Endnote 3 – Did Eilat Mazar Find David’s Palace?

Finkelstein recently attempted to defend his criticism (Israel Finkelstein, “The ‘Large Stone Structure’ in Jerusalem: Reality versus Yearning,” Zeitschrift des deutschen Palästina-Vereins 127 [2011], pp. 1–10). While accepting that some elements might be early (in contrast to his first publications), he claims that the evidence for the early dating is limited to half a room. In his discussion Finkelstein ignores much of the data, including, for example, the Iron I crucible layer which abuts the massive W20—this means that W20 should also be dated early. He also challenges the connection between the Large Stone Structure and the Stepped Stone Structure.