Novel Insights About Torah Through Archaeology!

Over the past 20 years I have been closely involved and have become intimately familiar with excavations at the City of David. My particular interest is the Stone Temple at the oldest site, on the eastern slope of Mount Moriah, adjacent to and above En Shemesh (Sun Spring):- Ancient Jerusalem's original water source, which is also known as Gihon. I wrote this to outline the reasons why this  discovery is a phenomena for Torah, Israel and the world.

As exciting as the stream of discoveries has been, nothing has inspired me more than the “aha” moments that enlightened my study and understanding Tanach (24 books of the Bible). With each new discovery there is a certain light that is cast onto often mysterious details.

Take for example the golden bell Eli Shukron discovered in the rainwater channel under the pilgrims road, not far from the Temple Mount. It begged for a new interpretation to describe the adornments on the hem of the High Priests garment. Instead of 36 alternating golden bells, between 36 woven, wool shaped into pomegranates, which has become the mainstream understanding, the golden bell Eli discovered is more likely 1 of 72 pomegranates. The golden, pomegranate shaped bell with internal clapper served as the inner support for an outer purple and blue woven sheaf in colors of the pomegranate. The way we read the holy language of Torah is important, so when Torah says “bell and pomegranate” and after we find these discoveries we obtain new perspectives to interpret and understand the language Torah uses to describe what we now physically see.

Previous followed by New

72 Golden Pomegranate Bells

When I first encountered the Stone Temple I immediately felt its importance, its authenticity and inherent holiness. My first response to David Be'eri and Yehuda Maley (who live in the City of David) was; "If this is what I think it is, you're going to have to move out of your homes". As I got to understand its complexities, I knew the knowledge that had been buried for thousands of years in this time capsule would take time, perhaps decades to unlock its mysteries and understand the magnitude of this discovery. I also discovered that archaeologists report facts, sometimes using language that biases outcomes.

During the early years of our excavations I tried to imagine what it was originally like at a time, when little else existed and few people lived around the mountainside. How did it evolve into the archaeological complexity that remains in their time bound layers? From the outset of our subterranean quest I had a hunch that this was not a Canaanite temple of idolatry, the artifacts that were progressively being revealed left me with no doubt. I needed to explain each of these, but how did so much earth accumulate above it and who knew about it? 

I recently found this amazing 1875 photo looking over the ground under which we were crawling in the video. It shows the extent of burial under thousands of years of accumulated dirt from the natural slope of the mountain. Filip Vukosavović, who led some of the more recent excavations, once told me that on a slope like this if unattended for 5-10 years, the slope and the Stone Temple would have been buried  depending on wind, rain and other natural conditions.

When I arrived on the scene, Eli Shukron and Ronny Reich had recently excavated the double wall of the Spring House construction leading to the valley floor. It arrived immediately adjacent to the springs source. I found it strange that double wall more closely aligned with the south side of the spring rather than directly over it. Therefore, from the Kidron Valley floor, the imposing double wall seemed to be less about dominating over the water source, more like a barrier that blocked north-south passage along the bedrock, while forming a gateway, or entrance into the tunnel system adjacent to and higher than the spring.  

Morning sun shines on En Shemesh (Sun Spring) 

Double Wall

Eli Shukron made a statement shortly after the double wall discovery had been excavated: "This is the citadel of King David, this is the Citadel of Zion, and this is what King David took from the Jebusites".

2 Samuel 5:7-9
וַיִּלְכֹּ֣ד דָּוִ֔ד אֵ֖ת מְצֻדַ֣ת צִיּ֑וֹן הִ֖יא עִ֥יר דָּוִֽד׃
But David captured the stronghold of Zion; (expanded) it is (became) the City of David.

I wandered, where was the "Zion" King David was seeking when he captured its Citadel or Stronghold?

The prophet Samuel goes on to tell that David's men captured the Jebusite water channel, that he stayed in the place they captured and expanded the stronghold or citadel of Zion into the City of David. Therefore, this must be a defining principle for geo-locating the general proximity of Zion. 

 

Archaeology confirms that in the few hundred years before the Citadel of Zion became the City of David most people were living along the valley floor around the water at En Shemesh, but they progressively migrated to safety at the the top of the ridge and carried their daily water to the top. Given a population between 200 growing to 1000 people living on top of the ridge, water demands would have kept water carriers busy. 

