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City of David (historic)

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City of David
עיר דוד
עיר דוד 2.JPG
Stepped Stone Structure
City of David (historic) is located in Jerusalem
City of David (historic)
Shown within Jerusalem
Alternative nameIr David
LocationJerusalem
Typesettlement
History
PeriodsBronze Age - Byzantine period
CulturesCanaanite, Israelite, Second Temple Judaism, Byzantine
EventsSiege of Jebus, Assyrian siege of Jerusalem, Babylon siege of Jerusalem
Site notes
ArchaeologistsCharles Warren, Conard Schick, K.M. Kenyon, Yigal Shiloh, Ronny Reich, Eli Shukron, Doron Ben-Ami, Eilat Mazar and others
ConditionIn ruins
OwnershipIsrael Nature and Parks Authority, Ir David Foundation
Public accessyes
Websitehttps://www.cityofdavid.org.il/en

The City of David (Hebrew: עיר דוד, romanizedĪr Davīd) is a historic name given to an archaeological site on the southeast hill of contemporary East Jerusalem, which is thought to constitute the original settlement core of Jerusalem during the Bronze Age and Iron Ages.[1][2][3][4]

The site is believed to be the former royal city of the Israelite king David, from whom it takes its name, and is a holy site for Jews, Christians and Muslims.[5] Parts of the ancient city were exposed in archaeological excavations conducted at the site, and today are part of the Jerusalem Walls National Park.[a][7]

Naming and controversies

The naming of the site is controversial. The name "City of David" originates in the biblical narrative where David besieges and captures Jerusalem from the Jebusites; it was proposed in 1920.

The archaeological site is located in the Arab Palestinian neighborhood of Silwan. Silwan is centered east of the Kidron Valley, on the slopes of the southern part of the Mount of Olives. In the 20th century, the village spread west and crossed the valley to the eastern hill, the site of the ancient city.[8] The area was known as Wadi al-Nabah, but was renamed to Wadi al-Hilweh after the wife of Silwan's mukhtar who was killed in the 1948 Arab-Israeli War.[8] Today, the site's majority Palestinian Arab residents refer to it as Wadi al-Hilweh, while Israeli authorities refer to it as the City of David. According to Professor Rannfrid Thelle, the term "City of David" privileges the Jewish national agenda.[9]

Area definitions

"The ridge extending south of the Temple Mount – termed the "Ophel" in old maps, "City of David" by archaeologists, and "Wadi Hilweh" (a neighborhood in the village of Silwan) by its residents – is the ancient core of Jerusalem."[10]" In the narrow sense, the name City of David refers to the hill upon which stood ancient Jerusalem, bordered by the Temple Mount to the north, by Wadi Hilweh Street (or its Israeli name, Ma’alot Ir David, or City of David Ascent) to the west, and by the Kidron Valley and the Gihon Spring to the east. For the Palestinians, the City of David area is a part of the Wadi Hilweh neighborhood.. In the second half of the 19th century, archaeological missions began excavating this hill, which slopes down from the Dung Gate toward the Gihon Spring and the Siloam Pool."[11]"Silwan consists of the two slopes of the Kidron valley;....one slope, the Wadi Hilweh neighbourhood, in which is the original site of Jerusalem."[12] "The entirety of the southeastern ridge is known as the city of David" (City of David is described as city of David throughout).[13]

Identification and biblical archaeology

Locations of archaeological digs in Silwan/City of David

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.[14][15] The 1909–11 work of Louis-Hugues Vincent and Montagu Brownlow Parker identified the earliest known settlement traces in the Jerusalem region,[16][17] suggesting the area was an ancient core of settlement in Jerusalem dating back to the Bronze Age.[18][19]

The name "City of David" originates in the biblical tradition of David's conquest of Jerusalem, then known as Jebus. By some accounts in the Bible, David conquered it in battle, Modern scholarship questions whether this narrative of conquest is reliable for the history of the period. In his Antiquities of the Jews Jewish-Roman historian Josephus repeated the story.[20]

