More than 1,500 ivory fragments were discovered during wet sifting at the Givati Parking Lot site adjacent to the City of David. Following extensive restoration, the team was able to reassemble the skillfully crafted plaques, each measuring roughly 2 by 2 inches and about a quarter of an inch thick. A rare and expensive material, decorated ivory had previously been discovered only in the capitals of powerful Iron Age kingdoms (c. 1200–586 BCE), such as the Assyrian capitals of Nimrud and Dur-Sharrukin, as well as Samaria, the capital of the Northern Kingdom of Israel. Now Jerusalem has joined this […]
