Solomon’s Wall - Again

Sci-Tech Today has published an article giving details about the wall found in Jerusalem that may be dated to the time of Solomon.

The following is an excerpt from the article:

An excavated wall in Jerusalem may hold proof of the Bible's account that the Hebrew kings David and Solomon ruled from Jerusalem around that time, a point of dispute among scholars. The fortifications are located just outside the present-day walls of Jerusalem's Old City, next to the holy compound known to Jews as the Temple Mount.

An Israeli archaeologist said Monday that ancient fortifications recently excavated in Jerusalem date back 3,000 years to the time of King Solomon and support the biblical narrative about the era.

If the age of the wall is correct, the finding would be an indication that Jerusalem was home to a strong central government that had the resources and manpower needed to build massive fortifications in the 10th century B.C.

That's a key point of dispute among scholars, because it would match the Bible's account that the Hebrew kings David and Solomon ruled from Jerusalem around that time.

While some Holy Land archaeologists support that version of history -- including the archaeologist behind the dig, Eilat Mazar -- others posit that David's monarchy was largely mythical and that there was no strong government to speak of in that era.

Speaking to reporters at the site Monday, Mazar, from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, called her find "the most significant construction we have from First Temple days in Israel."

You may read the article in its entirety by clicking here.

You can also read my original post (with photos) dealing with the discovery by clicking here.


Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary

If you enjoyed reading this post, subscribe to my posts here.

Tags: Archaeology, Eilat Mazar, Solomon, Solomon’s Wall

King Solomon’s Wall?

Image: Eilat Mazar and the ancient wall of Jerusalem




Hebrew University has announced that archaeologist Eilat Mazar has excavated a section of an ancient city wall of Jerusalem that probably was built in the tenth century B.C.E. According to Mazar, the wall was probably built by King Solomon.

Below are a few excerpts from the press release:

A section of an ancient city wall of Jerusalem from the tenth century B.C.E. - possibly built by King Solomon - has been revealed in archaeological excavations directed by Dr. Eilat Mazar and conducted under the auspices of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

The section of the city wall revealed, 70 meters long and six meters high, is located in the area known as the Ophel, between the City of David and the southern wall of the Temple Mount.

Uncovered in the city wall complex are: an inner gatehouse for access into the royal quarter of the city, a royal structure adjacent to the gatehouse, and a corner tower that overlooks a substantial section of the adjacent Kidron valley.

***

"The city wall that has been uncovered testifies to a ruling presence. Its strength and form of construction indicate a high level of engineering," Mazar said. The city wall is at the eastern end of the Ophel area in a high, strategic location atop the western slop of the Kidron valley. "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 that has been revealed is that which was built by King Solomon in Jerusalem in the latter part of the tenth century B.C.E.," said Mazar.

"This is the first time that a structure from that time has been found that may correlate with written descriptions of Solomon's building in Jerusalem," she added. "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." Mazar specifically cites the third chapter of the First Books of Kings where it refers to "until he (Solomon) had made an end of building his own house, and the house of the Lord, and the wall of Jerusalem round about."

***

In addition to the pottery shards, cult figurines were also found in the area, as were seal impressions on jar handles with the word "to the king," testifying to their usage within the monarchy. Also found were seal impressions (bullae) with Hebrew names, also indicating the royal nature of the structure.

Image: Handles of jars inscribed with 'to the king' (LMLK) that were found at the excavation site.

Photo: Sasson Tiram







If this discovery confirms that the wall was built by Solomon, or, if the wall is dated to the time of Solomon, then this finding will again confirm that Jerusalem was more than just a small city in the tenth century.

Those scholars who take a minimalist approach to interpreting the reigns of David and Solomon continue to affirm that the monarchy of David and Solomon did not exist as the Bible describes it. However, evidence continues to appear that dispute the minimalist view of Jerusalem in the tenth century. Archaeologists have already found a stela mentioning the name of David. Will a discovery of a monument with the name of Solomon be next?


Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary

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Tags: Archaeology, Eilat Mazar,Solomon, Jar Handles, Jerusalem Wall, LMLK Seals

David and the Water Tunnel

Archaeologist Eilat Mazar, who has been excavating in the ancient City of David, has discovered a tunnel built thousands of years ago. According the her report, it is possible that this tunnel was the same tunnel used by David and his men to conquer the city of Jerusalem. The tunnel was uncovered in the ancient City of David, just outside the Old City and across the street from the Dung Gate.

According to Mazar, “there is a high probability that the tunnel is the one referred to as the ‘tsinor’ in the Biblical story of King David’s conquest of Jerusalem (2 Samuel 5:6-8; 1 Chronicles 11:4-6).”

