Newly Discovered Wall
The claim made by Israel Finkelstein and others that the city conquered by David was nothing more than a small village and that David himself - if he existed - was only a tribal chieftan, distinguished from other tribal chieftans simply because he had a few more goats, is becoming increasingly untenable as new discoveries continue to be made.
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| The newly discovered wall on Mt Ophel. Note the human figure at the far left who gives scale to the stones that make up the wall. |
The latest, which goes on show today (Thursday, September 3, 2009) is a substantial stone wall built to protect access to the Virgin's Fountain at the foot of the Ophel hill on which Jerusalem was built. Dig director Ronnie Reich, archaeology professor at the University of Haifa, says, "The wall is enormous, and that it survived 3,700 years - this is, even for us, a long time. ... When you just stand there and see it, it is amazing."
Pottery found around the wall dates it to the Middle Bronze Age, by conventional chronology that is several centuries before the Jews arrived in the Promised Land, but by the revised chronology we support, the Middle Bronze is the age of David and Solomon. If we are correct, then this wall may well have been built by one or other of those two monarchs.
The wall is 26' high and is built of large blocks of undressed stone, which implies a large but not particularly skillful workforce. This would agree with the Biblical account which depicts Solomon relying on corvees of forced labour drawn from all over Israel. You can't turn a peasant farmer into a skilled stone mason overnight!
What makes the wall particularly interesting is its similarity to other walls at Hebron, Shechem and Gezer. Of course, it is possible that independant city rulers copied from one another, but it is equally possible that a central state and ruler was responsible for them all and that would accord better with the sort of man-power required to drag such massive stones into position.
The wall was first discovered in 1909, though its identity was recognised until this year, when a 79' stretch was cleared. Unfortunately financial constraints related to the global downturn have forced work to stop, a fact about which I have mixed feelings.
Work on Mt Ophel is being funded by a Jewish settler organisation and there is no doubt that it is being used in an attempt to legitimise Jewish occupation of the area. Signs and the excellent film shown to visitors proclaim "We have returned". When that return involves throwing people out of their homes on the basis of dubious legal documents, as happened recently, it leaves a very nasty taste in the mouth.
The recent case hinged on the claimed possession by a Jewish family of Ottoman title deeds to the buildings in question. The Israeli court solemnly found that these deeds proved that the Arab families who have lived in the houses for several generations should be thrown out forthwith. One could admire the court's punctilious - if pedantic - regard for legal documents were it not for the fact that an Arab family up near Shiloh, who had indisputably genuine Ottoman title deeds to land wanted by Jewish settlers, were thrown out by Israeli courts on the basis that they hadn't proved present title to the land.
It seems that in Israel it is a case of "Jews you win, non-Jews you lose" and one can't help but wonder how the ancient Jebusites felt as David expropriated the threshing floor of Araunah to build his temple.
© Kendall K. Down 2009
