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A pool of Heshbon? Two volunteers stand next to the plastered eastern wall of the 20-foot-deep, Iron Age II reservoir at Hesban, possibly one of the “pools of Heshbon” (Song of Solomon 7:4). Monumental in its construction—cut from bedrock and completed with ashlar masonry—the reservoir had a 500,000-gallon (2 million-liter) capacity. Located near the top of the hill, the reservoir could not have been filled by rainfall alone, but would have required additional water from other sources. The fill from the reservoir yielded hundreds of Ammonite potsherds from the sixth and fifth centuries B.C.E., and several of the sherds bore writing (see photos,). Additional sherds, found in association with the reservoir’s ashlars, dated the pool’s original construction to the ninth or eighth century B.C.E.