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Was David’s Citadel Discovered in Jerusalem?

A new AP story promotes the claim by Eli Shukrun that he discovered King David’s citadel. For someone familiar with these excavations, the AP account is anything but straightforward. Here’s a simple explanation: Shukrun is identifying the fortifications around the Gihon Spring with the Jebusite fortress of Zion.

What is the Jebusite fortress of Zion? It’s not very clear from the biblical account. Either it is the city as a whole or the king’s palace. Here is the relevant passage from 2 Samuel 5:6-9:

The king and his men marched to Jerusalem to attack the Jebusites, who lived there. The Jebusites said to David, “You will not get in here; even the blind and the lame can ward you off.” They thought, “David cannot get in here.” 7 Nevertheless, David captured the fortress of Zion, the City of David. 8 On that day, David said, “Anyone who conquers the Jebusites will have to use the water shaft [tsinnor] to reach those ‘lame and blind’ who are David’s enemies.” That is why they say, “The ‘blind and lame’ will not enter the palace.” 9 David then took up residence in the fortress and called it the City of David. He built up the area around it, from the supporting terraces inward.

Didn’t Shukrun and Reich excavate this beginning about 15 years ago and concluding about 2 years ago? Yes.

What makes this news? While these fortifications have always been ascribed to the Canaanite inhabitants of Jerusalem from 1800 BC, Shukrun is now making a direct claim that these were protecting the city when David arrived in 1004 BC.

What fortifications did they find? They excavated a massive tower protecting the Gihon Spring, another tower built next to a pool (see photo in the story), and a parallel set of walls leading up the hill.

Is this the same thing as Warren’s Shaft? Not quite. It’s the same idea—David’s men entered the city through a subterranean tunnel—but they believe that the vertical portion of Warren’s Shaft was not known until after the time of David. Instead, Shukrun believes that David’s men came via another section of the multi-part water system.

What does Shukrun’s partner Ronny Reich think? He is more hesitant to apply the biblical name, in part because of the lack of tenth-century pottery found in the excavations. But the walls didn’t disappear for a few centuries and then re-appear, so he suspects that the tenth-century pottery was removed by later inhabitants.

Do you agree? Yes and no. First, I find it quite reasonable that the water system and defensive towers were in use when David arrived. It seems likely that the tsinnor that Joab entered the city through is part of this complex. Second, the water system should not be equated with David’s palace. It’s not clear to me that this is what the article is saying, but the lack of clarity creates confusion. Shukrun is not saying that he found David’s home; he is claiming that he discovered a portion of the city that David conquered. That’s not news and it’s only controversial for those who don’t believe the biblical account of David’s conquest is accurate.

What is behind this recent announcement? The article claims that the visitor center only opened last month. I’m not sure what that means, since the site has been open continuously for the last 15 years, but it may explain why the news reporter chose to do the story. Shukrun is now working as a lecturer and tour guide and free publicity is always good. (If your group is looking for an extra special thing to do in Jerusalem, I would certainly recommend hiring Shukrun to guide you around the City of David.)

What’s the best book to read on the subject? Ronny Reich’s Excavating the City of David is excellent.

Pool Tower excavations with superimposed reconstruction

Tagged Analysis, Discoveries, Jerusalem

Using PLBL with Picasa (Part 1)

(Post by A.D. Riddle)

In a previous post, we made mention of the 17,683 photographs that comprise the Pictorial Library of Bible Lands (PLBL). That is a lot of photographs! And it is a lot of places! To help the user find what they are looking for and to navigate the library, we added some brand-new features such as maps (here and here) and a Site Index, in addition to the already-helpful Image Index, the organization of the library into volumes/regions, and the descriptive filenames for every single photograph.

In this post, we would like to draw attention to a free program named Picasa, by Google. I have found this to be one of the most helpful tools for digging into the hidden corners of the Pictorial Library. Picasa works on both Windows and Mac computers.

Once you download and install Picasa, you can specify what folders you want Picasa to scan (or index). The index database is sort of like an address book—it does not make a duplicate copy of the images, rather it tells Picasa where to go look to find the images. NOTE: Picasa will work best if you have copied the Pictorial Library to your hard drive.

Under the File menu, select “Add Folder to Picasa…” Here you can specify which folders you want Picasa to see (i.e. scan or index) and which ones you want Picasa to ignore. The window looks like this:

Folder Manager window.

Once you have selected the folders you want Picasa to scan, it will begin to index the files. This could take quite some time since the Pictorial Library has lots of images, but Picasa has only to do it once.

