Ai - Your Time is Up!

City of Ai Discovery (IAA)

Introduction

The conventional identification of biblical Bethel with the modern Arab village of Beitin, approximately 12–13 km north of Jerusalem, has long influenced archaeological and biblical scholarship. Similarly, the city of Ai has traditionally been associated with Et-Tell, located just east of Beitin. However, recent archaeological findings and a reevaluation of biblical geography suggest the need for a reassessment. This proposal centers Bethel at the rock-cut temple site on the eastern slope of Mount Moriah, corresponding to the Bethel of Jacob's vision in Genesis, and positions Ai east of Ras al-'Amud, adjacent to Bethany (al-‘Azariya) and Jabal Batin al-Hawa.

Part I: Reframing Bethel

1. Bethel of Jacob: Mount Moriah’s Eastern Slope

The rock-cut temple complex on the eastern slope of Mount Moriah, facing the Kidron Valley, has yielded Middle Bronze Age material remains, including cultic features consistent with ritual use. Traditional Jewish sources have long associated Mount Moriah with divine encounters (Genesis 22), and the architecture of the site resembles high places described in the Hebrew Bible. This supports the hypothesis that Jacob’s Bethel, where he dreamed of a ladder to heaven (Genesis 28:10–22), could have been located here rather than 13 km to the north.

2. Confusion Introduced by Beitin

The modern identification of Beitin as Bethel dates to 19th-century explorers such as Edward Robinson. While the phonetic similarity is compelling, the chronological and cultic evidence is less definitive. Beitin shows Iron Age occupation, but the Middle Bronze Age cultic prominence seen at Mount Moriah’s slope is largely absent. This suggests that Beitin may instead be the later Bethel of Jeroboam, where he established a royal shrine with a golden calf (1 Kings 12:28–29), reflecting a secondary and political use of the name Bethel.

Part II: Reconsidering Ai

1. Biblical Ai: East of Bethel

The book of Joshua (7–8) locates Ai east of Bethel. If Bethel is relocated to Mount Moriah’s eastern slope, then Ai must be sought in the adjacent eastern territories — specifically, Silwan, Ras al-‘Amud and its surrounding slopes.

2. Archaeological Evidence from Ras al-'Amud

Two excavation reports published in Israel Antiquities Authority Hadashot provide compelling evidence:

• 2011–2012 Excavation (Report #2181) uncovered occupation layers from the Intermediate and Middle Bronze Ages through the Iron Age, including domestic structures, pottery assemblages, and rock-cut installations.

• 2013 Excavation (Report #3340) revealed Late Bronze and Iron Age agricultural installations and ceramics, indicating sustained settlement.

These findings suggest that the site in Ras al-‘Amud was a continuously occupied, agriculturally productive, and potentially fortified site during the periods relevant to the conquest narratives. The location is 1.3 KM east of Mount Moriah’s Bethel, fulfilling the biblical geographic requirement.

Part III: The Role of Bethany and Jabal Batin al-Hawa

Bethany (al-‘Azariya) and Jabal Batin al-Hawa lie adjacent to Ras al-‘Amud respectively north-east and south-east of the rock-cut temple. This region:

• Preserves ancient routes connecting Jerusalem to Jericho and the Jordan Valley.

• Has archaeological evidence of Bronze and Iron Age occupation.

• Could represent the broader region of Ai, or a confederation of sites described in Joshua 8.

Furthermore, Batin al-Hawa phonetically echoes Beitin, as does the BTN of BeThaNy suggesting possible confusion in later periods between the Bethel of Jacob and that of Jeroboam.

Conclusion

This revised model:

• Centers Jacob’s Bethel at the rock-cut temple on Mount Moriah’s eastern slope.

• Repositions Ai at Ras al-‘Amud, with strong Late Bronze and Iron Age continuity.

• Attributes Beitin to the politically repurposed Bethel of Jeroboam, explaining textual and geographic discrepancies.

