A Dig Into Jerusalem's Past Fuels Present-Day Debates [Palace of King David Found]

Washington Post ^ | December 2, 2005 | Scott Wilson

[West Coast Conservative]

Down the slope from the Old City's Dung Gate, rows of thick stone walls, shards of pottery and other remains of an expansive ancient building are being exhumed from a dusty pit.

The site is on a narrow terrace at the edge of the Kidron Valley, which sheers away from the Old City walls, in a cliffside area the Bible describes as the seat of the kings of ancient Israel.

What is taking shape in the rocky earth, marked by centuries of conquest and development, is as contested as the neighborhood of Arabs and Jews encircling the excavation. But the Israeli archaeologist Eilat Mazar believes the evidence she has uncovered during months of excavation and biblical comparison points to an extraordinary discovery.

She believes she has found the palace of King David, the poet-warrior who the Bible says consolidated the ancient Jewish kingdom around the 10th century B.C. and expanded its borders to encompass the Land of Israel. Others are doubtful.

"There is sometimes a reality, a very precise reality, though maybe not all true, described in the Bible," Mazar said. "This is giving the Bible's version a chance."

Mazar's find is emerging at the nexus of history, religion and politics, volatile forces that have guided building, biblical scholarship and war in this city for millennia. Even before the findings have been assembled in a scientific paper, the discovery is prompting new thinking about when Jerusalem rose to prominence, the nature of the early Jewish kingdom, and whether the Bible can be used as a reliable map to archaeological discovery.

Only a small fraction of the structure has been exposed. But it is yielding rare clues to the early development of Jerusalem, long debated within Israel's university archaeology departments.

[Sacajaweau]

btt

[Casekirchen]

"There is sometimes a reality, a very precise reality, though maybe not all true, described in the Bible," Mazar said. "This is giving the Bible's version a chance."

--- Has there been an instance where archeology has proven the Bible wrong?

[Fiddlstix]

BTTT

[MeanWestTexan]

Of course not, but I bet it has changed several pre-conceived notions about what the Bible says.

A distinct difference, that.

[silverleaf]

King David's existence cannot be scientifically proven, therefore there was no King David/sarc

[jimmyk]

Note near the end of the article this line:
where the Bible says the battle of Armageddon took place
You mean it's already happened, strange nobody told me.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks Fiddlstix.

To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list. Thanks.

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[Itzlzha]

She believes she has found the palace of King David, the poet-warrior who the Bible says consolidated the ancient Jewish kingdom around the 10th century B.C. and expanded its borders to encompass the Land of Israel

So, obviousy, this is somewhere that Mohammed (MHNBC!) took a holy "dump" after sodomizing a 12 year old and her goat!

"It's an Islamazi SHRINE of worship! The "filthy Joooooos" are wrong to dig here, the Islamazis demand the Jooooos stop proving that Israel was theirs LONG before Satan's anus produced the first PaleSimian....and that the PA now plans to use explosives to excavate this site, and build a Mosque over here too! Call it the "Dome of the Rectum"!"

Did I get it right?

Am I close to how the anti-Semites will view this finding?

[Little Ray]

Armageddon is a place - Har-megiddo - and MANY battles have been fought there... the most important historically being:
Megiddo has been the site of three battles in recorded history:

Battle of Megiddo (1469 BC): fought between the armies of the Egyptian pharaoh Thutmose III and a large Canaanite coalition led by the rulers of Megiddo and Kadesh;
Battle of Megiddo (609 BC): fought between Egypt and the Kingdom of Judah;
Battle of Megiddo (1918): fought during World War I between Allied troops, led by General Edmund Allenby, and the defending Ottoman army.

[adam_az]

"Prof. Israel Finkelstein of Tel Aviv University's Institute of Archaeology said Mazar's interpretation should be understood as the latest in a series of "messianic eruptions" designed to bolster the image of David as a ruler of an important civilization, an idea that has lost currency in recent years in part because of Finkelstein's writing against it."

He should change his name.

I suggest "Palestine Finkelstein."

[wildbill]

Why does it have to be the palace of David? Once you bring that in you sound like something of a lunatic"

But Why NOT call it David's Palace? The Professor should use Occam's Razor once in a while.

[Lurking Libertarian]

II Samuel ping.

[Convert from ECUSA]

Ping!

[Dustbunny]

Am I close to how the anti-Semites will view this finding?

Yep, close.

[Salem]

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[VOA]

bump

[VOA]

From what I've picked up, there are plenty of cases in which archaeology
has eventually been show to back up the Biblical account.
E.g., those non-existent Hittites, names of folks like Pilate finally
found in stone, etc.

[Junior]

The Biblical account Israelite conqest of the land of Canaan has been called into question by archaeological findings.