2 Samuel 5:8

וַיֹּ֨אמֶר דָּוִ֜ד בַּיּ֣וֹם הַה֗וּא כׇּל־מַכֵּ֤ה יְבֻסִי֙ וְיִגַּ֣ע בַּצִּנּ֔וֹר וְאֶת־הַפִּסְחִים֙ וְאֶת־הַ֣עִוְרִ֔ים (שנאו) [שְׂנוּאֵ֖י] נֶ֣פֶשׁ דָּוִ֑ד עַל־כֵּן֙ יֹֽאמְר֔וּ עִוֵּ֣ר וּפִסֵּ֔חַ לֹ֥א יָב֖וֹא אֶל־הַבָּֽיִת׃ 

On that occasion David said, “Those who attack the Jebusites shall reach (in) the water channel (TZiNoR) and [strike down] the lame and the blind, who are hateful to David.” That is why they say: “No one who is blind or lame may enter the House.”

The internal water supply route runs through a long dry tunnel, elevated 20 meters above the spring, quarried through the mountain bedrock. It was used to carry water to the end of the tunnel where it was hauled up another 20 meters (see the haul point in the blue box - image below) to the Water Gate that exited closer to the top just north of and above the Stone Temple site. Archaeologists called the tunnel Warrens Shaft System, but its name often leads to an incorrect characterization of the tunnels use. Instead, Tanach teaches us that by commandeering the tunnel, Davids troops gained control of the water supply route, which brought the entire population under David's control.  

Route along dashed (earlier) line dotted line (alternative).

Iron Age King David, must have been compelled to come to this seemingly insignificant hill after he had reigned for 7 years as Judean King in Hebron. So, why did he want to control the lower section of Mount Moriah, before the temple mount summit was incorporated and why did he foresee this would become the nation's capital? Whatever it was, he must have known and been compelled by some previous tradition or cultural history that inspired his decisive actions?

Commentators on Genesis often attribute activities on Mount Moriah, during the post flood, Middle Bronze Age (MBA), to Malchi-Tzedek (considered to be Shem, Noah's son), Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. The image below depicts, from the valley, what the discovery made by Eli Shukron in 2010 may have looked like back in the MBA. 

Middle Bronze Age Depiction

In the following video, Eli Shukron details features of the Stone Temple  (its definitely worth watching). 

One of the most inconspicuous features of the Stone Temple is its westerly orientation, which contradicts every other pre-first temple cultic site in Israel. It's important because priests, in all other forms of cultic worship in Israel would face the rising sun when sacrificing on the altar. Therefore, the idol worshippers altar would sit between the priest and the sun. The raised platform of the Stone Temple, on which altars would be constructed from time to time, requires priests turn their backs to the rising sun to make the sacrificial offering. Priests facing west is prescient for Israel's Tabernacle as well as first and second temples that adopted the same practice as was later prescribed by Torah (The Old Testament Bible). 

The room with  the raised platform and liquids channel served as the base for many altars that would have been constructed from local stones gathered at or around the site on the day sacrifice was to be performed. It resembles a highly specific feature extrapolated in the oral teachings of Torah. The Gemara (Zevachim 53b) asked: What is the reason that there was no base on the southeast corner of the altar? The question related to the second temple altar platform, perhaps also considering the first temple. Similarly, in the Stone Temple we see that the southeast corner of the altar platform is 'open' where the others, abutting bedrock walls are 'closed'. The map below was produced by Rashi to demonstrate the Gemara's argument pertaining to the second temple.

Top right map shows tribal boundary for Judah and Benjamin

Notice the liquids channel runs east from the southeast corner. This appears to follow the description from the vision of Ezekiel 47:1 " I was led back to the entrance of the temple, and I found that water was issuing from below the platform of the temple—eastward, since the temple faced east—but the water was running out at the south of the altar, under the south wall of the temple."

Southeast corner with no base intersects boundary from
En Rogel at En Shemesh and out to the desert

Map by Ronny Reich.

