In the Second Book of Samuel, it is written that King David captured Jerusalem, then under Jebusite control, using a water shaft to penetrate the city’s defenses.
Now, an Israeli archaeologist believes he has uncovered the water tunnel as well as King David’s legendary citadel, the Associated Press reported.
Biblical archaeologist Eli Shukron, formerly with the Israel Antiquities Authority, told the AP that his dig uncovered a narrow shaft where water flowed and where those living in Jerusalem came to draw water. The path of the tunnel led to the wall surrounding the city, the point where he believes David’s forces gained access to Jerusalem.
Shukron told the AP that in his estimation no other structure in the area matches the citadel that David captured in his conquest.
The AP reported:
Shukron’s dig, which began in 1995, uncovered a massive fortification of five-ton stones stacked 21 feet (6 meters) wide. Pottery shards helped date the fortification walls to be 3,800 years old. They are the largest walls found in the region from before the time of King Herod, the ambitious builder who expanded the Second Jewish Temple complex in Jerusalem almost 2,100 years ago.
The fortification – built 800 years before King David captured Jerusalem from the Jebusites – was believed to have protected the city’s access to water.
Shukron said that his findings match clues in the biblical narrative about David’s conquest of the city from that particular location.
“This is the citadel of King David, this is the Citadel of Zion, and this is what King David took from the Jebusites,” Shukron said. “The whole site we can compare to the Bible perfectly.”
But another archaeologist who used to work with Shukron said that more pottery shards from the era of King David’s reign during the 10th century BC should have been found at the site in order to place the find more definitively during that era.
“The connection between archaeology and the Bible has become very, very problematic in recent years,” archaeologist Ronny Reich said.
Shukron said he found two pottery pieces dating close to that time which he believes is due to the continuous use of the area and that old pottery pieces would have been cleared out in the interim years.
“I know every little thing in the City of David. I didn’t see in any other place such a huge fortification as this,” said Shukron.
Doron Spielman, vice president of the nonprofit Elad Foundation which oversees the archaeological park in the City of David told the AP, “We open the Bible and we see how the archaeology and the Bible actually come together in this place.”
Shukron has been excavating in the City of David – which is located in east Jerusalem – for two decades. While Israel views Jerusalem as a united city that is its capital, Palestinians claim east Jerusalem as their future capital. Virtually all of the holy sites, including the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, the Western Wall and Temple Mount, are located in the Old City which is in the eastern part of the city.
Shukron was in the news last month after reporting that he believed he found a chisel used in the construction of the Second Temple, a discovery the Israeli media described as “extraordinary” and “astonishing.”