Further excavations, especially at Ras al-‘Amud and the Mount Moriah temple site, could decisively clarify the identities and roles of these ancient places in Israel’s formative history.

This Discovery Will Eventually Change The World!

Open water drain or channel

Organic fragments in drain

On the eastern slopes of Mount Moriah, within the City of David, archaeologists have uncovered a significant Middle Bronze Age water system. This system includes remnants of a reservoir and a rock-hewn channel that once conveyed water to two of four chambers carved into the bedrock. These rooms form part of an ancient rock-cut temple, situated 35 meters above the Gihon Spring.

Carbon dating of organic samples, carried out by Cambridge University and the Weizmann Institute, places the final use of the water channel around 1535 BCE. The samples were taken from near the plaster remains of an open drain, which ran from the elevated reservoir, along the bedrock slope, and into the rooms below. This drain system reveals that water once flowed through the channel more than 3,500 years ago, as confirmed by the landscape mapped by the Israel Antiquities Authority.

The most revealing samples, found directly beneath and just above the plastered drain, align precisely with the traditional biblical chronology of the final 30 years Jacob lived in Canaan before relocating with his family to Egypt. This dating suggests the water system of this ancient temple was built and exclusively used during this narrow period. Once Jacob departed, the temple complex was left deserted, eventually buried under sand and debris from the steep terrain and never rediscovered by the mountains subsequent occupants. 

Functionally, the water system was designed to cleanse blood and waste from two adjoining rooms—one used for slaughtering and processing animals, and the other for offering sacrifices on an altar made of stones. Between them lies a chamber with a standing stone, or matzevah. Given the channel’s dating, this standing stone can be confidently associated with the one Jacob erected at Beth El, after his divine encounter at Mount Moriah, when he received the name Israel (Genesis 35:7–15).

Count the fused stones on the front?

Compare the view from the back!

Senior archaeologist Ronny Reich, in his book Excavations in the City of David, opens with a chapter titled "A Moment in Which to Be Born." There, he notes that the spring east of the city—beneath the rock-cut temple—was never called Gihon in the Bible, but En Shemesh (Sun Spring). The spring is characterized as a seasonal gusher, intermittently surging like a pump—fitting the Hebrew word gihon, meaning “bursting forth.” However, each morning, to this day, sunlight, (shemesh in Hebrew) illuminates the entrance to the spring.

Reich used this En Shemesh identification to resolve a longstanding difficulty in interpreting a boundary passage in the Book of Joshua. That passage describes a point where the tribal borders of Judah and Benjamin converge—precisely where the altar’s raised bedrock foundation sits. This location supports Reich's identification and reinforces the site's significance.

Note the South East corner of the altar foundation

Importantly, the southeastern corner of the altars' foundation marks a location that complies not only with Reich’s En Shemesh boundary but also with traditional Jewish law. This stands in contrast to the First and Second Temple altars, which were situated further up the mountain—on today’s Temple Mount. Those higher placements do not align with either the En Shemesh boundary or the location of the ancient spring.

Furthermore, the altar’s westward orientation matches the description in Maimonides' Guide for the Perplexed (Part 3, Chapter 45 page 355), which asserts that while the ancient world worshipped facing east (toward the sun), Abraham, on Mount Moriah, turned west—toward the future Sanctuary—his back to the sun.

This altar foundation, composed of native bedrock, would have supported temporary assemblies of stones during sacrifices. This matches the description in Genesis 35:7, where Jacob names the place El-Bethel, commemorating God’s earlier revelation to him at that spot, during his flight from Esau—22 years prior—when he had the dream of the stairway to heaven and erected a matzevah.

How then, can we reconcile this matzevah, altar and water system—dated to Jacob’s time—with the later First Temple altar built by Solomon on the summit of Mount Moriah? The answer lies in David’s sin and repentance. According to 1 Chronicles 21:17 (and 2 Samuel 24), David, after his census error, was instructed by the prophet Gad to ascend Mount Moriah’s summit and erect an altar. David purchased the land from the Jebusite king—who had controlled the upper slopes of the mountain—and the summit eventually became the site of the Temple Mount. Unlike Jacob’s site, David’s altar was chosen to atone for David's specific transgression.

