Using radiocarbon dating techniques on more than a hundred organic samples from four different excavation sites in the City of David, scientists have developed a comprehensive “absolute chronology” for Jerusalem from about 1200 BCE until its destruction by the Babylonians in 586 BCE. Their research illuminates many longstanding questions experts have asked about the ancient city’s history. For instance, it was long thought that the city’s westward growth occurred primarily during the time of Hezekiah, after the fall of the Northern Kingdom in 722 BCE, when refugees from the north flooded into Jerusalem. But thanks to this new evidence, it […]
