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YAEIR Z, COURTESY OF THE CITY OF DAVID ARCHIVE

THE BUSTLING CAPITAL of the Kingdom of Judah, Jerusalem of the seventh and early sixth centuries BCE was a prosperous city, well connected to the larger Near East. The city’s administrative district in the City of David, just south of the ancient Temple Mount, accommodated the royal palace and other official state institutions. Among them was a magnificent residence and reception hall (Building 100) recently unearthed at the Givati Parking Lot excavation (see arrow). This unprecedented discovery sheds light on the daily life and exquisite tastes of Jerusalem’s ruling elite just before the Babylonian destruction of 586 BCE.