The "City of David" is the name applied to the city of Jerusalem in ca. 1000 BCE,[21] and is not to be confused with the modern organisation by the same name and which showcases relatively small excavated portions of the larger city.[22] The ancient city is first mentioned in the Hebrew Bible, in 1 Kings 11:27, in 2 Samuel 5:9, in 2 Chronicles 32:30 and in Nehemiah 3:15–16, 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.[23]

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.[24]

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.[25][26] The City of David was the ancient epicenter of Jerusalem and whose boundaries stretched from the Temple Mount in the north,[26] thence southward to the Pool of Siloam,[26] including the area marking the Kidron brook in the east and the adjacent dale in the west.[26] Its area is about 50 dunams (ca. 12.3 acres).[26] 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.[26] 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".[26] 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.[26] From the eighth century BCE, the city began to expand westward beyond the dale.[26]

Unexcavated ruins of a house in the City of David (Silwan)

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 - in 1881; F.J. Bliss and A.C. Dickie[27][28] - 1894–1897; R. Weill - 1913–1914[29] and 1923–1924;[30] 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;[31] J.W. Crowfoot and G.M. Fitzgerald - 1927-1928; K.M. Kenyon - in the years 1961–1967;[32] Y. Shilo - from 1978–1985,[33] and more.

Monumental stone structure of the Proto-Aeolic style unearthed in the City of David (Givati Parking Lot)

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.[34][35] 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,[36] 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,"[37] although this name was eventually replaced by the name Accra (חקרא‎).[38][39]

According to Haaretz, "the prevailing theory in mainstream scholarship, that even if such rulers existed, they were monarchs of a tiny backwater."[40] 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.[41] 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.[42]

Criticism

In 2018, a leaked report by the European Economic Community cited the area as one being developed for tourism to justify settlements and insist on Jewish heritage at the expense of its Palestinian context.[43]

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".[7]

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.[44]

Archaeological outline

Topographical map of Jerusalem showing the approximate location of the "City of David" site
The Biblical City of David in the period of Herod's Temple, from the Holyland Model of Jerusalem. The southern wall of the Temple Mount appears at top.

Overview

The area is one of the most intensively excavated sites in the Holy Land.[45] Archaeological practice at the site has been criticized for its practitioners not acknowledging political and corporate motivations, questionable field practice and overtly skewed interpretations.[7]

Location and topography

It is on a narrow ridge running south from the Temple Mount.[46][47] 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.[48]

The ridge is currently inside the predominantly Arab neighborhood of Wadi Hilweh, which is part of Silwan, an East Jerusalem suburb.[46][47]

Bronze and Iron Age

It is thought to have been the site of a walled city from the Bronze Age, which enjoyed the defensive advantages of its position.[48] 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.[48]

In 2014, excavations at the Givati parking lot showed 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),[49] 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.[citation needed]

Exploration

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:

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).[54] In 2012–2013, two teams of archaeologists conducted surveys of the area on behalf of the IAA; one led by Joseph (Joe) Uzziel,[55] and the other by Yuval Gadot.[56] Archaeological surveys in the City of David continued in 2014, led by Uzziel,[57] and Nahshon Szanton.[58]

Stepped structure unearthed at the ancient City of David (Jerusalem)

Dating

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".[59][60] The results of several studies have been published[61] including for the Gihon Spring Tower[62] and for Wilson's Arch.[63]

Archaeological sites

Inside the Siloam tunnel

The remains at the site include several water tunnels, one of which was built by King Hezekiah and still carries water, several pools including the Pool of Siloam known from the Old and New Testaments, and in its vicinity scholars expect to find, or claim to have found, the remains of the Acra,[64] a fortress built by Antiochus Epiphanes to subdue those Jerusalemites who were opposed to Hellenisation. 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.[65] 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.

  • 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.[48] 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.[66]

The ancient water systems connected to the Gihon Spring[48] 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.[67]
  • The , 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.

