photo credit: Tzvi Joffre
Posted on 09/06/2020 6:48:10 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
A "once in a lifetime" find is how the City of David described three immaculately preserved 2,700-year-old decorated column heads, or capitals, from the First Temple period that indicate a connection to the Davidic Dynasty.
Archaeologists from the City of David did not expect to find anything this special when they began digging near what is now the Armon Hanatziv Promenade.
"I'm still excited," said Yaakov Billig, an archaeologist with the City of David who began exploring the Armon Hanatziv area about 30 years ago.
He was working at the site when the sound of a spade scraping a stone slab surprised him. After a careful excavation, archaeologists at the site uncovered the capital, whose style is found in royal and official buildings in the kingdoms of Israel and Judea during the First Temple period.
"I thought, 'Yaakov, maybe you've been in the sun too long.' But I looked again, and it was still there," Billig told The Jerusalem Post.
While lifting the capital out of the ground, they were stunned to find not only that the stone was decorated on both side, but that there was yet another identical capital directly underneath it. A third identical stone was found nearby.
The stones seem to have been hidden intentionally due to their seemingly careful placement. It may have been the only thing that saved them from being destroyed, as the rest of the site was "just about leveled," with many of the surviving stones being recycled in other buildings, Billing said. Why the stones were so carefully hidden may never be known, he added.
(Excerpt) Read more at jpost.com ...
Thanks for the link goes out to numberonepal, bitt, and grey_whiskers.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/3881113/posts?page=239#239
I wonder if anyone has thought about exhuming the coprolites in the toilet to find out if they were from King David or part of the Davidic line.
Archeology will really be getting to the nitty gritty if a worthwhile find or artifact is found in that toilet
DoodooDNA, good idea.
It’s also the image on the five shekel coin.
I’ve often joked that you can’t dig an outhouse without finding biblical evidences
When I lived in Israel it was apparent that many colleges do a few weeks a year at a site... it is kind of a way of making a dig last forever.
We went to a site for boy scouts camping and it was an amazing place. Roman style columns from three different mines in reds, whites and grey. Mosaic stones by the thounds. A marbel slab with two different Christian crosses on front and bck.
Most intriguing, especially as these pillars seem to have been deliberately hidden away.
Interesting, there's doubt about whether it is actually portrayed on the Arch of Titus.
I hadn't heard that. It is supposedly documented as pictures of the Temple treasures after the Roman sack of Jerusalem. It appears to be a large Menora.
My somewhat involved study of the graphic of the Menora appears to show images carved on the base. That would seem unlikely on the original.
Evidence of Biblical history just keeps getting better.
David must have been a boob fan
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
