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First Person: New Life for an Old Theory

David’s general may have infiltrated Jerusalem via the water tunnels, after all

By Hershel Shanks

The article by Ronny Reich and Eli Shukron (“Light at the End of the Tunnel—Warren’s Shaft Theory of David’s Conquest Shattered”) on ancient Jerusalem’s water system promises to be one of the most carefully read and widely cited articles we have ever published—because of its implications for King David’s conquest of Jerusalem. Yet the authors do not pursue those implications. As they say in the last paragraph of their article, “Whether any part of this water system may be associated with the tsinnor referred to in the Bible, we leave to others.” Never one to decline an invitation like […]

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Endnotes

1.

Terence Kleven, “Up the Waterspoutmd;How David’s General Joab Got Inside Jerusalem,” BAR 20:04.

2.

Dan Gill, “How They Met,” BAR 20:04.

3.

See Margreet Steiner, “It’s Not There: Archaeology Proves a Negative,” BAR 24:04. But see Jane Cahill, “It Is There: The Archaeological Evidence Proves It,” BAR 24:04 and Nadav Na’aman, “It Is There: Ancient Texts Prove It,” BAR 24:04. Most people believe that Cahill and Na’aman have the far better side of this debate. Also important are the comments of Professor William Schniedewind in a letter to the editor in the November/December 1998 BAR (see Queries & Comments, BAR 24:06). Professor Schniedewind powerfully brings to bear the weight of historical geography on the issue: Why would people in the tenth century abandon such an excellent site, with a rare water supply, natural defenses and nearby agricultural land, a site that had otherwise been continuously occupied for 5,000 years?