Here we have another prescient example, in archaeology that predates the first temple by 600+ years, of a practice that was later recorded in Torah and practised by the nation of Israel. In Kabbalah, southeast represents the Divine confluence of Kindness and Mercy described in ancient Biblical theology. But, there is much more in this place of worship that obeys traditional Jewish laws antithetical to the structures of cultic idol worship. The images below show the remnant of an olive oil press that was once used to extract oil from crushed olives and to keep the oil in its pure state, connected to the bedrock. This is not a production press which would flow the pressed oil out of the bedrock cavity into vats. Here the oil was scooped out in stone vessels to maintain purity and used on the altar or for anointment.  

The next set of images of the room that was used for processing slaughtered animals demonstrates (from left to right) that small animals were tethered to the edge of the bedrock wall. According to Torah law, animals for slaughter must be no younger than 8 days and must be unblemished, therefore young animals are more likely to meet the unblemished condition, which would explain why the location to tether animals was made under adult knee height. 

To process animal offerings water must also be available, in the very least, to wash the bloody bedrock after slaughter and preparation. Initially this water may have been carried from the spring up the eastern facing slope, in front (east) of the Stone Temple, as evidenced by the carbon dating of a wall (image below). The lower sections were dated to between 1820 and 1750 BCE which overlaps the time that Abraham (according to Codex Judaica) summarized in biblical chronology: 

Biblical Date 1948 Abraham (son of Terach) was born. -1813 BCE

Biblical Date 2018 THE COVENANT (BRIT BEIN HABETARIM) WITH ABRAHAM. -1743 BCE

Biblical Date 2048 Abraham circumcised himself and his son Yishmael. -1713 BCE

Without any in-situ artifacts, other than the matzevah or standing stone, the entire complex could not be accurately dated. Therefore, the archaeologists referred to Cambridge University and Weizmann Institute to carbon date organic matter from mortar in walls, ash layers on the bedrock and a water channel at the rear of the Stone Temple, that once provided water to priests serving in the temple. The next video outlines the uncanny overlap of the samples found in the water channel samples with Biblical Jacob.

Biblical Date 2185 Jacob went to Charan. -1576 BCE

Biblical Date 2192 Jacob married Leah and Rachel. -1569 BCE

Biblical Date 2205 Jacob left Charan. -1556 BCE

Biblical Date 2208 Benjamin was born. -1553 BCE

Biblical Date 2216 Joseph was sold. -1545 BCE

Biblical Date 2238 JACOB (AND HIS FAMILY) WENT TO EGYPT. -1523 BCE

The context of the Stone Temple continued to develop for me to the point that it became overwhelmingly clear this was the main temple the patriarchs frequented including where Jacob experienced his famous “stairway to heaven” dream and set the matzevah or standing stone to make a covenant with God. 

Almost 1000 years after Isaac and Jacob, when the eastern defensive wall of King Uzziah was excavated, it became clear that the flimsy matzevah that was purposely surrounded by soft sand had been preserved. Around 2700 BCE the entire Stone Temple complex that had been completely buried under the natural accumulation of sand and debris, probably resembled the 1875 photo. 

Eastern Defensive Wall

The wall builders, seeking a solid bedrock foundation for their massive wall probed the soft sand penetrating the voids of the Stone Temple rooms below. When they eventually built their significant defensive wall in front of the matzevah and over the bedrock of the Stone Temple rooms, they understood this holy artifact needed special care. A bulla (royal seal) found in front (east) of the Stone Temple with the name “Meshulam” indicates that a royal instruction was unsealed at the site of the wall construction.

After the wall construction was completed Jerusalem was challenged by the Assyrian army and around 100 years later the city was destroyed by the Babylonian Army and all its people were forced into exile. The city lay empty for more than 70 years and the eastern slope was abandoned. Neglected, natural sand, dirt and debris covered the Stone Temple, the defensive wall, the double wall and En Shemesh, the spring. It lay buried until the spring was excavated during the second temple construction because the waters that flowed from the spring kept running through the lower water tunnel that King Hezekiah built and it filled the recently excavated Shiloh or Siloam Pool at the southern end of ancient Jerusalem, The City of David.

As I have described, The Stone Temple discovery is completely consistent with Biblical heritage and with Jewish practices that have continued through millennia. The sacred site of patriarchal worship is the likely reason that inspired King David to move his kingdom, but we now know, from the carbon dated samples, he did not find the Zion he was seeking. Instead he built a personal altar on the summit of Mount Moriah and declared it the national altar. 

Now that we have found David’s Zion what would the patriarchs and David want of us and absent any other definitive altar location can we revert to the original?

