. Preliminary Report of Seasons 2005–2007." Shoham: Jerusalem and New York
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External links
[edit]- Ancient Silwan (Shiloah) {Siloam} in Israel and The City of David
- City of David link, 2008 archived version
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- Did I Find King David's Palace? Biblical Archaeology Review
- The Dig Dividing Jerusalem: Ahdaf Soueif writes on Silwan in the Guardian
- Amit Rosenblum. City of David: Conservation Maintenance, Israel Antiquities Authority Site - Conservation Department
- Ivanovsky E., Van Zaiden A., Vaknin Y., Asamain, T., Sabag, S. (2007). City of David, Givati Car Park: Stabilization and post-excavation conservation, Israel Antiquities Authority Site - Conservation Department
- 10 reasons the “City of David” is not the wholesome tourist site you thought it was
- A new study managed to accurately date findings from 1st Temple period found in the City of David, YouTube
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