The newly discovered altar and its associated temple, located lower on the eastern slope—above En Shemesh—thus appear to be the original site associated with Jacob, Isaac, Abraham, and perhaps even the priest-king Melchizedek. These overlapping but distinct sacred sites pose deep theological and historical questions.

Today, the location of the ancient temple remains at the heart of Israel’s struggles. Militant Islamic groups often depict the Temple Mount—home to the Dome of the Rock and Al Aqsa Mosque—in their imagery. Tradition holds that this mountaintop is where Abraham bound Isaac. Yet, with the discovery of this rock-cut temple—complete with altar foundation, Jacob’s matzevah, and west-facing orientation—perhaps it is time to reconsider the true site for Israel’s final temple: not the summit of Mount Moriah, but its eastern slope, where ancient topography, archaeology, and scripture converge.

Upending Revisionist Bias

A standing stone, to commemorate a covenant and a set of clay tablets are sufficient proofs to reset the academic bias that has altered our understanding of Biblical history for the past 200 years. The bias was perpetrated by early French, German and British archaeologists that established the now broadly accepted views of Egyptian Pharaonic chronology. Their dating clashed with Biblical dating, by around 1-200 years, leading many to support the claim that the Bible was loosely constructed by 4 authors and its dates lacked credibility. These academics opposed the traditional Jewish view that the Bible is the word of God as transcribed by Moses. Now, we have proof to discredit their biased claims and restore the Bible to its rightful place. 

In 2010 excavations at the City of David on Jerusalem's Mount Moriah began to reveal the hidden rooms of a stone temple that baffled everyone. It took another 12 years before a carbon dating study by Weismann Institute and Cambridge University firmly established the date the water channel for the facility was built. The water channel flushed water onto the floors of 2 of the 4 main rooms that were carved out of bedrock. These rooms constitute a temple complex, which we have called Temple Zero because it proceeds the First Temple built by Solomon by at least 600 years.

According to Biblical chronology, Jacob left his parents for their ancestral home in Harran (Syria-Turkey border) where he was sent to find a wife and build a family. Commentators calculate he first spent 14 years learning with Noah's great, great grandson Ever. Before making his final departure he encountered the place of his famous stairway to heaven dream, the place he would name, Beit El, in 2185 (Since Creation) or 1576 BCE (CODEX JUDAICA) (Genesis 28:11).

Twenty years later Jacob returned from Harran in 2205 (Since Creation)1556 BCE. His last child Benjamin was born in 2208 (Since Creation) 1553 BCE (Genesis35:18-19). The birth was preceded by a brief (6-12 month) stop at Beit El. When he originally left Beit El for Harran and when he returned (Genesis 35:14) the Bible tells us that he set up and anointed a matzevah. The only, in-situ artifact of Temple Zero is a room containing a matzevah and the last use of the water channel that serviced the adjacent rooms was 18 years later 1535 BCE. Jacob, who by this time had been named Israel and his family were exiled to Egypt 12 years later in 1523 BCE (Genesis 46:1). This constitutes my first refutation of the Pharaonic chronology. 

The second refutation takes place after Israel's long exile and journey, back from Egypt, that took them away for 250 years. Joshua led Israel in numerous battles to conquer settle Israel's tribes in their allotted portions of land. Joshua ruled 32 years in the land. 

The Amarna letters span Egyptian Pharaoh's Amenhotep III, Akhenaten, through possibly Smenkhkare or Tutankhamun around 150 years. At least letter #254 must have been written during the overlap of Amenhotep III and Joshua's 32 year reign, which according to the Biblical record ended in 1245 BCE. But, the 100 year gap between Amenhotep III and Joshua would need resolution. Known as The Labaya tablet, #254 and others reference Pharaoh in his 32nd year of reign leaving only Amenhotep III who held power for 36-38 years during the Amarna period. According to the classic chronology Amenhotep III died in 1351 BCE.