Finding Zion!

A decade of persistent effort by the El Ad foundation, The City of David and archaeologists from Israel's Antiquities Authority has produced sensational results on the eastern slope of Jerusalem's Mount Moriah. More than ever before, evidence and context have reduced events to a narrow range of comprehensible theories. Now, we are left to ponder the most perplexing question of all...

The Gihon Spring, near the Kidron Valley floor was ancient Jerusalem's only perpetual water source. It sustained Paleolithic, Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age populations who lived in proximity to the valley until around 4000-3800 years ago. In the Middle Bronze Age, commensurate with Biblical Noah, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob populations migrated 50+ vertical meters further up the steep east facing slope to live on the mountains' ridge. For these occupants, access and secure passage of water, from the spring became crucial to successful survival. 

Mount Moriah, one rock

During the past 15 years several key discoveries have informed our knowledge of the eastern slope: 

1. Cave K 

Recent excavations identified a tightly packed, richly layered floor that should reveal information about the historical and chronological use of the cave. Work, presently underway indicates a usage spanning terminal Iron Age back to the Bronze Age. The cave was an important accommodation for occupants of the lower mountain. The cave exit/entrance, on its north-west end once connected with Passage XVIII that runs west, connecting Cave K with a rock-cut-temple around 10 vertical meters higher up the slope. 

North Entrance

Level crossing, from Cave K over the lower bedrock once provided convenient access to water from the Gihon Spring.

2. Passage XVIII

The remnant of this bedrock passage climbs up from the roof level of Cave K to the rock-cut-temple, due west, at a steep grade 10m further up the eastern face. The Cave K end of the passage appears to have been quarried or fissured and breaks lower level access to passage XVIII. Organic materials, found in mortar of a wall built in this passage was carbon dated to 3700-3500 years ago. This evidence aligned with similar materials discovered in a drainage channel along the west boundary immediately behind the rock-cut-temple. The organic material indicated that construction on the passage had occurred sometime during this period and provides evidence of its use during the middle bronze age.

3. Rock-Cut-Temple

Excavation to expose Rock-Cut-Temple

This is arguably the most fascinating complex of Mount Moriah's eastern face. The temple cut in the  rock contains all of the necessary elements for worship, similar to the practices that followed in King Solomon's First Temple as widely document in ancient Jewish texts. The features include (looking West); 

Matzevah in the cabinet (left) - Altar Platform, liquids channel (right)

Matzevah

Altar platform and liquids channel

A Matzevah or standing stone was forbidden by Biblical law for use in any Jewish worship. Therefore, the practice ceased around 3300 years ago, some 300 years before King David arrived on Jerusalem's Mount Moriah. Prior to that, use of a matzevah was permitted as referred in Biblical Jacob and has been widely reported in archaeology. However, this humble matzevah is unique in all Israeli archaeology. The altars' liquids channel and altar platform once supported a stone altar on which animal sacrifices were offered.

To the left (south) of the matzevah 'V' cuts in the bedrock used for slaughtering, processing and preparing animal sacrifices. The room also contains a sunken mortar for crushing grains. To the right (north) of the altar platform an olive press for preparing pure olive oil, of the highest grade to be used for anointing and preparing baked sacrificial offerings.

North over the olive press

Looking north over the oil press, passage XIX is terminated by Wall 108 (see map below). The northern wall W108, of the double wall was excavated and dated along with W109 to the Middle Bronze Age. It is still unknown as to why the double wall was built and this remains one of the more perplexing elements of the temple complex.  

4. Wall 108 and 109

The double wall complex was one of the most challenging constructions in the City of David and certainly on the eastern face. Massive boulders stacked to a height of up to 5 meters had to be hauled up, or lowered down the slope and precisely placed. It was a serious construction requiring a labor force greater than the size of the entire local population of the mountain. It is presently anticipated that the passage between the double walls was sealed, a ziggurat type structure that led worshipers on an ascent to passage XIX where they would turn left (south) and proceed to the rock-cut-temple complex. 

A recent discovery (see image below) confirmed that the double walls abutt passage XIX, but that W108 (north, top of picture) extended through the passage further west blocking north-south access. W109 meets the passage and would have ensured foot traffic, between the walls, was guided to the south along passage XIX toward the rock-cut-temple complex.  