In the lower right corner of your screen, a slide-out window like this will appear to notify you that Picasa is indexing the images:

Indexing slide-out window.

When Picasa has indexed the Pictorial Library, the main screen will look something like this:

On the left side, you see a tree diagram of all the folders Picasa has scanned/indexed, and in the main window, you see thumbnails of the photographs in the selected folder. Try double-clicking on one of the image thumbnails. (Once you do, a button will appear in the upper left corner with a blue arrow and the words “Back to Library.”)

At this stage, we can point out the first two benefits of using the Pictorial Library of Bible Lands with Picasa. First, you can quickly browse thumbnails of all the photographs in the entire Pictorial Library. Images will catch your eye that you may not have ever noticed before, or you may find yourself discovering whole portions of the library that were unknown.

Second, in the top right of the Picasa window is a search bar. Thankfully, every single photograph in the Pictorial Library has been given a descriptive filename. When you type in places or other terms, the search engine will look for image filenames and folder names to isolate the relevant photographs—all at Google speed! You can search for a placename, a type of construction (e.g. gate), an object (e.g. lamp), an event (e.g. winnow), and so forth. The search bar looks like this:

Search bar.

Here are the search results for “gate.” You can see on the left side which volumes and folders have images of gates, and in the main window, you can scroll through the thumbnails.

We will discuss one other feature of Picasa in this post. When you search for a name or term in Picasa, the program is not only looking at filenames and folder names, but also “tags.” In a previous post about the Pictorial Library‘s Site Index, we highlighted that index’s usefulness because it allows you to find alternate names for a site that might not have been used in the image filename. The example we used was Ptolemais (Acts 21:7), which does not appear in the image filenames (Acco does instead). Well, all of the names from the Site Index have been added to the photographs as tags, so that in Picasa, you can perform a search for Ptolemais (or Akko or Acre or any of the other names or spellings) and all the photographs of Acco will appear. This makes it quick and easy to find places, even if you are using a different name or spelling!

In the lower right corner there is a row of four buttons that looks like this:

Show/Hide Panel buttons.

The third button has a cream-colored “shipping tag” icon. Clicking on it will reveal all the tags that have been added to a photograph. The Acco photographs have been given the following tags:

Tags panel.

Of course, Picasa is not the only program that can be used to browse and search the Pictorial Library.
Other such programs include Adobe Photoshop Lightroom, iPhoto (for Mac), and ACDSee Pro, as well as perhaps some lesser-known ones such as ShotWell, XnView, FastStone Image Viewer. And there are others.

In a future post, we will highlight two more features of Picasa that make it such an excellent tool for use with the Pictorial Library of Bible Lands. Of course, there is so much more that can be done with Picasa, but we leave that for you to explore and discover.

[Click here for Part 2]

Tagged Techniques, Technology

Lecture at Northwestern University

(Post by A.D. Riddle)

On Wednesday, May 7, at 7:00pm, Karen Radner will give a lecture entitled “Brain Drain: Foreign Experts in the Heartland of the Assyrian Empire.” The lecture will take place at Guild Lounge, Scott Hall, Northwestern University in Evanston, IL.

A description of the lecture given in March reads as follows:

The Neo-Assyrian Empire (9th–7th century BC) routinely used deportations as a key tool of establishing and maintaining control over its holdings. But deportation was by no means a blanket strategy, as the deported population groups were carefully selected to include craftsmen and specialists. Most of them were relocated in the Assyrian Heartland (today North Iraq) which was developed into the unrivalled economic and cultural centre of the Middle East. My paper which will focus on the “brain drain” experienced by the peripheries of the Assyrian Empire, including regions such as Egypt and Iran.

The lecture is free and open to the public. A reception is to follow. More information is here.

Karen Radner has written a number of essays and articles that are helpful for understanding the history of the Neo-Assyrian period, especially the centuries when Assyria came into direct contact with Israel and Judah. (In fact, the Bible mentions by name all Assyrian kings from Tiglath-pileser III through Ashurbanipal.) Radner was part of the team that created “Assyrian Empire Builders” and many of her articles are available through her Academia.edu page, including

“Assyrians and Urartians”
“The Assur-Nineveh-Arbela Triangle: Central Assyria in the Neo-Assyrian Period”
“After Eltekeh: Royal Hostages from Egypt at the Assyrian Court”
“Between a Rock and a Hard Place: Musasir, Kumme, Ukku and Šubria – the Buffer States between Assyria and Urartu”
“Assyria and the Medes”

Weekend Roundup, Part 2

A bust of Alexander the Great has been discovered in a church on the island of Cyprus.

