Israeli Dig Uncovers 3,000-Year-Old Wall From Time of Solomon
February 22, 2010, 07:37 AM EST
By Gwen Ackerman
Feb. 22 (Bloomberg) -- An ancient stone wall uncovered just outside the Temple Mount in Jerusalem’s Old City may be the first structural evidence of biblical King Solomon’s building in the city, an archaeologist said today.
“A comparison of this latest finding with city walls and gates from the period of the First Temple, as well as pottery found at the site, enable us to postulate with a great degree of assurance that the wall revealed was built by King Solomon in Jerusalem in the latter part of the 10th century B.C.E.,” dig director archaeologist Eilat Mazar said.
The six-meter-high wall and its surrounding complex of a gatehouse and a corner tower were excavated over the past three weeks in a dig conducted by the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in the latest of finds linked to the reigns of David and Solomon.
In December 2008, archaeologists found the remains of a walled city over a plain where the Bible claims David killed Goliath, and Hebrew University professor Yosef Garfinkel said the find supported the biblical portrayal of David as a ruler of a kingdom strong enough to field an army.
Palestinian archaeologists have criticized their Israeli counterparts’ rush to link finds to the Bible. The Old City of Jerusalem houses sites holy to all three of the world’s monotheistic religions.
The section is in east Jerusalem, which was captured by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war and later annexed in a move never internationally recognized. The Palestinians seek the area as the capital of their independent state.
‘Ruling Presence’
The 3,000-year-old wall discovered this month in Jerusalem “testifies to a ruling presence. Its strength and form of construction indicate a high level of engineering,” Mazar said.
“The Bible tells us that Solomon built, with the assistance of the Phoenicians, who were outstanding builders, the Temple and his new palace and surrounded them with a city, most probably connected to the more ancient wall of the City of David,” she added.
Mazar’s biblical reference was the Bible’s First Book of Kings, chapter 3, verse one:
“And Solomon made affinity with Pharaoh king of Egypt, and took Pharaoh’s daughter and brought her into the city of David, until he had made an end of building his own house, and the house of the Lord and the wall of Jerusalem around about.”
Discovered along with the wall were seal impressions on jar handles with the words “to the king,” and other bullae with Hebrew names that also testified to the royal nature of the structure, Mazar told journalists at the site.
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