PHOTO BY BILL SCHLEGEL / BIBLEPLACES.COM
Have archaeologists been looking in the wrong place for the Millo, one of Jerusalem’s most important and ancient biblical monuments? We believe the Millo—a structure that the Bible lists alongside the Temple of Yahweh and the royal palaces of David and Solomon (1 Kings 9:15)—was not a constructed foundation or massive retaining wall, as many scholars have argued, but rather a monumental fortification that guarded the city’s most precious resource: water.
Indeed, the biblical writers credit some of Judah’s most famous kings, including David, Solomon, and Hezekiah, with building and renovating the Millo. It was also the setting for the assassination of King Joash of Judah in 796 BCE.
But what exactly was the Millo, and where was it located?
The Bible gives us some important clues: First, it was a significant, imposing, and apparently enclosed royal structure (2 Kings 12:20) located along the periphery of the City of David that was somehow associated with but distinct from Jerusalem’s fortifications (2 Samuel 5:9; 1 Kings 11:27). Second, though it may have already existed prior to Jerusalem becoming the capital of the Judahite kingdom (2 Samuel 5:8–9), the Millo was periodically repaired and renovated by various kings of Judah through the late eighth century (2 Chronicles 32:5), after which it appears to have gone out of use. Third, the monument was closely related to the meaning and significance of its somewhat unusual Hebrew name, the Millo.
BALAGE BALOGH / ARCHAEOLOGYILLUSTRATED.COM
“Millo” comes from the Hebrew word mil’, which means “to fill.” Even before modern times, interpreters understood that the Millo had something to do with a “filling” (see sidebar, opposite). As such, some suggested that the Millo was a large religious area “full” of people or an ancient meeting hall “filled” with crowds. Neither view proved correct, but the growth of modern archaeology focused attention on other types of “filling” that may have been designated by the term Millo.
Starting in the early 20th century, scholars began to realize that the City of David was the ancient core of Canaanite and Judahite Jerusalem. Although not as elevated or defensible as Jerusalem’s western hill, the City of David possessed the perennial Gihon Spring. In the search for the biblical Millo, scholars began to assume that the “filling” had something to do with the stone or earthen “fills” that supported the walls and fortifications of the City of David. Buttressing their claims, they argued the term is similarly used in Assyrian, where it can refer to a filled depression or the construction of a terrace wall. With this assumption in hand, some scholars began to connect the Millo with specific segments of Jerusalem’s fortifications.
Kathleen Kenyon’s excavations of Jerusalem in the early 1960s revealed a large wall along the eastern slopes of the City of David that led down to the Kidron Valley. Kenyon suggested that this terrace wall—which fortified Jerusalem’s steep eastern slope—was the biblical Millo.1 This suggestion was accepted by many scholars, and it seemed that a final consensus had been reached.
Then, in the aftermath of the Six-Day War, Yigal Shiloh’s excavations in the City of David exposed portions of the “Stepped Stone Structure”—a large stone-filled revetment wall along the upper slopes of the Kidron, likely built in the 11th century BCE. Shiloh’s discovery prompted archaeologist Lawrence Stager to argue that the Stepped Stone Structure was actually the biblical Millo. Stager’s suggestion remains accepted by many.2
Yet the assumption that the Millo has something to do with the stone and soil “filling” of fortifications leaves a dirty taste in one’s mouth. Indeed, if one searches the Hebrew Bible for things that are “filled,” there are numerous examples of people filling things with water or other liquids (e.g., Exodus 2:16; Judges 6:38; 1 Kings 18:33), but only two occurrences of something being “filled” with soil (Genesis 26:15; 2 Kings 3:25). Perhaps more important, why would biblical Jerusalemites get excited about one of their great kings building a retaining wall, even one as nice as the Stepped Stone Structure? Why would a king brag about constructing something that would have been buried and covered over with vegetation or even other buildings?
We believe it is much more likely that the Millo relates to “filling” with water, which, in turn, supports a new and more plausible identification for the monument.3 In Akkadian, the term malu or malum usually refers to filling containers or canals with water. In Ugaritic, the same term is used in the Epic of Kirta when women are “filling” (mmlat) jars from a spring. Similarly, when Rebecca meets Abraham’s servant at the well in Haran, the Bible says she went down to the spring and “filled (from ml’) her jar” (Genesis 24:16). Finally, Song of Songs 5:12 reads, “His eyes are like doves beside streams of water, bathed in milk, sitting beside a pool full of water” (authors’ translation)—the “pool full of water” (ml’t) is from the same root as Millo.
If we take these examples together, it seems probable that the biblical Millo refers to a fortified location within the City of David where the inhabitants of Jerusalem filled their water containers. Fresh spring water was one of the most important assets for any ancient city. A protected spring would obviously have been a place of major significance for its inhabitants.
