U the oldest city in the world never ceases to reserve surprises. Thousands of years, of history, of people have left endless amounts of evidence that pop up like mushrooms as soon as a hole is made in the ground. The latest discovery, dated more than three thousand years ago, made by chance during the works of a car park, is sensational and rewrites part of the history of this land at the crossroads of cultures.
In the national park of the walls of Jerusalem archaeologists from the Israel Antiquities Authority and Tel Aviv University have just discovered a huge pit, at least nine meters deep and at least 30 meters wide. The discovery was presented at the “Jerusalem Study Experience” conference that took place in Jerusalem.
The new discovery in Israel
Jerusalem was once divided in two by a moat. However, no one had ever managed to find it. In the course of the last 150 years Many excavation attempts have been made to find this pit, and now it has finally been revealed for the first time. The moat probably served to separate the upper city, where the temple and the palace are located, from the lower city and to protect it. Created for extensive mining, the ditch formed a large canal that separated the City of David from the Temple Mount and the Ophel area. The perpendicular cliffs on both sides of the moat made it impassable.
Initially, the purpose of the rock carving that was found was not clear, but further excavations and connections with some past discoveries helped to reveal that it was a line of fortification north of the lower city.
According to the directors of the excavation, Professor Yuval Gadot of the Department of Archeology and Ancient Near Eastern Cultures at Tel Aviv University and Dr. Yiftah Shalev of the Israel Antiquities Authority “It is not It is not known when the ditch was originally cut, but evidence suggests that it was used during the centuries when Jerusalem was the capital of the Kingdom of Judah. almost 3000 years agobeginning with King Josiah. In those years, the moat separated the southern residential part of the city from the dominant acropolis in the upper part of the city where the palace and the temple are located.”
This discovery completely overturns the theory that the moat was located elsewhere in the city. Gadot said: “We examined the previous excavation reports written by the British archaeologist Kathleen Kenyon, who excavated the City of David in the 1960s, in an area located slightly east of modern Givati. It is it became clear to us that Kenyon had noticed that the natural rock sloped towards the north, in a place where it should naturally have risen. He thought it was a natural valley, but now it turns out that he had discovered the continuation of the pit, dug to the west. The connection of the two discovered sections creates a deep and wide pit that stretches for at least 70 meters, from West to East. to the topography of Jerusalem, like Ophel and Millo”.
Dr. Shalev points out that “the date when the pit was cut is unknown. Such major building plans and mines in Jerusalem are generally dated to the Middle Bronze Age – about 3,800 years ago (beginning of the 2nd millennium BC). If the moat was cut during this period, then it was intended to protect the city from the North, the only weak point of the slope of the City of David. However, we are sure that it was used at the time of the First Temple and the Kingdom of Judah (9th century BC), thus creating a clear buffer between the residential city to the south and the upper city to the north .
Ancient Jerusalem was built on a narrow and steep ridge, which spread over the mountains and valleys that divided it into distinct parts, making it difficult to move from one unit to another. Therefore, it is not surprising that many of the construction companies of Jerusalem were related to the need to improve the topography.
According to Eli Escusido, director of the Israel Antiquities Authority “The excavations in the city of David never cease to amaze; Once discoveries are made that shed new light on biblical literature. When if you stand at the bottom of this gigantic excavation, surrounded by huge rough walls, it is impossible not to be filled with wonder and appreciation for those ancient people who, about 3,800 years ago, literally moved mountains and hills.