The History of Iron Age Jerusalem: A Ceramic Approach

Abstract

Although the City of David in Jerusalem has been explored for the past 150 years, the complex nature of its stratigraphy and ceramic finds has precluded a reconstruction of its settlement history. This article presents an analysis of new, well-stratified, pottery assemblages, which makes it possible to construct an up-to-date stratigraphic Iron Age sequence for the site and to compare it to well-dated sites, such as Lachish and Arad.

Keywords:

• Jerusalem
• City of David
• Iron Age pottery
• Givʿati Parking Lot
• Area E
• Gihon Spring

Acknowledgements

This research was supported by the Shvidler Grant for Archaeological Research in Jerusalem and Its Surroundings and by the Israel Antiquities Authority. I am indebted to D. Ben-Ami, I. Sharon, J. Uziel and Y. Gadot for their help, comments and invaluable suggestions. I would like to thank D. Ben-Ami, Y. Tchekhanovetz, J. Uziel, N. Szanton and A. De Groot, as well as the Israel Antiquities Authority Publications Department and the Hebrew University’s Qedem monograph series for granting me the right to reproduce some of their pottery plates in this analysis. Last but not least, I would like to thank the directorate of the Israel Antiquities Authority, and in particular, Y. Baruch, A. Reʾem and Y. Zelinger, for their help and encouragement. Finally, the entire team of the Giv ʿati excavations—D. Ben-Ami, Y. Tchekhanovetz, S. Tal, F. Kobrin, A. Zilberstein, N. Rom, D. Gutreich, A. Shatil and H. Ben-Dov—offered unlimited support and friendship. I am grateful to them all. All the drawings in Figs. 3–9 are courtesy of the Institute of Archaeology of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and of the Israel Antiquities Authority. Permission to present drawings from the Area E excavations was given by A. De Groot (The Hebrew University of Jerusalem). Permission to present drawings from the Giv ʿati Parking Lot excavations and the Gihon Spring excavations was given by D. Ben-Ami and J. Uziel (Israel Antiquities Authority)

Notes

1 This paper is based on my M.A. thesis, titled ‘Phasing in the Iron Age Period in the City of David’, submitted to the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (Dan-Goor 2015). The thesis was written under the supervision of Dr. Doron Ben-Ami and Prof. Ilan Sharon.

2 This article was submitted prior to the new publication of their excavation: Reich and Shukron 2021.

3 But note also its appearance in Tel Beth-Shemesh Level 3 (Bunimovitz and Lederman 2016: Fig. 9.71: CP pln).