Mazar also said that “the new discoveries in the excavations in the City of David illuminate the ancient history of Jerusalem and the reality described in the Bible.”

Read the report of Mazar’s discovery by clicking here.

Recent archaeological findings have amazed students of the Bible. Although many people still deny the historical reliability of some of the events mentioned in the Bible, archaeology little by little is demonstrating that the events mentioned in the Bible are not the result of creative writing in the post-exilic period.

Those who have adopted a minimalist approach to the history of Israel are running out of arguments to deny the basic historicity of the facts mentioned in the books of Samuel and Kings. What else do they need? One of these days archaeologists many find in the City of David a document that actually mentions David. We already have one or two, but these were found someplace else. Will that convince the skeptics? Probably not!

Related posts describing the work of Eilat Mazar:

Nehemiah’s Wall
Gedaliah ben Pashhur
David’s Palace Discovered
Shelemiah the son of Shevi

Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary

Tags: Archaeology, David, Eilat Mazar, Tsinor, Water Tunnel,

Archaeological Discoveries in the City of David

Image: The City of David. Credit: The Washington Times

An article published in The Washington Times reviews the work of Eilat Mazar in the city of David and the discovery of two clay seal impressions bearing the names of Gedalyahu ben Pashhur and Yehuchal ben Shelemayahu.

Both ben Pashhur and ben Shelemayahu are mentioned in Jeremiah 38:1. They were palace officials who served in the court of Zedekiah, king of Judah and the last king from the Davidic dynasty. Zedekiah reigned from 597 to 587 B.C. and his reign ended with the Babylonians’ destruction of the Temple and Zedekiah’s deportation to Babylon.

About her discovery, Mazar said: “It is not very often that archaeologists have surprises that bring them so close to the reality of the biblical text.”

According to Mazar, “this is the first time in the annals of Israeli archaeology that two 2,600-year-old clay bullae with two biblical names that appear in the same biblical verse have been unearthed in the same location.”

Read the article by visiting The Washington Times.

Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary


Tags: Archaeology, Eilat Mazar

Gedaliah ben Pashhur

Gedaliah's Bulla

There are five persons named Gedaliah in the Hebrew Bible. In my article on “Gedaliah,” published in The New Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible D-H (Nashville: Abingdon Press 2007) 2:530, I identified Gedaliah # 3 as the son of Pashhur and one of the officials of Zedekiah who conspired to accuse and imprison the prophet Jeremiah (Jeremiah 38:1).

The Jerusalem Post has announced that Eilat Mazar has discovered a bulla (a seal impression) belonging to Gedalyahu ben Pashhur, the officer who served under Zedekiah. The bulla was found during an archaeological dig in Jerusalem’s City of David.

About her discovery, Eilat Mazar said:

“It is not very often that such a discovery happens in which real figures of the past shake off the dust of history and so vividly revive the stories of the Bible.”

Three years ago, Eilat Mazar discovered another bulla belonging to another officer in Zedekiah’s palace. The first bulla belonged to Jehucal ben Shelemyahu, who also served with Gedaliah (Jeremiah 38:1-4).

I have published two posts on Jehucal. To read my posts on Jehucal, click here and here.

Notwithstanding what people say about the Bible and archaeology, it is evident that archaeological discoveries reveal that the people mentioned in the Bible were historical figures and not people who belonged to an invented history created to justify the possession of the land by a group of people who returned to the same land that once had belonged to their ancestors.

Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary

Tags: Archaeology, Eilat Mazar, Gedaliah, Jehucal

Eilat Mazar Revises Her Position on Ancient Seal

The Jerusalem Post Internet Edition is reporting on its February 4, 2008 edition that Eilat Mazar has changed her original reading of an ancient seal found at an excavation in Jerusalem and accepted the opinion of several epigraphers on the correct reading of the seal. The following is an excerpt of the news report published by the Jerusalem Post Online:

A prominent Israeli archeologist said Monday that she has revised her reading of an inscription on ancient seal uncovered in an archeological excavation in Jerusalem's City of David after various scholars around the world critiqued her original interpretation of the name on the seal.

The 2,500 year-old black stone seal was found last month amid stratified layers of debris in the excavation under way just outside the Old City walls near the Dung Gate, said archeologist Dr. Eilat Mazar, who is leading the dig.

Mazar had originally read the name on the seal as "Temech," and suggested that it belonged to the family of that name mentioned in the Book of Nehemiah.

But after the find was first reported in The Jerusalem Post, various epigraphers around the world said Mazar had erred by reading the inscription on the seal straight on (from right to left) rather than backwards (from left to right), as a result of the fact that a seal creates a mirror image when used to inscribe a piece of clay.