If letter #254 describes the Biblical events that took place following 1273 BCE, at the beginning of Joshua's reign, the Egyptian chronology, immediately prior to the Amarna period, would have to be revised forward by around ~100 years, which would be difficult for classical Egyptologists to digest. Joshua must then have overlapped both Amenhotep III and Akhenaten, which if we wind back 40 years, would make Thutmose IV the prime candidate at the time of the Israelite Exodus led by Moses. 

Although limited, evidence of Israel's exodus in Egypt does exist, as does evidence of Egypt erasing and reconstructing its history, here we have an important artifact that has been written off by prolonged academic bias. Now that we have a proof date of Jacob returning from his exile and an letter #254 with an academic dating to ~1360 BCE, when Israel returned from their Egyptian exile, we can confidently challenge the revisionist bias and re-sync Common Era dates back to their Creation alignments. Such an adjustment would put letter #254 at ~1260 BCE, some 13 years after Moses death in 1273 BCE according to Creation. The Bible chronology tells us it took 14 years after Moses to settle the land.  

These two absolute dates and the context of the associated artefacts are sufficient to persuade anyone, except those whose bias against Israel surpasses their desire for truth. 

My Journey to Israel.

Of the roughly 100 trips I have made to Israel over the last 20 years, this one was the most challenging, physically, mentally and spiritually. The day I landed, a ceasefire had come into effect and on the following day I visited the shiva home of Eitan Dishon z’l a brave combat soldier. His mother and father could not stop thanking me enough for expanding the neighborhood of Nof Tzion where they live. Eitan had come home the weekend before, his Dad proudly showed off pictures standing proud with his son. He visited his grandparents and friends before returning to base. On the fateful day, driving the troop carrier, he popped his head through the hatch to observe broader surroundings only to be hit at the back of the head by a sniper in a nearby building. After that the IDF flattened more buildings to protect troops in vehicles like Etian’s. 

The ceasefire produced days of quiet and reflection. We had held BBQ’s in the north where it is often difficult to secure meat supplies, but Sydney resident Louis Goldstein’s son Yossi and his platoon got to eat a meal fit for a king. I filled most days with meetings, property, technology, visiting half empty offices, Jerusalem, TelAviv dealing with a busy schedule. One of my meetings was with my close friend Didi, one of my lawyers, for the past 20 years, a member of Jerusalem’s city council. His brother, an absolute lion of a man, Yossi Hershkowitz z’l had been killed in the days before I arrived. We spent time talking about his great achievements and how sorely he would be missed. 

Through the week I began to sense how traumatized people were, even the toughest people closest to me, lawyers, accountants, counsellors, politicians, business associates. Everyone was affected, but no-one knew how far reaching this would be.  

I spent some time with the legendary Dovi Meyer, he was running from pillar to post handing out tzedakah checks to families whose kids had fallen in battle, or running concerts, BBQ’s and other events. Still he and I found a few times to catch up, with the usual crew at the cigar shop in Mamilla. 

On my first Friday, just before Shabbat I made my regular trip to the City of David’s, Gihon Spring, a mikvah tucked in a crevice of a cave at the base of Mount Moriah adjacent to Silwan. The mikvah has been there since the dawn of time. Midrashim states that Adam sat in that mikvah, continuously for 130 years, after ‘the sin’ in Gan Eden. There I met my friend Moshe Weiz, a giant in Torah, Rosh Yeshiva and General in the IDF, responsible for troop movements in Yehuda and Shomron. He said something that stuck: These are great days we are living through. Immediately I understood what he was saying. How can we know anything of the reasons for a demonic massacre of our people, or of our hostages caged in tunnels, or spreading voices of denial and abounding antisemitism? Are we so blind not to see the awakening consciousness behind the common morality of the Jewish people. 