The Giv'ati Parking Lot excavations extend over an area of about 5 dunams (1.2 acres).[68] Within this area there are several built structures, spread over excavated sections known as Area A, B, C, ... which include:

Other general areas include:

Finds by period

Chalcolithic (4500–3500 BCE)

Chalcolithic remains include bits of pottery found in clefts in the bedrock by Macalister and Duncan.[73] 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.[73] , 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.[74] Eilat Mazar speculates that they were used to collect rainwater.[48]

Early Bronze Age (3500–2350 BCE)

Pieces of pottery have been found.

Middle Bronze Age (2000–1550 BCE)

Middle Bronze Age Jerusalem is mentioned several times in Egyptian texts from the 19th–18th centuries BCE.[75]

Late Bronze Age (1550–1200 BCE)

Canaanite city wall facing the Kidron Valley

Pottery and bronze arrowheads dating form this period have been found.[48]

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.[76] 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.[77]

"Ahiel's House" build on top of the Stepped Stone Structure

Iron Age I (1200–980/70 BCE)

Iron Age IIa (1000–925/900 BCE)

Part of the Large Stone Structure asserted by archaeologist Eilat Mazar to be the remains of King David's palace

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.[78]

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.[79] 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.[80] A quantity of luxury round, carinated bowls with red slip and hand burnishing support both the tenth century date and a sophisticated, urban lifestyle.[81] A bone has been radiocarbon dated by Elisabetta Boaretto at the Weizmann Institute, showing a probable date between 1050 and 780 BCE.[81] 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.[82][83]

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.[84]

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."[49] 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, although it was within the city and the city was, indeed, encompassed by a monumental wall which they had excavated.[85][86][87][88] 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.[89]

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)

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."[49]

The related necropolis (9th-7th centuries BCE)

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.[90] 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."[90]

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."[90] However, the stone benches were carved with headrests in a style borrowed from the Egyptian Hathor wig.[91] 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.[90]

Although only three partial inscriptions survive, the paleography makes the dating certain [90] and they suffice for most archaeologists to identify one tomb with the Biblical Shebna, steward and treasurer of King Hezekiah.[92]

Iron Age IIIb (8th century – 586 BCE)

Sign near the southern end of the Siloam tunnel, where the Siloam inscription was found.

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 533 metres (1,749 ft) 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,[93] 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.[94][95]

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.[96][97][98]

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".

Paleo-Hebrew seal found in the City of David

Babylonian and Persian periods (586–322 BCE)

Two bullae in the Neo-Babylonian style, one showing a priest standing beside an altar to the gods Marduk and Nabu.[99] 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 has read as the name Shelomit.[100]

Hasmoneans, Herodians and Roman governors (167 BCE – 70 CE)

, City of David, 1st century CE, indicating the existence of a synagogue at that site previous to 70 CE

Major archaeological finds include the Pool of Siloam, the monumental stepped road built by Pilate drained by an impressive channel, the palace of Queen Helena of Adiabene. Active Roman-era excavations are also underway at the Givati Parking Lot dig site.[101][102]

Byzantine period (324–628 CE)

Byzantine-period mansion called the House of Eusebius.[103]

During the excavation of the area adjacent to the west, the so-called Givati Parking Lot dig, a hoard of 264 gold coins was found, dating to the time of Emperor Heraclius (7th century CE).

Early Islamic period (628–1099 CE)

Tourism

City of David visitor entrance

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,[104] although the change in the water table in recent times mean that the once intermittent karstic spring is now artificially maintained through pumping.

