I love archeology, especially the kind that coincides with biblical times. The Middle East is ripe with such treasures, and of particular interest to me, those that are found in Israel. Archeologist Elieat Mazar* has made an amazing discovery. Could she have found King David’s palace? For an in depth look at the Large Stone Structure she found and he hypothesis, click here. (This picture is from our trip in 2008 and I’m not sure what it was of.)
When we visited Israel in 2008, we visited the famous Stepped-Stone Structure (see picture on the right), which Mazar suggests could have supported the Large Stone Structure she discovered. Could we have been standing near a portion of a support system near the palace of King David? (The picture below is the view looking away from the Stepped-Stone Structure. David’s view of the city?)
I had heard of Mazar’s findings before our trip, and once there had asked our guide if he could point out David’s palace to us. He claimed there was no such find, but perhaps he just did not want to take the time to explain such things to us. Or maybe he didn’t agree with Mazar’s claims. Or maybe he had a completely different reason, but I now believe we were within walking distance of the archeological dig. It is entirely possible that Randy took pictures of the site without our realizing what it was.
Mazar has a number of pictures in her article that I can’t get to upload here. I highly encourage you to click the link and read about her findings. She has pictures of the Large Stone Structure, 0ne of a clay jar from Cyprus, another of a bulla, which is a seal that once sealed a document, long since disintegrated.
I got a glimpse of the cover of Bathsheba this week, which I will share here as soon as I can, but to give you a hint, there is a bit of David’s palace in the background. Of course, we cannot know exactly what that palace looked like, but this picture seemed so real to me. I wanted to step onto its stage and walk back into real-time history. I would love to see this series made into a movie one day – to take me one step closer to being there. Ah history! More romantic to imagine than it was to live it, no doubt, but how cool it would be to have been there, to see the structure David built, the tall columns, the gilded furnishing, the rich tapestries, the carved cedar–I imagine it was simple 
yet ornate.
I’ve had a few emails from readers that have told me my stories are taking them there to live with the biblical characters and imagine with me how it might have been. This warms my heart to know that the longing I had to experience David’s story on this level is now doing that very thing for others. How good God is! I can’t wait to someday know what it was really like. Perhaps God will let us view the Bible as it happened in living color! 🙂
In the meantime, did Eliat Mazar discover King David’s palace in Israel, just outside the original Jebusite city? Read the article and decide for yourself. She’s got my vote yes!
*Eilat Mazar teaches at Hebrew University’s Institute of Archaeology. In addition to her work in the City of David, Mazar digs at the Phoenician site of Achziv. She has been publishing the final report of the excavations south of the Temple Mount that were led by her grandfather, Benjamin Mazar.