Afterall it was Bilam, the world’s greatest demon who was once compelled to pronounce: “How precious are your tents O’Jacob, your dwelling places O’Israel”.

My moments under the cold waters of that mikvah were special, they always are. 

Before I could blink it was Shabbat. At Beis Menachem, we made kiddush and sat through a very reflective fabreing. At 6AM the next morning we jumped into my CEO’s car heading south. Along the way we stopped in Netivot to catch the 7:30 AM Shacharit Minyan. Driving through the town, you could spot the missile hits that had previously damaged the odd building. Along the way we stopped at the graveyard of 2300 cars that had been destroyed by the more than 3000 terrorists, blood thirsty Gazan’s and the journalists who accompanied them. Each car tagged, many had burned to a rusty shell. Zaka volunteers had searched and carefully logged every car for clues of body parts that would identify victims. 

We stopped at Kibbutz Alumim where 60 terrorists had been eliminated by brave residents, a skeleton crew of IDF and citizen responders among whom two heroic brothers, who had rushed to the rescue only to be killed al pi’ kiddush Hashem. 17 Thai and Nepalese farm workers were slaughtered, the rest kidnapped. Of the 17, 8 were knifed to death in a safe room. The others shot and burned in their bunks. Farm equipment was torched, milking facilities destroyed, clearly an objective was to destroy the symbolisms of Israel infrastructure. For the next few hours we sat watching security system videos that were time-sync edits of the camera captures from the first terrorists entering the kibbutz and the brave battles to contain them.

As we drove past the forest of the Nova festival site a road-sign over the bridge informed us we were in “Eretz Gerar ”, the very place Philistine King Avimelech and his General Phichol had once come to demand a peace pact with Isaac after they had attacked Isaac and stopped up his wells. Why did they come to demand peace? Because Isaac had been blessed, they were defeated by his continuous success in everything he did and their moral ineptitude scared them. Perhaps, here is a lesson to be learned through Israel’s abundant modern day successes, perhaps we should terrorize them with our most successful people, in all areas of life, until they fear that God is with us. 

At Tzehilim infantry base we arranged a BBQ for a few hundred soldiers. There I was shocked to discover the degree of our resolve. Religious or secular, men and women soldiers who had been living in tents, on the ground or on foam mattresses for the past 54 days, I asked them whether they wanted to go home. Their answers reflected a consistent almost monotonous tone; “yes, but we’re not ready until we finish the job. 

The next day, a special group convened to give birth to Project “Israel Slingshot”. Fundraisers, web developers, intelligence, media buying experts and marketers all came together with one common goal; defeat online antisemitism! A few days later Amichai Chikli, Diaspora and Hasbara Minister met with us to endorse the initiative and provide initial matching support. We’re raising donations to buy media impressions, via open-web exchanges, presently reaching audiences with ads for Stand With US and other pro-Israeli messaging on sites like Al Jazeera, Al Arabiya, CNN Arabic, Sky News, etc. Imagine getting an Israel activist message that celebrates successful Jews, 3 times a day or more, everyday, wherever you are on the open web, for years to come! Every $1 raised buys 1000 impressions, with matching 2000. With the right pro-Jewish messages, over time, that will reduce ignorance, make a dent and break the cycle of social media echo chambers. 

Besides this action packed agenda, it was very special to host Malcolm and Dani Daitz on a tour of the excavation I have been very close to for the past 14 years. The place I believe everyone will one day recognize as being the stone that Jacob erected the night after his famous stairway to heaven dream. In context, that stone sits among four bedrock rooms of a stone temple, carved into the eastern slope of Mount Moriah, immediately above the Gihon Spring. 

Then the inevitable, the ceasefire was lifted and before I knew it, Shabbos was upon us, back to the Gihon spring. A very special Shabbos, Yud Tes Kislev, The holiday of redemption. Yahrzeit of the Maggid, the day the Alter Rebbe was released from prison. The Kiddush and fabreing continued until Ma’ariv, if only we could have taken some pictures of Chassidim slouching on tables filled with empty plates, bottles and l'chaim. 