The City of David and the Mount of Olives

References

  1. ^ Finkelstein, Israel; Silberman, Neil Asher (March 6, 2002). The Bible Unearthed: Archaeology's New Vision of Ancient Israel and the Origin of Sacred Texts. Simon and Schuster. ISBN 9780743223386 – via Google Books.
  2. ^ 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.
  3. ^ Broshi (1974), pp. 21–26.
  4. ^ 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.
  5. ^ Hurvitz & Shiloh 1999, p. 6.
  6. ^ Galor 2017, p. 61.
  7. ^ a b c Greenberg 2014, p. 29: "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 Harare 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."
  8. ^ a b Asmar, Ahmad (2020). "Silwan: Abstract" (PDF). Jerusalem Institute for Policy Research projects. 528.
  9. ^ 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."
  10. ^ Greenberg, Rafael (2014b). A Privatized Heritage: How the Israel Antiquities Authority Relinquished Jerusalem's Past (Report).
  11. ^ Meron Rapoport, 'Shady Dealings in Silwan,' Archived July 14, 2010, at the Wayback Machine. Ir Amim for an Equitable and Stable Jerusalem with an Agreed Political Future, May 2009, p.7
  12. ^ David Landy (2017): The place of Palestinians in tourist and Zionist discourses in the "City of David", occupied East Jerusalem, Critical Discourse Studies, p.4 DOI:10.1080/17405904.2017.1284684
  13. ^ Yiftah Shalev, Efrat Bocher, Helena Roth, Debora Sandhaus, Nitsan Shalom, Yuval Gadot (31 March 2021). "1:2 Jerusalem in the Early Hellenistic Period:New Evidence for Its Nature and Location". In Andrea M. Berlin; Paul J. Kosmin (eds.). The Middle Maccabees: Archaeology, History, and the Rise of the Hasmonean Kingdom. SBL Press. p. 17. ISBN 978-0-88414-504-2.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: uses authors parameter (link)
  14. ^ Excavations in the City of David Under Ottoman Rule Archived 2011-07-21 at the Wayback Machine, 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."
  15. ^ Palestine Exploration Fund 1895, including a number of scholarly discussions on the debate around the location
  16. ^ Excavations in the City of David Under Ottoman Rule Archived 2011-07-21 at the Wayback Machine, 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."
  17. ^ The Oxford Companion to Archaeology, p.167
  18. ^ Finkelstein & Silberman 2007, p. 129.
  19. ^ 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.
  20. ^ 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"
  21. ^ Rubenstein, Chaim (1980). "Chronological table of Jerusalem". Israel Guide - Jerusalem (A useful encyclopedia for the knowledge of the country) (in Hebrew). Vol. 10. Jerusalem: , in affiliation with the Israel Ministry of Defence. p. 8. OCLC 745203905.
  22. ^ City of David Visitor Center. "The Ir David Foundation". Israel Nature and Parks Authority. Retrieved 5 August 2021.; Jerusalem Walls-City of David National Park. "Main Points of Interest in the City of David". Israel Nature and Parks Authority. Retrieved 5 August 2021.
  23. ^ 1 Kings 2:11
  24. ^ Gibson, Shimon. "The Palestine Exploration Fund and the Search for the "City of David"" (PDF). University of North Carolina at Charlotte. Retrieved 26 July 2021.
  25. ^ Geva 2017, pp. 32–49.
  26. ^ a b c d e f g h i Yitzhaki (1980), pp. 164–172
  27. ^ "Archibald Campbell Dickie". www.wikidata.org.
  28. ^ "Archibald Campbell Dickie - National Portrait Gallery". www.npg.org.uk.
  29. ^ Weill (1920), La Cité de David. Campagne de 1913–1914, Geuthner: Paris
  30. ^ Weill, R. (1947), La Cité de David, --- published in J. Simons, Jerusalem in the Old Testament, Leiden 1952. Mentioned by: Avigad, N. (1952). "The Fortification of the City of David". Israel Exploration Journal. Israel Exploration Society. 2 (4): 230–236. JSTOR 27924494.
  31. ^ 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
  32. ^ Kenyon, K.M. (1967). Jerusalem: Excavating 3000 Years of History. London: Thames and Hudson. OCLC 610329044.
  33. ^ Shiloh, Yigal; Ariel, Donald T. (1984–2012). Excavations at the City of David, 1978-1985 (in Hebrew and English). Jerusalem: Institute of Archaeology, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. OCLC 602654791. (10 volumes)