The critics, including the European scholar Peter van der Veen, as well as the epigrapher Ryan Byrne, co-director of the Tel Dan excavations, suggested in Internet blogs that the correct reading of the seal is actually "Shlomit," also a biblical name.

Mazar said Monday that she accepted the reading of "Shlomit" on the ancient seal, and added that she appreciated the scholarly research on the issue.

She noted that the name Shlomit was known in the period form which the seal dated, and that other contemporary seals had been found that bore names of women who held official status in the administration.

It was not clear whether the name on the seal had any connection to the daughter of Zerubbabel by the same time mentioned in 1 Chronicles 3:19, since the name was apparently common in the period.

Read the news release by visiting the Jerusalem Post Online.

Mazar’s reading of the inscription has been challegend by several bloggers, including Peter van der Veen, here and here, and by Chris Heard at Higgaion (and follow the comments at the end of Chris’s post).

For a full discussion of the issue with links, visit the review by Kevin P. Edgecomb at biblicalia.

Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary

Tags: Archaeology, Eilat Mazar, Shlomit

Nehemiah’s Wall

On November 28, 2007, The Jerusalem Post reported that archaeologist Dr. Eilat Mazar has uncovered the remains of Nehemiah’s wall in Jerusalem. The following is the news report published in The Jerusalem Post:

The remnants of a wall from the time of the prophet Nehemiah have been uncovered in an archeological excavation in Jerusalem's ancient City of David, strengthening recent claims that King David's palace has been found at the site, an Israeli archeologist said Wednesday.

The section of the 2,500-year-old Nehemiah wall, located just outside the Dung Gate and the Old City walls facing the Mount of Olives, was dated by pottery found during a recent dig at the site, said Hebrew University archeologist Dr. Eilat Mazar.

The archeologist, who rose to international prominence for her recent excavation that may have uncovered the biblical palace of King David, was able to date the wall to Nehemiah as a result of a dig carried out underneath a nearby tower, which has been previously dated to the Hasmonean period, (142-37 BCE) but which now emerges was built centuries earlier.

As a result of the excavation, both the 30 meter section of the wall and a six-by-three-meter part of the previously uncovered tower have now been dated to the fifth century BCE based on the rich pottery found during the dig under the tower, she said.

Scores of bullae, arrowheads and seals from that period were also discovered during the excavation. "This find opens a new chapter in the history of Jerusalem," Mazar said. "Until now, we have never had such an archeological wealth of finds from Nehemiah's period."

Nehemiah, who lived during the period when Judah was a province of the Persian Empire, arrived in Jerusalem as governor in 445 BCE with the permission of the Persian king, determined to rebuild and restore the desolate city after the destruction of the First Temple by the Babylonians a century earlier, in 586 BCE.

The Persians had conquered the Babylonian empire that had destroyed Jerusalem and taken most of the inhabitants of Judah into captivity in what is now modern Iraq.

The Bible relates that despite the resistance of hostile neighbors who had occupied the area around Jerusalem in the Jews' absence, the whole wall was completed in a speedy 52-day period.

The tower at the site lies on the back of the walls of the palace that Mazar uncovered at the site two years ago, indicating that the palace must have been built first and strengthening the claim that the site was indeed King David's palace, she said.

The three-year-old dig is being sponsored by the Shalem Center, a conservative Jerusalem research institute, where Mazar serves as a senior fellow, and the right-wing City of David Foundation which promotes Jewish settlement throughout east Jerusalem.

The discovery of Nehemiah’s wall by Eilat Mazar is part of her work in the City of David.

Claude F. Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary

Tags: Archaeology, Eilat Mazar, Nehemiah

The Destruction of Antiquities on the Temple Mount

Arutz Sheva is reporting that Dr. Eilat Mazar, a professor at Hebrew University, is denouncing the
Israel Antiquities Authority for allowing the destruction of antiquities on the Temple Mount. The following is an excerpt from the news report:

Well-known archaeologist Dr. Eilat Mazar of Hebrew University told Arutz Sheva Radio that she sees the recent revelation of First Temple artifacts on the Temple Mount as further proof of what she called the Antiquities Authority's "criminal behavior." The destruction on the Temple Mount continues, she charged, due to "a direct order from the Prime Minister's Office" to ignore the Islamic Waqf's violations of antiquities preservation laws.

Asked why the Prime Minister would issue such a directive, Dr. Mazar said, "I am an archaeologist, not a politician. However, it is clear that the Prime Minister must not avert his eyes from the destruction of antiquities on the Temple Mount. Not even at the cost of tranquility. These are artifacts that have been permanently ruined and we will never be able to restore them."

Read the full report by clicking here.

The controversy remains unabated. The Israeli government and the Israel Antiquities Authority should take steps to preserve artifacts that may shed light on events related to the ancient history of Israel.