Looking North, at the top, large steps
between W108 (north) and W109

5. Defensive wall 

As confirmed by surviving organic material, 1000 years after the rock-cut-temple were last used, toward the end of the iron age, a defensive city wall was built on the eastern face of the mountain. The wall was constructed over the rock-cut-temple and soft sand (discovered in 2011) was used to fill the spaces between the wall and the bedrock to protect the matzevah from damage by the heavy rocks of the wall. That decision, most likely by King Uzziah or Hezekiah, preserved the matzevah for 2600 years until it was discovered in-situ by archaeologist Eli Shukron in 2011. However, the wall constructors cleared the rock-cut-temple artifacts leaving only a small amount of Middle Bronze age pottery in the room adjacent to the altar.

Significant scale wall (looking north).
 Top right of the wall intersects W108.

6. Question

If the rock-cut-temple was last used around 3500 years ago (the time of the surviving organic matter, particularly the remnant discovered in the drainage channel) it is conceivable the entire rock-cut-temple lay buried under earth and silt, unused for almost 1000 years before Hezekiah's wall was built, 2600 years ago in the lead up to the destruction of the first temple. The wall constructors would have exposed the rock-cut-temple, its artifacts and the matzevah causing the King at that time to decide what next? We now know that the defensive wall was constructed over the rock-cut-temple, but the constructors preserved the matzevah indicating respect and honor. If Hezekiah was king at the time and believed the matzevah were an object of idolatry his constructors would certainly have destroyed it.

On this evidence we must ask whether King David, who was compelled to this mountain, ever discovered the rock-cut-temple that existed 700 years before he became King?

2 Samuel 5:7–9 tells us; David conquered the “fortress of Zion that is the City of David,” after which he is said to have built “from the Millo inward”. The fortress David captured (thought to be the Spring Tower, see map above including W108 and W109) gave him full control over the precious water supply lines inward to the Gihon Spring. That's all it took to conquer the city 50m up the hill that was dependent on the Spring. 

Did the 700 year legacy of priesthood and ancestral history, at the rock-cut-temple motivate David to capture and locate Zion? Did he ever find it?

Hezekiah's Dilemma

Hezekiah's Seal

I was surprised to read a sequence in Talmud, Sanhedrin (95-97) that connects several mysteries related to contraction of land, suspension of the sun's orbit, Jerusalem and a messianic prophecy. 

First in the sequence, Avishai saved King David's life. (95a:8) But, Tanach and midrash inform us that after King David's sinful census 70,000 in Israel's north were killed, the next day, on the summit of Jerusalem's Mount Moriah, when the angel of death was poised to destroy Jerusalem, Avishai was sacrificed to pacify the angel and prevent Jerusalem's destruction. At the foot of the angel of death David offered his personal sacrifice and that site would become the future altar of Jerusalem's first temple. This story is reflected in the 'sword over Jerusalem', words that are said each year at Passover tables the world over.  

Next, Talmud steps the reader back ~500 years to the time Jacob returned and stumbled on 'the place' his fathers prayed (95b:1). By this, midrashim and commentaries we know 'the place' to be the Beit El of Abraham and Jacob, the Akeida (binding) of Isaac, which according to Jewish law will be the place of the future temple altar.

Then, the reader steps forward ~1000 years to learn of Hezekiah's failure to obtain his Messianic designation after Sancheirev attempted to destroy Jerusalem (95b:14). In other places we learn that Hezekiah' failed because he did not immediately attribute the saving of Jerusalem to Divine intervention. Then, Sancheirev was killed by his sons (age 64 - c.681BCE) and Nebuchadnezzar seized control of the Babylonian-Assyrian alliance. Around 100 years after Sancheirev's failed attempt, Nebuchadnezzar dispatched Nebuzaradan and destroyed Jerusalem (96b:4).

Among the brutal detail of Jerusalem's destruction we learn Merodach-Baladan, who preceded Sancheirev, as king of Babylonia, (96a:10) wrote a letter to encourage Hezekiah shortly after he recovered from a near-fatal illness. Young Nebuchadnezzar was the scribe to Merodach-Baladan, but did not draft nor agree with the content of the letter. Hezekiah lived another 15 years (died aged 52 c.687 BCE), around the age of 37 he would have received the letter. 