  34. ^ 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
  35. ^ Reich, et al. (2007), pp. 153–169, findings from the Iron Age II from the rock-cut pool near the spring.
  36. ^ Jerusalem, City of David, Shalem Slopes, Moran Hagbi and Joe Uziel (2017), Hadashot Arkheologiyot – Excavations and Surveys in Israel (IAA)
  37. ^ Smith 1907, p. 156.
  38. ^ Smith 1907, pp. 156–157.
  39. ^ Cf. Josephus, The Jewish War (5.4.1. 5.136); ibid. (6.6.3. 6.351)
  40. ^ "Was King David a nomad? New theory sparks storm among Israeli archaeologists". Haaretz.
  41. ^ Mazar, Amihai. "Archaeology and the Biblical Narrative: The Case of the United Monarchy". Archaeological and Biblical Perspectives. For conservative approaches defining the United Monarchy as a state “from Dan to Beer Sheba” including “conquered kingdoms” (Ammon, Moab, Edom) and “spheres of influence” in Geshur and Hamath cf. e.g. Ahlström (1993), 455–542; Meyers (1998); Lemaire (1999); Masters (2001); Stager (2003); Rainey (2006), 159–168; Kitchen (1997); Millard (1997; 2008). For a total denial of the historicity of the United Monarchy cf. e.g. Davies (1992), 67–68; others suggested a ‘chiefdom’ comprising a small region around Jerusalem, cf. Knauf (1997), 81–85; Niemann (1997), 252–299 and Finkelstein (1999). For a ‘middle of the road’ approach suggesting a United Monarchy of larger territorial scope though smaller than the biblical description cf., e.g., Miller (1997); Halpern (2001), 229–262; Liverani (2005), 92–101. The latter recently suggested a state comprising the territories of Judah and Ephraim during the time of David, that was subsequently enlarged to include areas of northern Samariaand influence areas in the Galilee and Transjordan. Na’aman (1992; 1996) once accepted the basic biography of David as authentic and later rejected the United Monarchy as a state, cf. id. (2007), 401–402.
  42. ^ Geva, Hillel; De Groot, Alon (2017). "The City of David Is Not on the Temple Mount After All". Israel Exploration Journal. Israel Exploration Society. 67 (1): 34. JSTOR 44474016.
  43. ^ 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”.
  44. ^ "National Academy of Sciences criticizes politicization of Israeli archaeology". Haaretz.
  45. ^ Light at the End of the Tunnel: Warren's Shaft Theory of David's Conquest Shattered Archived 2014-08-01 at the Wayback Machine, 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."
  46. ^ a b Aviad Glickman, L-4167597,00.html 'Silwan man who stoned Jewish vehicle gets 4 years,' at Ynet 27 Dec 2011.
  47. ^ a b United Nations, Report of the Human Rights Council: Twelfth Session (14 September - 2 October 2009 UN 2010 p.98 (j).
  48. ^ a b c d e f g Mazar (2009), p. 21
  49. ^ a b c Ben-Ami (2014), pp. 3–19
  50. ^ "The Jerusalem Archaeological Park - homepage". Archived from the original on 2011-07-21.
  51. ^ "The Jerusalem Archaeological Park - homepage". Archived from the original on 2011-07-21.
  52. ^ "The Jerusalem Archaeological Park - homepage". Archived from the original on 2011-07-21.
  53. ^ "The Jerusalem Archaeological Park - homepage". Archived from the original on 2011-07-21.
  54. ^ Israel Antiquities Authority, Excavators and Excavations Permit for Year 2010, Survey Permits # A-5982 and A-5852.
  55. ^ 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
  56. ^ Israel Antiquities Authority, Excavators and Excavations Permit for Year 2012, Survey Permit # A-6662
  57. ^ Israel Antiquities Authority, Excavators and Excavations Permit for Year 2014, Survey Permit # A-7016
  58. ^ Israel Antiquities Authority, Excavators and Excavations Permit for Year 2014, Survey Permit # A-7017
  59. ^ Poser, Rachel (September 1, 2019). "[Letter from Silwan] Common Ground, by Rachel Poser". Harper's Magazine. September 2019.
  60. ^ "Archaeologists drop Bible, pick up science to solve Jerusalem puzzles". Haaretz.
  61. ^ "Setting the Clock in the City of David: Establishing a Radiocarbon Chronology for Jerusalem's Archaeology in Proto-historical and Historical Times". 30 July 2020. Retrieved 11 August 2021.
