Water, Water Everywhere, Will Archaeologists Drink?

The water channel behind rock-cut-rooms
was dated 600 years before King David

On the eastern slopes of Mount Moriah in the City of David, a Middle Bronze Age water system, remnants of a reservoir and a water channel was carbon dated to 1515 BCE. No other evidence of water supply to rooms of the rock-cut-temple was found, yet despite the absence of evidence, some archaeologists still insist that the rock-cut-temple should instead be dated to the Iron Age. 

The evolution of Mount Moriah 

Over simplification and context myopia, distorts academic understanding at this complex, ancient location. However, the video below offers the most comprehensive contextual explanation. Before viewing, it's important to illustrate the passage of water as it once flowed to the rooms, more than 3500 years ago (follow the Area U/C map below). 

Room 2 (with tethered animal for slaughter) 

Room 1 (with impression of sacrificial altar on platform)

Water passage. Room 2 (center-foreground)
 Room 1 (upper right-background)

 

Area U water system leading to
 Area C rooms (1 and 2) also in next image

The video explains that the rock-cut-temple was active up until 1500 BCE (Middle Bronze), then buried, out of site until 700 BCE (Iron), exposed at that time, reburied during wall construction and finally excavated 13 years ago. From this Middle Bronze period through the early Iron Age there is an absence of evidence at this installation. 

The next video explains more about the archaeological detail relative to the context of the temple that existed 700 years before the Temple of Solomon on Mount Moriah and why King David never discovered it.