Archaeologists find evidence of an Iron Age siege of Jerusalem

[Peter1469]

Archaeologists find evidence of an Iron Age siege of Jerusalem

So this is evidence of the Babylonian invasion 2,600 yrs ago that lead to the Jewish exile to Babylonia. Pretty cool.

In the 6th century B.C., the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar II, fearful that the Egyptians would cut off the Babylonian trade routes to the eastern Mediterranean region known as the Levant, invaded and laid siege to Jerusalem to block them. His army destroyed the temple the Hebrew king Solomon built there, and forced the city’s elite to exile in Babylonia.So began the Babylonian Exile or Captivity, an event that shaped modern Judaism. A new archaeological discovery puts a rare physical stamp of authenticity on an event described in the Hebrew Bible.


Israeli and American archaeologists have found evidence just outside Jerusalem's old city that apparently supports the Biblical description. In an area called Mt. Zion, which is also known as Western Hill, they found the remains of a home of someone the Bible calls a “Big Man,” one of those probably sent to exile. He would have had a beautiful view of Solomon's Temple, the holiest place for the Hebrews, and he may have left in a rush.


The dig that uncovered the home is directed by Shimon Gibson, an archaeologist at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, and Rafi Lewis, a senior lecturer at the Ashkelon Academic College and Haifa University in Israel. The excavation has been in process for more than a decade.


“Training staff is quite exhaustive,” Gibson said. “It is difficult because it is so complicated.”


Unlike usual digs where depth equals time -- the deeper you go the farther back in time you are -- in Jerusalem the ground has been worked by inhabitants so that older material could be found above newer material.


In and around the ruins of the house, the archaeologists found an ash layer mixed with half a million shards or pieces of pottery, arrowheads typical of the Babylonian arsenal and a piece of gold and silver jewelry -- all typical of that time. Pottery shards and ash are usually found in the trash, but Gibson pointed out no one keeps arrowheads and jewelry in a trash bin. Someone probably left in a hurry.

Read the rest of the article at the link.

[Mister D]

There is extrabiblical evidence for both of Nebuchadnezzar's sieges of Jerusalem but the physical finds are pretty cool.

[Peter1469]

There is extrabiblical evidence for both of Nebuchadnezzar's sieges of Jerusalem but the physical finds are pretty cool.

Agree.