It is interesting that
it was abandoned so quickly. It would
also have been convenient for other groups.
More likely it retained its signaling function and gave up its
administration function as simply far too exposed. Hill tops look great until practical tactics
alter that assessment.
Regardless it is an excellent
window into that slice of time.
As David founded the kingdom
it is reasonable that such initial structure would have gone up to be soon
abandoned for better choices. So yes it
may really be a structure commissioned by David.
King David-Era Palace
Found in Israel, Archaeologists Say
By by
Megan Gannon, News Editor | LiveScience.com – Sat, 20 Jul,
2013
Archaeologists
say they've uncovered two royal buildings from Israel's biblical past,
including a palace suspected to have belonged to King David.
The
findings at Khirbet
Qeiyafa — an fortified hilltop city about 19 miles (30 kilometers)
southwest of Jerusalem — indicate that David, who defeated Goliath in the
Bible, ruled a kingdom with a great political organization, the excavators say.
"This
is unequivocal evidence of a kingdom's existence, which knew to establish
administrative centers at strategic points," read a statement from
archaeologists Yossi Garfinkel of the Hebrew University and Saar Ganor of the
Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA).
The
IAA announced the finds as a seven-year long excavation at the site is wrapping
up. The government agency and the Israel Nature and Parks Authority have halted
the planned construction of a nearby neighborhood, hoping to make the site a
national park
Garfinkel
has previously said Khirbet Qeiyafa could be the site of Shaaraim, a biblical
city associated with King David in the Bible. Shaaraim means "two
gates" and two gates have been found in the fortress ruins. Others
researchers, meanwhile, have claimed this site might be Neta'im,
another town mentioned in the book 1 Chronicles in the Old Testatment.
Prior
radiocarbon analysis on burnt olive pits at the site indicated that it existed
between 1020 B.C. and 980 B.C., before being violently destroyed, likely in a
battle against the Philistines. Much of the palace was further wrecked 1,400
years later when a Byzantine farmhouse was built on the site.
The
archaeologists found a 100-foot-long (30-meter-long) wall that would have
enclosed the palace, and inside the complex they discovered fragments of
ceramic and alabaster vessels, some of them imported from Egypt. The
researchers say the building was strategically located to overlook the city and
the Valley of Elah.
"From
here one has an excellent vantage looking out into the distance, from as far as
the Mediterranean Sea in the west, to the Hebron Mountains and Jerusalem in the
east," the archaeologists said. "This is an ideal location from which
to send messages by means of fire signals."
The
excavators also found a pillared building measuring about 50 feet by 20 feet
(15 m by 6 m) that was likely used as an administrative storeroom.
"It
was in this building the kingdom stored taxes it received in the form of
agricultural produce collected from the residents of the different villages in
the Judean Shephelah," or Judean foothills, the archaeologists said.
"Hundreds of large store jars were found at the site whose handles were
stamped with an official seal as was customary in the Kingdom
of Judah for centuries."
Fantastic!
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