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NEWS &
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FEATURES |
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MASSIVE
ANCIENT WALL UNCOVERED IN JERUSALEM |
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Jerusalem:
An archaeological dig in Jerusalem has turned up a
3,700-year-old wall that is the largest and oldest of
its kind found in the region, experts say.
Standing 8 meters (26 feet) high, the wall of huge cut
stones is a marvel to archaeologists. “To build straight
walls up 8 meters ... I don’t know how to do it today
without mechanical equipment,” said the excavation’s
director, Ronny Reich. “I don’t think that any engineer
today without electrical power [could] do it.”
Archaeologist Eli Shukron of the Israel Antiquities
Authority added, “You see all the big boulders — all the
boulders are 4 to 5 tons.” The discovered section is 24
meters (79 feet) long. “However, it is thought the
fortification is much longer because it continues west
beyond the part that was exposed,” the Israel
Antiquities Authority said in a news release.
It was found inside the City of David, an archaeological
excavation site outside the Old City of East Jerusalem
on a slope of the Silwan Valley. The wall is believed to
have been built by the Canaanites, an ancient pagan
people who the Bible says inhabited Jerusalem and other
parts of the Middle East before the advent of
monotheism.
“This is the most massive wall that has ever been
uncovered in the City of David,” Reich and Shukron said
in a joint statement about the find. It marks the first
time “that such massive construction that predates the
Herodian period has been discovered in Jerusalem.”
It appears to be part of a “protected, well-fortified
passage that descends to the spring tower from some sort
of fortress that stood at the top of the hill,”
according to the joint statement. The spring “is located
in the weakest and most vulnerable place in the area.
The construction of a protected passage, even though it
involves tremendous effort, is a solution for which
there are several parallels in antiquity, albeit from
periods that are later than the remains described here.”
Such walls were used primarily to defend against
marauding desert nomads looking to rob the city, said
Reich, a professor at the University of Haifa. “We are
dealing with a gigantic fortification, from the
standpoint of the structure’s dimensions, the thickness
of its walls and the size of the stones that were
incorporated in its construction,” the joint statement
said.
Water from the spring is used by modern inhabitants of
Jerusalem. “The new discovery shows that the picture
regarding Jerusalem’s eastern defenses and the ancient
water system in the Middle Bronze Age 2 is still far
from clear,” Reich said. “Despite the fact that so many
have excavated on this hill, there is a very good chance
that extremely large and well-preserved architectural
elements are still hidden in it and waiting to be
uncovered.”
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This page
is updated on Sep 18, 2009 |
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PRAISE THE ALMIGHTY
10 YEARS CELEBRATION
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