Finally the Talmud continues a detailed conversation about the Messianic redemption following a sabbatical year (97a:1-10).

In a recent archaeological discovery, the defensive city wall that Hezekiah built to protect Jerusalem from the wrath of Sancheirev's doomed army was uncovered, but it presented an intriguing puzzle about the date of its construction. 

We asked whether the onset of Hezekiah's illness coincided with the city wall construction? If so, the constructors would have commenced during his early 30's, c.707 BCE and discovery of rock-cut-rooms, in the path of the wall construction may have presented a serious dilemma? Carbon dated evidence suggests, for more than five centuries the rock-cut-rooms lay buried below meters of dirt and debris supporting their spontaneous discovery that probably delayed construction until a decision about their treatment was reached. 

Why the dilemma? Well, one thing is for sure, the flimsy matzevah discovered in (2010 by Eli Shukron), in the rock-cut-rooms was preserved by Hezekiah's constructors and remains a declaration of its holy, non-idolatrous status. If not they would certainly have destroyed it, instead they preserved it in soft sand and built the defensive city wall alongside it to the east. We will never know what other  Bronze Age artefacts may have also been discovered at that time (Eli Shukron found some), but we see, from Hezekiah's actions the matzevah was important.

The fact the rock-cut-room temple complex preceded Solomon's temple surely would have prompted Hezekiah to ask why Solomon's temple was built in a different location, further up the mountain? How would Hezekiah, the one designated for messianic status answer that question? Was this 'the place' Jacob stumbled, where he dreamed of a stairway to heaven, set his matzevah (pillar), the place spanning time back to Akeida and beyond to Malchi-Tzedek and the original temple of Jerusalem? 

Walk in Hezekiah's shoes and ponder the depth of his dilemma.

 

2900 Year Jerusalem Mystery Solved!

The most significant and immovable artifact at the City of David has been protected by a steel locked box since its discovery in 2011. Understanding its origin, especially in context of its location has been aided by the recent discovery of a small 2600 year old seal that once belonged to a man named Nathan, servant of King Josiah, mentioned in 2 Kings 23:11 of the Bible.  However, the geophysical location of the artifact and recorded events surrounding Nathan, servant of King Josiah are trans-formative in resolving the artifacts interpretation. Three verses of chapter 23 are pivotal:

23:4 And the king commanded Hilkiah the high priest and the priests of the second rank and the guards of the threshold, to take out of the Temple of the Lord all the utensils that were made for the Baal and for the asherah, and for the entire host of the heaven, and he burnt them outside Jerusalem in the plains of Kidron, and he carried their ashes to Bethel.

23:11 And he abolished the horses that the kings of Judah had dedicated to the sun, from the entrance of the house of the Lord until the chamber of Nathan-melech the eunuch who was in the outskirts, and he burnt the sun chariots with fire.

23:15 And also the altar that was in Bethel, the high place that Jeroboam the son of Nebat-who caused Israel to sin-had made, also that altar and the high place he demolished, and he burnt the high place; he pulverized it and burnt the asherah.

Eli Shukron, the archaeologist who discovered the protected artifact, known as a standing stone or matzevah was prompted by a question; “Eli- is there any chance the stone was from Genesis (the one Jacob erected)?” 

As you can see @7:40 minutes into the video Eli answered; "..yes, maybe Jacob was here, but this is not the stone of Jacob because we are talking about Jerusalem".

300 years before King Josiah and Nathan - melech the eunuch, King Jeroboam erected the altar at Bethel on the border of the territory of Benjamin and Ephraim. During the ceremony a prophet was sent to announce its future destruction by a man named Josiah. These events of chapter 23 capture the moment the prophecy came true when King Josiah destroyed the altar of Jeroboam at Bethel (north of Jerusalem). Ever since this time, the location of the original Beit El, of Jacob has been lost to the nation of Israel.

Jeroboam's prevailing geologic continues to plague the modern nation. Eli, like many others is confused because modern Bethel (~10 km north of Jerusalem) considered to be named by Jacob is not the location Jacob erected the standing stone at the place he named Beit El. Miraculously, the recent discovery of Nathan - melech the eunuch's seal comes to resolve this longstanding error.

We read in 23:11 that the chamber of Nathan -melech was on the outskirts of the temple, therefore  it may have been the very location his seal was discovered in the Givati excavation shown @0:37 into the next video.

