King David as Builder

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Everyone knows that King Solomon was a great builder. What we learn from the Bible (see 1 Kings 9:15–20) has been confirmed by the archaeologists’ spade—especially at Hazor, Megiddo and Gezer (three sites specifically mentioned in the passage in Kings), each with its distinctive Solomonic gate.

Much less is known about King David’s building activities, although the Bible does suggest that he made some repairs in Jerusalem after he captured it and, with the help of Phoenician craftsmen, had a palace built for himself (see 2 Sam. 5:9–11, 7:2).

However, Professor Yohanan Aharoni of Tel Aviv University has recently attributed two impressive city gates to the building activities of King David, both at sites which are currently being excavated. The first is at Tell Beer-Sheva which is being excavated under Professor Aharoni’s direction, and the second is at Tel Dan, which is being excavated under the direction of Dr. Avraham Biran who until recently served as Director of the Israeli Department of Antiquities.

Both the Beer-Sheva and Dan gates have the same basic plan, which suggests that they were constructed at the same time. Each is approached from a right hand corner requiring a left turn to reach the central entrance. (See illustration). The central entrance of each is flanked on either side by two gate rooms. Each is attached at the inner gate to massive walls.

If these gates and their associated fortified walls are attributable to King David, this helps to explain a curious fact about 014the description of King Solomon’s building activities already referred to in 1 Kings. All of the cities which are named as having been built by Solomon are internal cities. True, they are all strategically located. For example, Hazor, Megiddo and Gezer are strategic points on the Via Maris (the Way of the Sea), the ancient route from Egypt to Mesopotamia. Gezer, also controls the approach to Jerusalem, as do other sites mentioned in the passage in 1 Kings. But no border city is mentioned as having been built or fortified by King Solomon. Why?

The answer, according to Professor Aharoni, is that the border cities had already been built up and fortified by David—and the excavations at Dan and Beer-Sheva prove his point. (The classic description of the borders of Israel—from Dan to Beer-Sheva—goes back at least to the time of David (see 2 Sam. 24:2)). The Bible does not refer to Solomon’s building and fortification of Israel’s border cities because he didn’t do it. David did.

However, Professor Aharoni’s dating of the gates of Dan and Beer-Sheva to King David’s time has not been universally accepted. Dan’s excavator himself, Dr. Biran, dates the Dan gate to the divided monarchy and the reign of Jeroboam, rather than to the time of King David. Perhaps all that can be added at this point is that the disagreement only emphasizes how difficult it sometimes is to date an excavated structure. It is often difficult to know which layer of earth that a wall or other structure is associated with. And it is sometimes also difficult to date the pottery in the layer of earth which dates the structure’s construction. In this case, Dr. Biran dates pottery sherds found under the pavement of the Dan gate to the late tenth-century, about the time of Jeroboam. However, Professor Aharoni reminds us that these pottery forms cannot yet be precisely dated and may well go back to a period fifty years or more earlier, i.e., to David’s time.

So there matters stand. We can only await more definitive evidence to prove or disprove Professor Aharoni’s intriguing theory of King David’s building activities.

(For further details, see Y. Aharoni, “The Building Activities of David and Solomon,” Israel Exploration Journal, Vol. 24, p. 13 (1974)).

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New Archaeological Journal

Tel Aviv, a new journal of the Tel Aviv University Institute of Archaeology has recently begun publication under the editorship of Professors Yohanan Aharoni, Anson F. Rainey and David Ussishkin. All articles are in English.

The new magazine will appear quarterly. Subscriptions may be ordered from the Israel Exploration Society, P.O.B. 7041, Jerusalem. Annual subscription is $6.00.

Everyone knows that King Solomon was a great builder. What we learn from the Bible (see 1 Kings 9:15–20) has been confirmed by the archaeologists’ spade—especially at Hazor, Megiddo and Gezer (three sites specifically mentioned in the passage in Kings), each with its distinctive Solomonic gate.