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City of David (archaeological site)

Coordinates: 31°46′25″N 35°14′08″E / 31.77361°N 35.23556°E / 31.77361; 35.23556
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For the modern neighborhood, part of the Palestinian Arab village of Silwan, see City of David (Silwan).

City of David
עיר דוד‎
Stepped Stone Structure
City of David (archaeological site) is located in Jerusalem
City of David (archaeological site)
Shown within Jerusalem
Alternative nameIr David (in Hebrew)
LocationJerusalem
Typesettlement
History
PeriodsBronze Age – Byzantine period
CulturesCanaanite, Israelite, Second Temple Judaism, Byzantine
EventsSiege of Jebus, Assyrian siege of Jerusalem, Babylonian 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
ManagementIsrael Nature and Parks Authority, Ir David Foundation
Public accessyes
Websitehttps://www.cityofdavid.org.il/en

The City of David (Hebrew: עיר דוד, romanized: ʿĪr Davīd), known locally mostly as Wadi Hilweh (Arabic: وادي حلوة),[1] 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.[2][3][4][5][6] It is situated on southern part of the eastern ridge of ancient Jerusalem,[5] 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.[7][8] Remains from the early Roman period include the Pool of Siloam and the Stepped Street, which stretched from the pool to the Temple Mount.[9]

The excavated parts of the archeological site are today part of the Jerusalem Walls National Park.[a][11] 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

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.[12] 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,[13] 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.[14] It 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.[15]

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.[16][17] Rannfrid Thelle wrote that the title "City of David" favors the Jewish national agenda and appeals to its Christian supporters.[16]

Location

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.[18] The hill descends from the Dung Gate toward the Gihon Spring and the Pool of Siloam.[19]

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.[20] 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.[20]

Excavations and scholarly views

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.

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.[21][22] The City of David was the ancient epicenter of Jerusalem and whose boundaries stretched from the Temple Mount in the north,[22] thence southward to the Pool of Siloam,[22] including the area marking the Kidron brook in the east and the adjacent dale in the west.[22] Its area is about 50 dunams (ca. 12.3 acres).[22]

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.[22] 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".[22] 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.[22] From the eighth century BCE, the city began to expand westward beyond the dale.[22]

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.[23][24] The 1909–11 work of Louis-Hugues Vincent and Montagu Brownlow Parker identified the earliest known settlement traces in the Jerusalem region,[25][26] suggesting the area was an ancient core of settlement in Jerusalem dating back to the Bronze Age.[27][28]

Topographical map of Jerusalem showing the approximate location of the "City of David" site

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.[29]

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[30][31] - 1894–1897; R. Weill - 1913–1914[32] and 1923–1924;[33] 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;[34] J.W. Crowfoot and G.M. Fitzgerald - 1927–1928; K.M. Kenyon - in the years 1961–1967;[35] Y. Shilo - from 1978 to 1985,[36] 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.[37][38] 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,[39] 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,"[40] although this name was eventually replaced by the name Accra (חקרא‎).[41][42]

According to Haaretz, "the prevailing theory in mainstream scholarship, that even if such rulers existed, they were monarchs of a tiny backwater."[43] 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.[44] 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.[45]

The City of David and the Mount of Olives

Archaeological outline

Unexcavated ruins of a house in the City of David (Silwan)
Monumental stone structure of the Proto-Aeolic style unearthed in the City of David (Givati Parking Lot)
Stepped structure unearthed at the ancient City of David (Jerusalem)

Overview

The area is one of the most intensively excavated sites in the Holy Land.[46] Archaeological practice at the site has been criticized for its practitioners not acknowledging political and corporate motivations, questionable field practice and overtly skewed interpretations.[11]

Location and topography

It is on a narrow ridge running south from the Temple Mount.[47][48] 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.[49]

The ridge is currently inside the predominantly Arab neighborhood of Wadi Hilweh, which is part of Silwan, an East Jerusalem suburb.[47][48]

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.[49] 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.[49]

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),[50] 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).[55] In 2012–2013, two teams of archaeologists conducted surveys of the area on behalf of the IAA; one led by Joseph (Joe) Uzziel,[56] and the other by Yuval Gadot.[57] Archaeological surveys in the City of David continued in 2014, led by Uzziel,[58] and Nahshon Szanton.[59]

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".[60][61] The results of several studies have been published[62] including for the Gihon Spring Tower[63] and for Wilson's Arch.[64]

