![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() The remains of the ruins can be seen in the archaeological excavations. “We’ve put the discussion almost to an end - although archaeologists do love to argue,” laughed Uziel, “but it seems like we have the run of the First Temple fortification.”Īccording to the co-directors of the excavation, Vukosavović and the IAA’s Uziel and Ortal Chalaf, “the city wall protected Jerusalem from a number of attacks during the reign of the kings of Judah, until the arrival of the Babylonians who managed to break through it and conquer the city. This lengthy wall section on the eastern slope, put together with previously known sections of Jerusalem fortification in other parts of the city such as the Jewish Quarter’s Broad Wall (45 meters/148 feet long, 23 meters/75 feet thick) means that it “only makes sense” that it was a fortification surrounding the city, said Uziel. ![]() Presumably, then, the argument went, sections of wall found to be still standing must have served a different purpose.īut now, “with the current exposure of the section that almost physically connects between the two, it is clear that there’s a wall that’s running for hundreds of meters,” said Uziel. Part of the reason archaeologists traditionally argued that these existing sections could not have been used for fortification is the fact that the biblical narrative relates that the fortification walls had been shattered by conquering soldiers. The new find puts to rest an ongoing debate among archaeologists over whether the previously known wall sections were indeed used for fortification or instead as support walls for construction on the steep 30-degree slope on the eastern side of the city. Pinpointing a more precise date is “a little too fine-tuned in terms of archaeological data we have,” said Uziel, who added that “hopefully in the future we’ll be able to narrow it down more.” Whether the fortifications were built before the earlier siege of the Assyrians in 701 BCE or later is still unclear. ![]()
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