Unearthed City Near Jerusalem Revives Debate on Biblical David

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Unearthed City Near Jerusalem Revives Debate on Biblical David

Dec. 3 (Bloomberg) -- The remains of a walled city over a plain where the Bible claims David killed Goliath; a pottery shard bearing script that experts claim is the oldest Hebrew text ever found; an ancient water tunnel.

Do these support Scripture's story of King David and his empire? It depends on who you ask. Recent archeological finds have reopened the debate on David and Solomon, whose reigns almost 3,000 years ago as chronicled in the Bible left so little physical proof that scholars like Neil Asher Silberman, a University of Massachusetts historian, question biblical accuracy.

Hebrew University professor Yosef Garfinkel, in an interview, said his findings amid the ruins of a fortified city in Khirbet Qeiyafa, a five-acre site 20 miles west of Jerusalem, support the portrayal of David as a ruler of a kingdom strong enough to field an army. The findings, the most important of which were a second city gate and the shard, dispute claims by some scholars that David was a chieftain of a largely illiterate tribe.

The remnants might be the most important archaeological find about David since 1993 when a piece of basalt rock bearing an Assyrian king's inscription about a Davidic dynasty was found in Tel Dan in northern Israel.

Garfinkel's findings might have political and religious overtones. The modern state of Israel sees itself as a revival of the united biblical kingdom of Judea that David created. On the Israeli Foreign Ministry Web site, modern-day borders are drawn over a map of the kingdom of David and Solomon as stated in the Bible. Christians trace Jesus's line to David.

Kingdom of David

"This site is specific to a geopolitical context and that is the kingdom of David," said Garfinkel, sitting in the shade of an olive tree meters from the excavated findings. Radiocarbon tests of four olive pits found at the site date the city to around 1000 B.C., about the time the Bible says David ascended to the throne of the united Judean and Israelite monarchies. "The most logical conclusion is that this is a Judean site," he added.

Aren Maeir, a professor of archaeology at the Bar Ilan University who isn't involved in the dig, said he hasn't seen enough evidence to conclude the city belonged to a Judean tribe linked to David's kingdom.

"Maybe it was another tribe that existed and didn't leave a mark in the Bible that lived here," Maeir said, in an interview.

Goliath's Frontline

If the area was the frontline of a war between David and Goliath, as the Bible claims, couldn't the area have been inhabited by the Philistines? Garfinkel said his team found no pig remnants among the animal bones at the site, further evidence that people who lived in the city were Hebrew. Jewish dietary rules bar pork consumption. The Philistines had no such restrictions.

Discovery of a second gate at the site raised the possibility the city might be the biblical "Sha'arayim," which means "two gates" in Hebrew. The gate, which faces Jerusalem, "lends further credence to the assumption that the city was part of a regional governing system connected to King David," said a statement from Foundation Stone, a Jewish educational group that seeks to link Jews to the land and is helping to finance the excavations.

Some aren't convinced.

Further Digging

Hani Nur el-Din, a professor of archaeology at Al-Quds University in Jerusalem, said further digging might uncover more gates and dispel biblical links to the site.

"The Israeli archaeologists are always trying to link what they found to the Bible and not to other contemporary historical texts," said el-Din.

Then there's the other important finding: a piece of broken pottery inscribed with 50 characters and considered the oldest known example of Hebrew writing. It contains one critical pair of words, "al-ta'as," or "don't do," used exclusively by the Judean tribes, Garfinkel said.

Silberman, the University of Massachusetts historian, said he is troubled by what he sees as an archaeological trend that tries to confirm the Bible with excavated finds.

In January, a team of archeologists in Jerusalem, led by Hebrew University professor Eilat Mazar, found a 3,000-year-old water tunnel outside the walls of the Old City. Mazar said she believed the tunnel is probably the one described in the Bible as having played a role in David's conquest of Jerusalem.

"To find an apple tree in some town in the Midwest doesn't mean the Johnny Appleseed legend is exactly correct," said Silberman, co-writer with Israel Finkelstein of "The Bible Unearthed: Archaeology's New Vision of Ancient Israel and the Origin of Its Sacred Texts."

Garfinkel, gesturing toward a nearby hill where he said the Philistine city of Gath once stood, said he believes his find brings to life the tale of David killing the Philistine giant Goliath with just two stones.

He said he would have agreed with Silberman's views on David before the dig: "Once it was excavated, it changed the whole situation."

To contact the writer on the story: Gwen Ackerman in Jerusalem at http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid= ... xYhKgpSBws