Archaeological sites

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

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.[65][66] 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.[65][66] 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.[65][66] Researchers tentatively connected it to a passage from the Hebrew Bible, 1 Kings 11:27, where a gap in the walls of David's city is mentioned.[66] 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.[65]

Upper (northern) area

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.[67] 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

Inside the Siloam tunnel
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    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.[49] 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.[68]

    The ancient water systems connected to the Gihon Spring[49] 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.[69]
    • 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

    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

    South of the city

    Outside the walls to the south:

    Givati area west of Central Valley

    The Giv'ati Parking Lot excavations extend over an area of about 5 dunams (1.2 acres).[74]

    Here archaeologists claim to have found the remains of the Acra,[75] a fortress built by Antiochus Epiphanes to subdue those Jerusalemites who were opposed to Hellenisation.

    Ophel area north of the city

    See Ophel: Jerusalem ophel.

    Finds by period

    Chalcolithic (4500–3500 BCE)

    Chalcolithic remains include bits of pottery found in clefts in the bedrock by Macalister and Duncan.[76] 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.[76] 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.[77] Eilat Mazar speculates that they were used to collect rainwater.[49]

    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.[78]

    Late Bronze Age (1550–1200 BCE)

    Canaanite city wall facing the Kidron Valley

    Pottery and bronze arrowheads dating form this period have been found.[49]

    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.[79] 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.[80]

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

    Iron Age I (1200–980/70 BCE)

    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.[81]

    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.[82]

    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.[83] 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.[84] A quantity of luxury round, carinated bowls with red slip and hand burnishing support both the tenth century date and a sophisticated, urban lifestyle.[85] A bone has been radiocarbon dated by Elisabetta Boaretto at the Weizmann Institute, showing a probable date between 1050 and 780 BCE.[85] 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.[86][87]

    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.[88]

    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."[50] 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,[dubious – discuss] although it was within the city and the city was, indeed, encompassed by a monumental wall which they had excavated.[89][90][91][92] 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.[93]

    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."[50] 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."[94]

    Main article: Silwan necropolis

    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.[95] 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."[95]

    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."[95] However, the stone benches were carved with headrests in a style borrowed from the Egyptian Hathor wig.[96] 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.[95]

    Although only three partial inscriptions survive, the paleography makes the dating certain[95] and they suffice for most archaeologists to identify one tomb with the Biblical Shebna, steward and treasurer of King Hezekiah.[97]

    Iron Age IIIb (8th century – 586 BCE)

    Paleo-Hebrew seal found in the City of David

    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,[98] 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.[99][100]

    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.[101][102]

    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".[103]

    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.[104] 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.[105]

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

    Theodotus Inscription, 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, 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,[106][9] where the remains of a palace attributed to Queen Helena of Adiabene were discovered in 2007.[107]

    Byzantine period (324–628 CE)

    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.[108][109]

    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).[106]

    Controversies

    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.[110]

    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".[11]

    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.[111]

    Tourism

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

    References

    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)."[10]

