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Bouky Boaz

TYRED OUT? According to the Bible, the Phoenician king Hiram of Tyre “sent envoys to David with cedar logs, carpenters and stone masons; and they built a palace for David” (2 Samuel 5:11). Eilat Mazar uncovered evidence of Phoenician culture, including this delicate Cypriot juglet and ivory inlays, during her excavation of the Large Stone Structure. As Avraham Faust points out, however, the layer with these finds come from a later phase of the building—not its original construction. Faust agrees with Eilat Mazar’s cousin, archaeologist Amihai Mazar, that the Large Stone Structure was likely built by the Jebusites in the Iron Age I. When David conquered Jerusalem in the early Iron Age IIa, he may well have adapted and renovated the building as his palace/fortress, but it is unlikely that he built it.