But did Iron Age Jerusalem have such a location for safely securing water? Recent archaeological evidence shows that it did.
ZEV RADOVAN / BIBLELANDPICTURES.COM
In the late 1990s and early 2000s, Ronny Reich and Eli Shukron excavated a massive “Spring Tower” with an accompanying “Fortified Passage” that guarded and enclosed the waters of the Gihon Spring. The archaeologists originally determined that the tower was constructed during the Middle Bronze Age (c. 2000–1550 BCE) and that its purpose was to protect and allow safe access to the spring’s source—a small cave at the base of the hill from which water naturally flowed. Much of this system remained in use throughout the Iron Age, although it did undergo a variety of changes, especially with the construction of Hezekiah’s Tunnel in the late eighth century.
Around a decade after the Spring Tower’s discovery, additional excavations by Joe Uziel and Nahshon Szanton exposed some of the tower’s lower courses, along with abundant evidence for building activity in the ninth and eighth centuries, during the time of King Joash of Judah (c. 836–796 BCE). The archaeologists also exposed the tower’s northeastern corner and, based on radiocarbon evidence, found that it, too, dated from the ninth century, almost a millennium later than the Middle Bronze Age!
This suggests that the Spring Tower was either initially built in the Middle Bronze Age and then rebuilt during the ninth century, or that it was first constructed only in the Iron Age to strengthen the spring’s ancient fortifications.4 In any event, it appears that the Gihon Spring’s fortification system was built and rebuilt over the course of several centuries until the construction of Hezekiah’s Tunnel in the late eighth century.
NICOLE OT TAVI / ISRAEL ANTIQUITIES AUTHORITY
The Spring Tower and its accompanying fortifications are by far the most monumental structures yet found in the City of David that predate the Roman period. This massive complex is the type of construction worthy of any Judahite king’s boast. The biblical writers would not have blushed in putting the Spring Tower (understood as the Millo) in the same list as the Temple of Yahweh and the palace of King Solomon (1 Kings 9:15). The complicated archaeology of the Gihon’s fortifications indicates that there was need to regularly repair the walls that gave access to and protected Jerusalem’s water supply. Repairs are clearly visible in several locations along these fortifications.
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Interestingly, the construction (or reconstruction) of the Spring Tower as an enclosed building in the ninth century fits nicely with the “House of Millo” that is mentioned as the setting for the assassination of King Joash (2 Kings 12:20). During this period, Jerusalem was visited by several outside threats, most notably the Aramean king Hazael who, on the heels of conquering the powerful Philistine city of Gath, extracted a huge tribute from the king of Judah (2 Kings 12:18). Perhaps the construction or complete renovation of the Spring Tower during the late ninth century was meant to protect against these threats.
TODD BOLEN / BIBLEPLACES.COM
Finally, there is the connection between the Gihon Spring and the “filling” meaning of the name Millo. From the time of Canaanite Jerusalem to the construction of Hezekiah’s Tunnel in the late eighth century, Jerusalemites would have been intimately familiar with the spring fortifications, regularly visiting the Gihon Spring to fill their water containers. In our view, the Gihon Spring’s fortifications—namely the Spring Tower and the Fortified Passage—are the Millo, the place of the filling of water containers.
When we combine the monumentality of the Gihon’s fortifications with the common need of people to access the spring’s water, we see that the Millo was one of Jerusalem’s most iconic settings during the time of the kings of Judah. The writers of the books of Samuel and Kings did not waste this setting in the tales of their favorite kings. They claimed that David included the Millo in Jerusalem’s fortifications (2 Samuel 5:9) and that King Solomon was anointed and coronated there, amid the uncertainty of an attempted coup (1 Kings 1:38–39). During his reign, Solomon finished his father’s job of building the Millo (1 Kings 9:15, 24), a monumental project that would have proclaimed the king’s prestige to every water carrier.
TODD BOLEN / BIBLEPL ACES.COM
Writing centuries later, the Chronicler indicates that King Hezekiah strengthened the Millo and built the water tunnel that we now call Hezekiah’s Tunnel (2 Chronicles 32:4–5). However, after the reign of Hezekiah, the Millo is not mentioned again in the Bible. Instead, the Pool of Shiloah (or Siloam) became the main source of water for the city (Isaiah 8:6; Ne-hemiah 3:15; John 9:7–11). Perhaps the Millo lost its significance with the emergence of the Pool of Siloam via Hezekiah’s Tunnel—one royal building project eclipsing another.
HERSHEL SHANKS
According to the Bible, the Millo was one of Jerusalem’s most recognizable monuments. For most of the last two centuries, explorers and archaeologists have been searching for it, filling books and journals with their theories. In light of new evidence, we believe the search has finally ended—at the Spring Tower, the place where ancient Jerusalemites found a secure source of water during the time of the biblical kings.