Remarkably, the dispute between Bethel north of Jerusalem and Beit El of Jerusalem is now resolved because the only reference in the entire 24 books of the Bible that can possibly have resolved this conflict is verse 23:4. Indisputably this is the area outside Jerusalem (the tiny ancient city on Mount Moriah) and the plains of the Kidron Valley, where the wooden idols were burned to ashes and Beit El, the place where the ashes were carried and deposited. Hilkiah the High priest did not walk, ride, drive or fly to Bethel ~10km north of Jerusalem to deposit these ashes and that is in direct opposition to Eli Shukron's denial that the standing stone is Jacob's Beit El in Jerusalem.

To this day, the matzevah or standing stone of Jacob remains locked in its steel box and each time I think of it I'm inspired to continue my struggle to correct the long, perplexing, disinformation campaign Jeroboam imposed on Israel, which was confounded by the prophet who came from Judah, who was mauled to death by a lion that was waiting on the road with a donkey - wow!

The matzevah of Jacob

The long search

The Bible recounts that moments before Jacob’s death he invoked his redeeming angel (Vayechi 48:16) and blessed Joseph’s sons, his grandsons Efraim and Menashe. He adopted them and in doing so bestowed the double blessing on Joseph, first born to his first love, wife Rachel.

The Zohar asks - why did they deserve to be blessed? And answers because Joseph preserved the sign of the holy covenant by not allowing himself to be seduced (by evil). The mystery of faith is a covenant with My chosen (righteous) one [1:231a] alluding to King David. He finds pleasure together with the souls of the righteous (Israel) and will not enter Jerusalem below until Israel enters the city. The world was not created until He took a certain stone -Foundation Stone, central point of the whole world. That stone, I set up as a pillar (matzevah) to be a house of God (Genesis 28:22). I am sending an angel before you. 

Jacob took 12 stones of that place and they become one

(Vayechi 49:1) Jacob called for his sons and said, "Gather and I will tell you what will happen to you at the end of days". [1:234b] "Gather" - that I may tell you - "Ve-agidah", the mystery of wisdom! Why the mystery of wisdom? Because the word contains (g)imel followed by (d)alet, though sometimes (y)ud intervenes. He sought to reveal Israel's future, but his end of days vision dwindled.  

Jacob was about to reveal that his stone-pillar would locate the permanent temple he had committed to build, but he couldn't explain what he saw. How do we know this? Because the non-incidental prophet Gad, also spelled (g)imel (d)alet connected him to this same mystery of wisdom. Some 670 years after Jacob, Gad authorized King David and all Israel's tribal leaders to locate an altar, on Mount Moriah at a different place than the place Jacob erected his stone-pillar. This confronting fact disturbed Jacob's vision.

The deeper mystery connected Efraim and brother Menashe to the northern tribes, collectively named Israel. They vehemently resisted re-locating the temporary temple from Shilo in Efraim's territory, where it had been abandoned to Jerusalem on the southern border of Benjamin's territory with Judah. When a plague killed 70,000 northern Israelite's a short-lived reprieve led them to unify and accept Gad's prophetic house of God relocation from the neck to the head of Mount Moriah.

Rivalry between Judah and Joseph (Efraim) over Benjamin would eventually lead to the destruction of two temples at Gad's location. Jacob saw beyond these destruction's, but the perpetual denial by Joseph and his brothers, including their silencing Benjamin about their kidnapping and selling Joseph disturbed Jacob's foretelling.

In 2008 the Hebrew year 5768, Jacob's stone-pillar was rediscovered at its location on Mount Moriah. It had been purposely buried, preserved for more than 3700 years. This time there will be no destruction.

Myopic Archaeological Reporting

A major disagreement between archaeological giants over a 2008 discovery at the City of David, Jerusalem remains unresolved. The modern equivalents of Macalister and Duncan, Reich and Shukron, who excavated sections of the lower and upper ridges near the Gihon Spring remain ~1000 years apart in their time estimates for a critically important upper ridge discovery. By professional standards its a serious issue that could eventually backfire on Israel's Antiquities Authority.

