 A
wall mentioned in the Bible's Book of Nehemiah and long
sought by archaeologists apparently has been found, an
Israeli archaeologist says.
A team of archaeologists
discovered the wall in Jerusalem's ancient City of David
during a rescue attempt on a tower that was in danger of
collapse, said Eilat Mazar, head of the Institute of
Archaeology at the Shalem Center, a Jerusalem-based research
and educational institute, and leader of the dig.
Artifacts including pottery shards and arrowheads found
under the tower suggested that both the tower and the nearby
wall are from the 5th century B.C., the time of Nehemiah,
Mazar said this week.
Scholars previously thought
the wall dated to the Hasmonean period from about 142 B.C.
to 37 B.C.
The findings suggest that the structure
was actually part of the same city wall the Bible says
Nehemiah rebuilt, Mazar said.
The Book of Nehemiah
gives a detailed description of construction of the walls,
destroyed earlier by the Babylonians.
"We were
amazed," she said, noting that the discovery was made at a
time when many scholars argued that the wall did not exist.
"This was a great surprise. It was something we didn't
plan," Mazar said.
The first phase of the dig,
completed in 2005, uncovered what Mazar believes to be the
remains of King David's palace, built by King Hiram of Tyre,
and also mentioned in the Bible.
Ephraim Stern,
professor emeritus of archaeology at Hebrew University and
chairman of the state of Israel archaeological council,
offered support for Mazar's claim.
"The material she
showed me is from the Persian period," the period of
Nehemiah, he said. "I can sign on the date of the material
she found."
However, another scholar disputed the
significance of the discovery.
Israel Finkelstein,
professor of archaeology at Tel Aviv University, called the
discovery "an interesting find," but said the pottery and
other artifacts do not indicate that the wall was built in
the time of Nehemiah.
Because the debris was not
connected to a floor or other structural part of the wall,
the wall could have been built later, Finkelstein said.
"The wall could have been built, theoretically, in the
Ottoman period," he said. "It's not later than the pottery —
that's all we know."
Source:
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,314361,00.html?sPage=fnc/scitech/archaeology
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