Image Details
Courtesy Margreet Steiner
On the rocks. According to author Steiner, Kathleen Kenyon excavated 13 layers of boulders—with no terracing beneath—in this area (labeled Square A XXIII) of the Stepped-Stone Structure. Further north, in Area G, excavated by Yigal Shiloh, the Stepped-Stone Structure consists of a stepped mantle supported by a terrace system. Jane Cahill, who is publishing the results of Shiloh’s excavation, believes the mantle and the terrace system were built as a unit. Steiner argues, however, that the absence of terraces in Square A XXIII proves that the stepped mantle and the terraces were not constructed together.