Massive fortification excavated near City of David

The Israel Antiquities Authority has reported finding a massive 26-foot-high wall in ancient Jerusalem—what later became the City of David. According to Arutz Sheva,

The double-wall was uncovered in a dig run by the Israel Antiquities Authority (iaa) and sponsored by the City of David Association. Prof. Roni Reich of the University of Haifa, who is directing the dig together with Eli Shukrun of the iaa, told Israel National News, “Based on clay pottery fragments found at the site, it is assumed to have been built by the Canaanites some 3,700 years ago, during the period known as the Middle Bronze Age.”The fortifications are 8 meters (over 26 feet) high, and served to protect those walking down to a spring in what is now the National Park, around and at the foot of the walls of Jerusalem. Some 24 meters of the double-wall’s length have been uncovered, but it is apparently even longer, waiting to be uncovered in the future.”This is the most massive wall ever discovered in the City of David,” Reich said. “It is tremendously large in terms of its dimensions, thickness, and size of the rocks used. It appears that they protect a walkway used to walk down from some tower atop the hill towards the spring.”Fortifications on such a massive scale indicate that Jerusalem became, at this time, a city-state of its own that was able to deploy and gather the resources to build them. “A small village would not have been able to build such a structure,” Reich said.”This discovery shows that our picture of Jerusalem’s eastern fortifications, and of its water supply, from these periods is far from complete,” Reich said. “Though so many people have dug this hill, there is still a strong chance that large architectural elements are still well-hidden and waiting to be discovered.”

A picture of the wall along with the Associated Press report can be viewed here.