Archaeologist finds Citadel of King David, compares to ‘Bible perfectly.’
An Israeli archaeologist claims he has found the Citadel which was captured by King David in his conquest of Jerusalem, Christian Today reportsed Tuesday.
Archaeologist Eli Shukron told the Washington Post that “This is the citadel of King David, this is the Citadel of Zion, and this is what King David took from the Jebusites. The whole site we can compare to the Bible perfectly.”
According to the text, David’s soldiers are ordered to enter the walled city via the water channel.
The excavation site reveals a fortification made up of five-ton stones stacked in a six metre wide arrangement, surrounding a narrow shaft where water from a natural spring would have been diverted into a carved pool. These constructions represent the second largest buildings of their kind in the area, only beaten by the Second Jewish Temple constructed by King Herod in approximately 100 BC.
Pottery shards found around the site have been dated to 1800 BC, meaning that the building was constructed 800 years before David’s conquest. The excavation begin in 1995, costing nearly six million pounds.
Shukron recently left Israel’s Antiquities Authority to work as a lecturer and tour guide.
According to the text, David’s soldiers are ordered to enter the walled city via the water channel.
Ronny Reich, who was Mr. Shukron’s colleague on the dig until 2008, believes that more pottery from the time of David’s conquest should have been found.
Reich told the post “The connection between archaeology and the Bible has become very, very problematic in recent years.”
The excavation has been controversial because it has been funded in part by the Jewish nationalist organization, the Ir David Foundation, which funds the construction of guarded homes for Jews in Arab areas of eastern Jerusalem.
[…] whereupon it thrived for a century. After that, only some locals were aware it existed until Yale archaeologist, Hiram Bingham, came upon it in 1911 with the assistance of a local farmer. Three families of […]