The news after Shabbos wasn’t good, several soldiers fell. Sadly, along with thousands, I attended the Levya of 22 year old Sergeant First Class, Ben Zussuman from Jerusalem. The words of Ben’s mother Sarit echoed through Israel and world media - in Hebrew she said: 

“We are a people who want to live, not like our enemies, who are lowly and miserable, cowards, Nazis, who together with their accomplices sanctify death. We will live, and thrive, and build…We have to be successful. It's either us or them. Either the Nazis and their accomplices, or us.

Do you hear, people of Israel?  World, do you hear? Or do you hear, our cowardly and evil and death thirsty enemies?

The Nation of Israel lives, Am Yisroel Chai, for all of eternity, for ever and ever, standing tall, head held high, now more than ever. Be strong, believe, pursue goodness -- demand goodness, and we will win.”

Happy Hanukkah! 

Water, Water Everywhere, Will Archaeologists Drink?

On the eastern slopes of the City of David, a Middle Bronze Age water system, remnants of a reservoir and a water channel was carbon dated to 1515 BCE. There is no other later evidence of water supply to rooms of the rock-cut-temple. No alternative water system exists, yet despite the absence of later evidence some archaeologists, still insist that the rock-cut-temple, in its present form, should instead be dated to the Iron Age. Academic isolation and over simplification of context, distorts understanding at this complex, ancient location. However, the video below offers the most comprehensive 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)

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.

Jerusalem and Jacob - Calling Archaeology Detectives

Fifty years and tens of millions of dollars have failed to explain 700 years of missing evidence from ancient Jerusalem's eastern slope, at the City of David. The gap perpetuates confusion among archaeologists, who otherwise would prefer to date the significant rock-cut-temple to the Iron Age. You see, between the Middle Bronze (3500 years ago) and Iron Age (2800 years ago) no direct evidence, in the rock-cut-temple, has been discovered and that presents a problem. 

Rock-cut-temple on eastern slope after ground cover was finally cleared in 2023.
The adjacent house, which was built 20 years ago, on compressed ground cover, is now suspended on steel plates with pilons to bedrock

Around the rock-cut-temple, there is undisputed, carbon dated evidence of occupation and Middle Bronze Age use up until 3500 years ago, then +700 years of nothing, and plenty Iron Age evidence after that. The dearth of Iron Age evidence, starting around 2800 years ago, dominates academic papers and influences narratives about the significant rock-cut-temple, yet this evidence gap, that screams the loudest, is ignored by archaeologists. In this case the absence of evidence proves the evidence!

If not for two samples (#9964/5) of organic matter, trapped below and above plaster layers of a man made channel that once fed water into at least the southern-most rock-cut-room, archaeologists would have a more simplified proof of Iron Age origins.

Sample #9964 lay undisturbed, protected by natural ground cover, above the plaster channel for 3500 years. Sample #9965 was protected by the plaster layers of the channel above it. 

At blue line B (map below) the U (Sample #9964) and X (Sample #9965)

"B" marks the excavation site of organic samples, from above and below the plastered water channel.
Other samples #9181/9962 (top) and building 1948 (right) dated between 1820-1510 BCE. 

Water channel flowed from a reservoir to the bedrock floor.
No evidence of an Iron Age water channel and reservoir has been located 

The barrage of published Iron Age evidence and the inferred dating of the rock-cut-temple is refuted by carbon dated samples at several locations. However, most powerful are #9964 and #9965 two 3500 year old, Middle Bronze Age, organic samples that date the water channel construction and last use. Similar plaster layers, on the bedrock, in the western, rear end of a storage room, present insufficient proof of Iron Age shaping of bed rock. Such plaster remnants, dated to the Iron Age, may have been laid by Iron Age occupiers of the homes constructed above the bedrock.