    Citations

    1. ^ Jeffery Yas (2000). "(Re)designing the City of David: Landscape, Narrative and Archaeology in Silwan". Jerusalem Quarterly. Retrieved 18 April 2023. Known to archaeologists and Biblical scholars as the site of the City of David, the western slope of the Kidron valley is referred to locally by a variety of aliases, and among them "Wadi Hilwe" (in English, "Beautiful Valley") seems to prevail.
    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. ^ a b Geva & De Groot (2017, pp. 32–49) "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."
    6. ^ Gadot et al. 2023, p. 165.
    7. ^ Ronny Reich and Eli Shukron (2011). "The date of the Siloam Tunnel reconsidered". Tel Aviv. 38 (2): 147–157. doi:10.1179/033443511x13099584885268. S2CID 191493893.
    8. ^ Alon De Groot and Fadida Atalya (2011). "The Pottery Assemblage from the Rock-Cut Pool near the Gihon Spring". Tel Aviv. 38 (2): 158–166. doi:10.1179/033443511x13099584885501. S2CID 128741871.
    9. ^ a b 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.
    10. ^ Galor 2017, p. 61.
    11. ^ 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 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."
    12. ^ 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"
    13. ^ Rubenstein, Chaim (1980). "Chronological table of Jerusalem". Israel Guide - Jerusalem (A useful encyclopedia for the knowledge of the country) (in Hebrew). Vol. 10. Jerusalem: Keter Publishing House, in affiliation with the Israel Ministry of Defence. p. 8. OCLC 745203905.
    14. ^ 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.
    15. ^ 1 Kings 2:11
    16. ^ a b 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."
    17. ^ Greenberg, Rafael (2014b). A Privatized Heritage: How the Israel Antiquities Authority Relinquished Jerusalem's Past (Report).
    18. ^ Yiftah Shalev; Efrat Bocher; Helena Roth; Debora Sandhaus; Nitsan Shalom; Yuval Gadot (31 March 2021). "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.
    19. ^ 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
    20. ^ a b Asmar, Ahmad (2020). "Silwan: Abstract" (PDF). Jerusalem Institute for Policy Research Projects. 528.
    21. ^ Geva & De Groot 2017, pp. 32–49.
    22. ^ a b c d e f g h i Yitzhaki (1980), pp. 164–172
    23. ^ 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."
    24. ^ Palestine Exploration Fund 1895, including a number of scholarly discussions on the debate around the location
    25. ^ 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."
    26. ^ The Oxford Companion to Archaeology, p.167
    27. ^ Finkelstein & Silberman 2007, p. 129.
    28. ^ 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.
    29. ^ 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.
    30. ^ "Archibald Campbell Dickie". www.wikidata.org.
    31. ^ "Archibald Campbell Dickie - National Portrait Gallery". www.npg.org.uk.
    32. ^ Weill (1920), La Cité de David. Campagne de 1913–1914, Geuthner: Paris
    33. ^ 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. 2 (4). Israel Exploration Society: 230–236. JSTOR 27924494.
    34. ^ 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
    35. ^ Kenyon, K.M. (1967). Jerusalem: Excavating 3000 Years of History. London: Thames and Hudson. OCLC 610329044.
    36. ^ 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)
    37. ^ 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
    38. ^ Reich, et al. (2007), pp. 153–169, findings from the Iron Age II from the rock-cut pool near the spring.
    39. ^ Jerusalem, City of David, Shalem Slopes, Moran Hagbi and Joe Uziel (2017), Hadashot Arkheologiyot – Excavations and Surveys in Israel (IAA)
    40. ^ Smith 1907, p. 156.
    41. ^ Smith 1907, pp. 156–157.
    42. ^ Cf. Josephus, The Jewish War (5.4.1. 5.136); ibid. (6.6.3. 6.351)
    43. ^ "Was King David a nomad? New theory sparks storm among Israeli archaeologists". Haaretz.
    44. ^ Mazar, Amihai (2010). "Archaeology and the Biblical Narrative: The Case of the United Monarchy". Archaeological and Biblical Perspectives: 29. 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.
    45. ^ Geva & De Groot 2017, p. 34.
    46. ^ 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."
    47. ^ a b Aviad Glickman, L-4167597,00.html 'Silwan man who stoned Jewish vehicle gets 4 years,' at Ynet 27 Dec 2011.
    48. ^ a b United Nations, Report of the Human Rights Council: Twelfth Session (14 September - 2 October 2009) UN 2010 p.98 (j).
    49. ^ a b c d e f g Mazar (2009), p. 21
    50. ^ a b c Ben-Ami (2014), pp. 3–19
    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. ^ "The Jerusalem Archaeological Park - homepage". Archived from the original on 2011-07-21.
    55. ^ Israel Antiquities Authority, Excavators and Excavations Permit for Year 2010, Survey Permits # A-5982 and A-5852.
