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The construction of the mammoth Stepped Stone Structure, on the eastern slope of the City of David, took place around 1200 B.C.E., a time of significant change in Jerusalem—when the Israelites began to emerge in Canaan. Rising more than 65 feet above the Kidron Valley, the structure consists of at least seven terraces. But though the impressive installation suggests the existence of a significant settlement in the 12th century B.C.E., Steiner clings to a less glamorous (some would say bizarre) interpretation of the structure’s purpose: It was built, she says, to fill in a gully.