Endnote 2 – First Person: The Bible as a Source of Testable Hypotheses

The accusation is made on page 267 of Reich’s book. Reich and Shukron had discovered a wall on the eastern slope of the City of David (their Area J) that they dated to Iron II. Mazar, however, suggested “in more than one article.” that the wall dates to the Middle Bronze II period. At this time, Reich and Shukron had not yet published the potsherds that in their view would date the wall. Mazar, Reich charges, “lacked the patience to wait for the publication of the sherds we discovered a few years earlier.” Thus, “Mazar’s proposal has no basis.” To speculate in this way, as Mazar did, was in Reich’s view “unethical.” Reich and Shukron answered Mazar’s contention that the wall is Middle Bronze II in “The Date of City Wall 501 in Jerusalem,” Tel Aviv 35 (2008), p. 114, where they present the pottery sherds in support of their case. “An archaeologist challenging the date of a find as presented by the excavators must come forward with concrete evidence upon which to anchor his/her interpretation,” they say. “Mazar had no such data when she suggested that the wall was constructed in the Middle Bronze Age II.”