Its not unusual for archaeologists to challenge each other with evidence based theories including at  the Gihon Spring. Recently Dr. Joe Uziel discovered evidence that presented a similar time conflict. Under the north-eastern corner stone of the Bronze age citadel construction adjacent to the Gihon Spring, seeds were carbon dated by Weizmann Institute to the Iron age. The seeds were presumed to be in their original location, but if they had been washed under the corner stone, in a prior rain-storm the arguments over Iron or Bronze age dating would be futile. 

To elucidate the futility, myopic archaeological reporting is often contained to single fragments of evidence that draw inferences absent of broader context discoveries found in proximity. For example Jerusalem's oldest constructed cave was probably a mansion carved into the east face of Mount Moriah, south of the upper Gihon Pool. 

Parker and Vincent Excavation ~1910

Early Bronze Age Cave (2018)

Further up the eastern face, a tomb containing ~4000 year old sophisticated tomb pottery was discovered by Parker-Vincent. Importantly this early Bronze Age tomb pottery dates Mount Moriah's first permanent population to a similar time in which the cave home on the eastern face would have been in use.

From Ronny Reich's book - Excavating the City of David: Where Jerusalem's History Began

The Pottery Artifacts from the Rockefeller Museum in Jerusalem

Direct evidence does not link the tomb pottery to the cave, but both were sophisticated developments of that time. The cave would have been constructed by skilled laborers and the pottery by refined artisans indicating the importance of the individuals to whom these discoveries were once attributed. Leading archaeologist Hillel Geva made it clear that Mount Moriah was sparsely populated until much later periods when permanent construction on the mountain expanded from around 3800 years ago, around the time of Biblical Abraham.

One of the most compelling observations echos a ziggurat like stairway the lower sections having been partly reassembled with steel staircase. Immediately adjacent, north of the cave, the base of the stairway was once quarried in sloping bedrock, but today it is a sheer-rock-cut-face that reshaped the natural slope of the bedrock to displace or destroy the arrangements that once provided gradual stepped-access from lower to upper ridge.

Stairway view bottom to top (looking west)

Stairway view top to bottom (looking east) - see video below

The slope may have first been reshaped to include steps for easier access on the ~30 meter rise (see profile image below) from the lower rock shelf, at the cave's natural entrance to the stairs leading to the high ridge. Interestingly, the lower section of stairs would have once landed on the east face of Mount Moriah, as it falls to the Kidron Valley, but the dramatic absence at the now sheer-rock-cut-face appears related to the quarrying that ultimately formed the large impassable void of the Upper Gihon Pool (see image below).

Profile slice through Mount Moriah looking north.

In 2008 Eli Shukron broke through a false wall on the upper ridge and discovered that the stairway led directly to a sacrificial altar of a significant pre-Solomon temple complex. Soft sand filled the entire upper ridge spaces between the false wall on the east (side of Kidron Valley) and the western bedrock, below the city wall. Thousands of years before Eli's breakthrough, the temple complex had been cleaned of artifacts and purposefully buried, a fact that has not been officially revealed. Below, the four numbered rooms, notably #1 and #3 have short passages connecting these rooms with the upper section of the ridge as it makes its way higher and to the west.

On the eastern bedrock, below the temple complex middle Bronze Age artifacts were discovered by Shukron and previous archaeologists, but several rooms built against the city wall (see image above) contained artifacts that were dated to the Iron Age.

The image above illustrates how access through the rear passage of room #1 of the temple complex led to the bedrock behind the wall. When the temple complex was excavated, several Iron Age artifacts were found in the passages and caused Ronny Reich to firmly date the temple complex to the Iron Age. However, it is evident these artifacts could have moved. The basement of the Iron Age rooms (above image) terminated on the bedrock as it descends east and like so many cavernous basements in and around the old city of Jerusalem the contents on the bedrock found the tunnel of room #1 where the Iron Age contents of the house slipped into and filled the space of the tunnel. 

Based on the above,the definitive statements by Ronny Reich, as seen in the video below would therefore be an example of myopic archaeology. Eli Shukron has made public statements that the temple complex is a Bronze Age construct in direct opposition. 

I'll leave it to you the reader to decide, which version is more likely just keep in mind that the standing stone or matzevah in room #2 (seen below) is most likely a relic from 3800 years ago, the the time of Israel's Biblical fathers, as such it is more likely to fit the context that supports the narrative of Eli Shukron.

Room #2 matzevah or standing stone is not a grave marker