  62. ^ Regev, Johanna; Uziel, Joe; Szanton, Nahshon; Boaretto, Elisabetta (6 June 2017). "Absolute Dating of the Gihon Spring Fortifications, Jerusalem". Radiocarbon. 59 (4): 1171–1193. doi:10.1017/RDC.2017.37. S2CID 135290104.
  63. ^ Johanna Regev; et al. (2020). "Radiocarbon dating and microarchaeology untangle the history of Jerusalem's Temple Mount: A view from Wilson's Arch". Vol. 15, no. 6. PLOS ONE. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0233307.
  64. ^ Eisenbud, D. (2015). "Archeological find in Jerusalem's City of David may answer ancient mystery", Jerusalem Post.
  65. ^ Mazar (2009)
  66. ^ Wasserstein & Prawer n.d.
  67. ^ Reich, et al. (1999), pp. 26–33
  68. ^ Ben-Ami 2011, p. 95.
  69. ^ Dalman, Gustaf (2020). Nadia Abdulhadi-Sukhtian (ed.). Work and Customs in Palestine, volume II. Vol. 2 (Agriculture). Translated by Robert Schick. Ramallah: Dar Al Nasher. p. 280. ISBN 978-9950-385-84-9.
  70. ^ Warren, C.; Conder, C.R. (1884). Jerusalem. London: Committee of the Palestine Exploration Fund. p. 294. OCLC 5785377.
  71. ^ Yitzhaki, Arieh (1980). "City of David (עיר דוד)". In Chaim Rubenstein (ed.). Israel Guide - Jerusalem (A useful encyclopedia for the knowledge of the country) (in Hebrew). Vol. 10. Jerusalem: Keter Publishing House. pp. 166–167. OCLC 745203905.
  72. ^ > International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
  73. ^ a b 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.
  74. ^ 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.
  75. ^ 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.
  76. ^ [1]"Oldest written document ever found in J'lem," Hartman, July 12, 2010, Jerusalem Post.
  77. ^ Rollston, Christopher. "Rollston's Reflections on the Fragmentary Cuneiform Tablet from the Ophel: A Critique of the Proposed Historical Context". Retrieved 15 July 2010.
  78. ^ Rachel Ginsberg (2009-06-29). "The world of archeology is rocked by evidence of King David's palace unearthed in Jerusalem". Aish.com. Retrieved 2009-06-29.
  79. ^ Israel Finkelstein, Ze'ev Herzog, 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
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  82. ^ 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.
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  85. ^ Galor 2017, p. 124.
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  87. ^ Reich 2011, p. 152-158.
  88. ^ Galor 2017b, p. 206.
  89. ^ 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."
  90. ^ a b c d e 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,
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  93. ^ 2 Chronicles 32:30
  94. ^ Jerusalem: an archaeological biography, Hershel Shanks, Random House, 1995, p. 80.
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  96. ^ Proof of Jeremiah Unearthed in Jerusalem, by Hana Levi Julian, Arutz Sheva, March 08, 2008.
  97. ^ “Strata: Seals of Jeremiah’s Captors Who Urged Imprisonment,” BAR, September/October 2015.
  98. ^ Jewish Historical Connection to Jerusalem Archived 2018-12-22 at the Wayback Machine - State of Israel, Minister of Foreign Affair. Accessed 13 July 2017.
  99. ^ 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.
  100. ^ 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.
  101. ^ "2,000 year-old cameo found in Jerusalem," Aug. 30, 2010, Jerusalem Post.
  102. ^ Szanton, Nahshon; Uziel, Joe (2016). "Jerusalem, City of David [stepped street dig, July 2013 - end 2014], Preliminary Report (21/08/2016)". Hadashot Arkheologiyot. Israel Antiquities Authority. Retrieved 24 July 2020.
  103. ^ 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.
  104. ^ Archaeology and the City of David, Rick Sherrod, Good News: A Magazine of Understanding, [3]

Notes

  1. ^ According to The Israeli National Parks website, the park is also referred to as Jerusalem Walls-City of David National Park "One of the most important sites in the Jerusalem Walls National Park is the City of David (ancient Jerusalem)."[6]

Bibliography

External links

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