Important Davidic City Discovered

September 30, 2013

King David’s Palace One of the buildings is identified as David’s palace and the other structure served as an enormous royal storeroom. Around the palace’s perimeter were rooms in which various installations were found—evidence of a metal industry, special pottery vessels, and fragments of alabaster vessels that were imported from Egypt. The palace is located in the center of the site and controls all of the houses located at a lower elevation. From here, one has an excellent vantage point looking out into the distance, from as far as the Mediterranean Sea in the west to the Hebron Mountains and Jerusalem in the east. This is an ideal location from which to send messages by means of fire signals. Unfortunately, much of this palace was destroyed about 1,400 years later when a fortified farmhouse was built there in the Byzantine period.

A pillared building, about 15 meters [49.2 ft] long by 6 meters [19.7 ft] wide, was exposed. According to the researchers, it was in this building the kingdom stored the taxes it received in the form of agricultural produce collected from the residents of the area. Hundreds of large storage jars were found at the site whose handles were stamped with an official seal as was customary in the Kingdom of Judah for centuries.

Various artifacts found The palace and storerooms are evidence of state-sponsored construction and an administrative organization during King David’s reign. “This is unequivocal evidence of a kingdom’s existence, which knew to establish administrative centers at strategic points,” the archaeologists say. “To date no palaces have been found that can clearly be ascribed to the early tenth century BC as we can do now. Khirbet Qeiyafa was probably destroyed in one of the battles that were fought against the Philistines about 980 BC.”

Source: Excerpts of an article by Edgar Asher, Ashernet

Photo Credit: Photos by Ashernet/ IAA