The location of a royal castle that may have belonged to the biblical King David will be revealed to the public on Friday next week, Israel National News reported.
“The find is a decorated carved stone known as ‘a proto-aeolic capital’ that is connected to a column,” INN explained. “Unlike all of the other proto-aeolic capitals found in Israel, this one is not separate from the column, but connected to it. The weight of the column and capital are estimated to be about five tons.”
A prominent feature of the monumental architecture of the First Temple period is the Proto-Aeolic capital. As described on the Jewish Archaeological Park website, this unique type of stone is characteristic of palaces and public buildings in ancient Israel and Judah, continuing into the Persian period.
Binyamin Tropper of the nearby Kfar Etzion Field School identified the site while descending into a cave in the southern Jerusalem region, newspaper Makor Rishon said. The stone “apparently indicates that an entire temple or castle is buried beneath it.”
Several authorities in Israel had known about the find but seemed to have reason to keep the information from the public temporarily, according to Makor Rishon, following an interview with the school’s director, Yaron Rosental.
The find, however, could “mark a breakthrough in the perception of the period of Kind David and his son, Shlomo [Solomon], and of the entire Judean Kingdom,” the newspaper stated.
“We appear to have a complete castle here,” Rosental said.
The Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) “confirmed to Makor Rishon that the find is an important one that appears to date to the period of Judean kings,” according to INN. The subject, however, is “sensitive” and “requires serious and responsible handling.”
The Kfar Etzion Field School will officially disclose the location next Friday, following a joint Jewish-Arab tree-planting event “along the proposed route of the section of the security barrier that is to be constructed nearby,” INN continued.
The planned route would leave the find inside Palestinian-controlled territory, INN added.
Furthermore, “the IDF points out that the barrier is the last section of the security fence that remains to be built for protecting Jerusalem. It has also offered to assist the IAA in moving the proto-aeolic column into Israel.”
Author: United with Israel staff
Date: Jan. 7, 2014
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