The recent claim that the Polish Center of Archaeology had found the tomb of Alexander the Great in Alexandria, Egypt, is a hoax.

The new museum in Antioch on the Orontes will open soon with the world’s largest display of mosaics.

The “Roads of Arabia” exhibit is now in Kansas City at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art. Until July 6.

The Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology has launched an interactive online 3D object library. Direct link here.

Logos has three new collections available at pre-publication discount for those interested in seals of the biblical world:

Shlomo Moussaieff Collection – 3 volumes by Robert Deutsch and André Lemaire ($55)
Messages from the Past – 2 volumes by Deutsch ($38)
Archaeological Center Iconography and Epigraphy Collection – 4 volumes by Deutsch, Michael Heltzer, and Josef Chaim ($80)

The ASOR Weekly Roundup is here.

HT: Jack Sasson, Ted Weis

Tagged Discoveries, Mediterranean Islands, Museums, New Exhibits, Resources, Tourism, Turkey, Weekend Roundup

Weekend Roundup, Part 1

I’ll start with my favorite article of the week: a review of recent excavations at the base of the Temple Mount’s Western Wall. You already know about the chisel, but you may not have heard about the smooth stone, the use of mortar, or the exposure of the valley floor. The Israel Hayom article failed to check with expert Leen Ritmeyer, but you can see his reaction on his blog.

Wet sand is the trick for cutting the pulling power in half when dragging pyramid stones across the Egyptian desert.

One chapter at a time, Ferrell Jenkins is taking us through a series in Visualizing Isaiah. This week he arrived at Isaiah 40 and he shares a couple of shepherd illustrations.

Now online: Leen Ritmeyer’s recent lecture, “Does the Byzantine Church at Khirbet el-Maqatir Reflect the Sacred Architecture of the Temple in Jerusalem?”

The Wall Street Journal summarizes events in the last few weeks that have led scholars to recognize the Gospel of Jesus’ Wife as a modern forgery.

The BBC has a video inside the new replica of King Tut’s tomb. Not everyone is pleased.

Tagged Egypt, Forgery, Jerusalem, Technology, Temple Mount, Weekend Roundup

Pictorial Library of Bible Lands New Features: Site Index

(Post by A.D. Riddle)

In May of 2012, a major revision of the Pictorial Library of Bible Lands was announced on this blog.
It was a significant moment in the life of BiblePlaces.com, and the culmination of years of work. The number of volumes increased from 10 to 18, and the number of total photographs increased from 5,854 to 17,683. Apart from these statistics, however, many other improvements were made and some brand-new features were added, all of which make the collection more user-friendly.

We have already described the maps which debuted in the revision of the Pictorial Library (see part 1 and part 2). In this post, we want to highlight another brand-new feature: the Site Index.

The Site Index is a pdf document which provides (1) the primary name for each site that is used in the image filenames, (2) the volume and region where the site is located in the Pictorial Library, (3) a list of alternate names and spellings for the site, and (4) latitude and longitude coordinates for the site.

The importance and usefulness of this new feature can best be illustrated with some examples.

Perhaps you are teaching or studying Acts 21, and you need some photographs of Ptolemais (Acts 21:7), but you do not find any images with Ptolemais in the filename. With the Site Index you can quickly find Ptolemais, and see that it is found on Volume 1: “Galilee and the North”, in the folder/PowerPoint “Plain of Asher.” The Old Testament name of the city is Acco, and that is the name used for all of the image filenames. You will also see other historical names for the site such as Tell el-Fukhkhar and Acre, which might become important for doing further research. (In a future post about Google’s free program Picasa, we will mention another very easy way to find sites by other names, such as Ptolemais.)

Entry for Acco/Ptolemais in the Pictorial Library Site Index.

Another example concerns placenames which are shared by more than one site. For example, the Pictorial Library contains photographs of two sites in Israel named Achzib, one located on the Plain of Asher and the other in the Judean Shephelah (foothills).

Entries for Achzib in the Pictorial Library Site Index.

Similarly, there are two sites in the Pictorial Library named Apollonia, one in Greece (Acts 17:1) and the other in Israel. The Site Index can help the user sort out these kinds of things, and make sure you are looking at the right site.

Entries for Apollonia in the Pictorial Library Site Index.

Finally, the coordinates for the site can be copied and pasted (simply, without any need to format or edit them) into a map program, such as Google Maps or Google Earth, so you can find where the site is located. (We will return to this last topic in a future post about using the Pictorial Library with Picasa.)

Note: The Site Index is a distinct document from the Image Index, both of which are included in the Pictorial Library of Bible Lands.