    56. ^ 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
    57. ^ Israel Antiquities Authority, Excavators and Excavations Permit for Year 2012, Survey Permit # A-6662
    58. ^ Israel Antiquities Authority, Excavators and Excavations Permit for Year 2014, Survey Permit # A-7016
    59. ^ Israel Antiquities Authority, Excavators and Excavations Permit for Year 2014, Survey Permit # A-7017
    60. ^ Poser, Rachel (September 2019). "[Letter from Silwan] Common Ground, by Rachel Poser". Harper's Magazine.
    61. ^ "Archaeologists drop Bible, pick up science to solve Jerusalem puzzles". Haaretz.
    62. ^ "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.
    63. ^ 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.
    64. ^ Johanna Regev; Joe Uziel; Tehillah Lieberman; Avi Solomon; Yuval Gadot; Doron Ben-Ami; Lior Regev; Elisabetta Boaretto (2020). "Radiocarbon dating and microarchaeology untangle the history of Jerusalem's Temple Mount: A view from Wilson's Arch". PLOS ONE. 15 (6): e0233307. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0233307. PMC 7269203.
    65. ^ a b c d Gadot, Yuval; Bocher, Efrat; Freud, Liora; Shalev, Yiftah (2023). "An Early Iron Age Moat in Jerusalem between the Ophel and the Southeastern Ridge/City of David". Tel Aviv. 50 (2): 147–170. doi:10.1080/03344355.2023.2246811.
    66. ^ a b c d 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".
    67. ^ Mazar (2009)
    68. ^ Wasserstein & Prawer n.d.
    69. ^ Reich, et al. (1999), pp. 26–33
    70. ^ Dalman, Gustaf (2020). Nadia Abdulhadi-Sukhtian (ed.). Work and Customs in Palestine, volume II (Agriculture). Translated by Robert Schick. Ramallah: Dar Al Nasher. p. 280. ISBN 978-9950-385-84-9.
    71. ^ Warren, C.; Conder, C.R. (1884). Jerusalem. London: Committee of the Palestine Exploration Fund. p. 294. OCLC 5785377.
    72. ^ Yitzhaki, Arieh [in Hebrew] (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.
    73. ^ "Topical Bible: King's Garden". biblehub.com.
    74. ^ Ben-Ami 2011, p. 95.
    75. ^ Eisenbud, D. (2015). "Archeological find in Jerusalem's City of David may answer ancient mystery", Jerusalem Post.
    76. ^ 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.
    77. ^ 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.
    78. ^ 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.
    79. ^ Mazar, Eilat; Horowitz, Wayne; Oshima, Takayoshi; Goren, Yuval (2010). "A Cuneiform Tablet from the Ophel in Jerusalem". Israel Exploration Journal. 60 (1): 4–21. ISSN 0021-2059. JSTOR 27927244.
    80. ^ Rollston, Christopher A. (2010). "A fragmentary cuneiform tablet from the Ophel (Jerusalem) : methodological musings about the proposed genre and Sitz im Leben" (PDF). Antiguo Oriente. 8: 11–21.
    81. ^ Regev, Johanna; Gadot, Yuval; Uziel, Joe; Chalaf, Ortal; Shalev, Yiftah; Roth, Helena; Shalom, Nitsan; Szanton, Nahshon; Bocher, Efrat; Pearson, Charlotte L.; Brown, David M.; Mintz, Eugenia; Regev, Lior; Boaretto, Elisabetta (2024-04-29). "Radiocarbon chronology of Iron Age Jerusalem reveals calibration offsets and architectural developments". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 121 (19): e2321024121. doi:10.1073/pnas.2321024121. ISSN 0027-8424. PMID 38683984.
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    84. ^ 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.
    85. ^ a b 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.
    86. ^ 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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    90. ^ Reich & Shukron 1999, pp. 26–33.
    91. ^ Reich 2011, p. 152-158.
    92. ^ Galor 2017b, p. 206.
    93. ^ 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."
    94. ^ Gadot et al. 2023, p. 166.
    95. ^ 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,
    96. ^ 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.
    97. ^ "Ancient Jerusalem's Funerary Customs and Tombs: Part Two," L. Y. Rahmani, The Biblical Archaeologist, Vol. 44, No. 4 (Autumn, 1981), pp. 229–235.
    98. ^ 2 Chronicles 32:30
    99. ^ Jerusalem: an archaeological biography, Hershel Shanks, Random House, 1995, p. 80.
    100. ^ 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.
    101. ^ Proof of Jeremiah Unearthed in Jerusalem, by Hana Levi Julian, Arutz Sheva, March 08, 2008.
    102. ^ “Strata: Seals of Jeremiah’s Captors Who Urged Imprisonment,” BAR, September/October 2015.
    103. ^ Mendel-Geberovich, Anat; Shalev, Yiftah; Bocher, Efrat; Shalom, Nitsan; Gadot, Yuval (2019). "A Newly Discovered Personal Seal and Bulla from the Excavations of the GivꜤati Parking Lot, Jerusalem". Israel Exploration Journal. 69 (2): 154–174. ISSN 0021-2059. JSTOR 27098633.
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    110. ^ 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”.
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