Politics, religion, and the schism between the Palestinians and the Israelis contribute to this situation and make the problem harder to solve. Whatever one’s views on this issue, the preservation of remains of the past should take precedence over political and religious differences.


Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary

Tags: Archaeology, Eilat Mazar, Temple Mount.

The Temple Mount: The Controversy Continues

The Weekly Standard has published an article discussing the controversy surrounding the building of a ramp to allow non-Muslims to reach the enormous platform atop the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.

The article says in part:

Hundreds of truckloads were unloaded in municipal garbage dumps. Some drops were made late at night. This was vandalism on a breathtaking scale, and the vandals knew it. (In fact removing the soil was a crime in itself; archaeologists need to inspect soil in situ to understand the context and to know which layers were on top, what came next, and so forth.) All in all this was a sickening crime against the human spirit, a rape of the Mount. But radical Arab leaders routinely deny that a Temple ever existed in this place. They would love to annihilate every trace of Jewish history as they would love to destroy the Jews themselves. For would-be murderers, destroying truth is the next best thing to destroying life.

The precious soil was left unprotected, and garbage accumulated on top. Archaeologists managed to sift through certain portions that remained accessible. Important finds turned up. But "we are certain," Mazar said recently, "that a vast amount of important data was lost."

The Israeli government let it happen; ignored the outcry of Israelis and of archaeologists all over the world and allowed construction and dumping to continue. "The world's patrimony is being carried off in dump trucks," wrote Hershel Shanks (editor of Biblical Archaeology Review) in the Washington Post in July 2000. "All who care about the archaeological remains on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem . . . should be incensed at Israel's failure to stop the Waqf . . . from illegally destroying precious remnants of history important to Muslims as well as to Jews and Christians." An open letter to Prime Minister Ehud Barak, signed by dozens of prominent Israelis of all political colors, demanded that Barak stop "a serious act of irreparable archaeological vandalism and destruction."

Read the article in its entirety by visiting The Weekly Standard.

Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary

Tags: Archaeology, Temple Mount, Eilat Mazar, Hershel Shanks

Dr. Eilat Mazar and the Temple Mount

Dr. Eilat Mazar, an archaeologist with the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, has answered several questions about the excavation near the Temple Mount in recent years. The Jerusalem Post has published the answers to 20 of these questions. Here are three questions posed by readers:

Mary Ellen Marks Highland Lakes: Is it true that the Ark of the Covenant is buried under the mount?

Dr. Mazar: There is a very high probability that the most important ancient remains are inside the compound in the massive underground halls. This includes the Ark of the Covenant.

Margaret, Sydney, Australia: Why is the site important to the Christians?

Dr. Mazar: The Temple Mount is of extreme value to the Christians as well, as it was the very spot where the Temple stood, at which Jesus himself arrived and became infuriated when he saw that it was being desecrated by so many people. He said that this was the holy place that the people must respect, and then he overturned the tables in fury. I see many Christians near the Temple Mount, standing on the stairs leading into one of its gates and praying. I urge the Christian world to raise its voice in order to help us preserve this magnificent site, which is part of Christian heritage, as well.

Thomas Crispin, Phoenix, Arizona: What is the most exciting thing you've discovered in your career so far?

Dr. Mazar: My most exciting find was a personal seal impression one centimeter in diameter from the First Temple period that had the name of a minister who was part of the government of Zedekaya. I found it last year during my excavation in the City of David. His name is mentioned in the book of Jeremiah - he was the one who asked King Zedekaya to kill the prophet Jeremiah because he was telling the people of Jerusalem to surrender to the Babylonians. This is astonishing because it is a direct connection between an archeological find and a biblical document. It reinforces our understanding and appreciation of the bible as an historical source of great authenticity.

It is important to remember that there is no evidence that the Ark of the Covenant is buried in one of the caves in the Temple Mount. Dr. Mazar’s response reflects the views of many Jews that before the destruction of Jerusalem in 587 BCE, the Ark was hidden in order to protect it from the Babylonians.

I have already written here and here about Dr. Mazar’s excavation in the City of David and the discovery of David’s palace. I have also written here about Dr. Mazar’s discovery of the seal of a Judean official named Jehucal (or Jucal), the son of Shelemiah, the son of Shevi.

Her appeal to Christians is a cry for help. The excavation of the Temple Mount has produced much animosity between Israelis and Palestinians. There is a real desire among Israelis today for Christians to validate Israel’s right to excavate in the area of the Temple Mount. The animosity between Israelis and Palestinians will not go away in the near future. It is possible that the excavation will make the problem more difficult to solve.

Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary

Tags: Ark of the Covenant, Eilat Mazar, Temple Mount, David’s Palace, Jehucal, Shelemiah