A solution is not easily forthcoming because absence of evidence is an insufficient academic standard of proof. The water channel remains the strongest proof of use and there is no other evidence of water service to the temple. Unfortunately, +700 years after the water channel was last used, in preparation for construction of the City's eastern defensive wall, the rock-cut-temple was cleared to the bedrock to accommodate the 4 meter wide wall. Immediately west, the water channel was recently traced, running, from the remains of a reservoir (at blue B), underneath Iron Age homes to the southernmost rock-cut-room. However, archaeologists won't confirm that the channels Middle Bronze Age construction is directly linked to construction of the rock-cut-temple. Instead, they promote an alternative, unproven, theory that the water channel was cut (at blue B) by constructors and at the southern rock-cut-room during its Iron Age construction. This hypothesis only exacerbates the absence of an Iron Age water system.

Clearance of the area by Iron Age wall constructors, remains the best explanation for the absence of direct evidence, but what, if any direct evidence, was cleared from the bedrock at that time remains a mystery and whether the rock-cut-temple had been buried under ground cover, for +700 years, before the wall constructors cleared it, remains inconclusive. 

Any suggestion that #9964, and other samples #9181 and #9962 survived, in situ, above ground, for +700 years, while Iron Age Area U and rock-cut-temple was apparently constructed, exposed or in active use is preposterous. More likely the last use of the rock-cut-rooms is also tied to the date of sample #9964 and construction of the rock-cut-rooms dated to sample #9965 sometime between 1615 BCE and 1880 BCE or prior.

Accumulated ground cover concealing the rock-cut-temple site as it was in 2012.
Adjacent house built on compressed ground cover.

Promotion of an academic theory for Iron Age construction of the rock-cut-temple is further refuted by surviving evidence immediately north (#9181 and #9962), of sample #9964 (from the water channel) and east, from below building 1948, dated to 1820 BCE and in mortar 1.2m above bedrock dated to 1605 BCE. These additional samples strongly increase the probability of a Middle Bronze Age origin and suggest that a significant Iron Age construction of the rock-cut-temple would have disrupted at least #9181 and #9962 laying bare on the surface of these excavated areas. 

Academia faces significant challenges in admitting a Middle Bronze Age origin because of Iron Age bias in tangential data and the Biblical alignment to the archaeological last use, defined by at least sample #9964. The period of carbon dating overlaps patriarch Jacob who, Jewish commentators attest stayed briefly on Mount Moriah. According to Biblical chronology Jacob's first encounter on Mount Moriah took place in 1573 BCE. Then, he and his family arrived on Mount Moriah in 1553 BCE and left the region in 1523 BCE. Jacob immigrated to Egypt, where his descendants remained for 250 years before they returned to their ancestral land. The overlapping 100 year use of the water channel (1535 BCE) with time of Jacob makes this discovery remarkable particularly because of its potentially exciting context to the  rock-cut-temple and matzevah found within the temple location. According to the Bible Jacob erected a matzevah at this location (Genesis 35:14).

The matzevah, "standing stone" or anointing pillar at the rock-cut-temple.

The video above tells the comprehensive story.

Jerusalem's Critical Evidence

Matsevah or standing stone found in room2 

Water channel outlets in room 1 and 3

Seldom does a "terminus post quem", the earliest date an item came into existence, and a "terminus ante quem", the latest, perfectly sandwich an artifact to define its absolute archaeological age. 

In ancient Jerusalem, on Mount Moriah's eastern slope, a crucial study by Weizmann Institute, Tel Aviv University and Israel Antiquities Authority dated evidence in a water channel, beneath and above a plaster layer that was built on top of clay-rich, virgin soil in a natural bedrock cavity. 

Directly beneath the plaster (its earliest date), small charcoal flecks were dated separately (sample  9965 and 10293) between 1615–1545 BCE, a "terminus post-quem" for plaster in the channel. At the end of the channel, above the plaster (the latest date) several grey and white laminations were found with charred material (sample 9964 and 10292), "ante-quem", understood to represent the channel was last used between 1535 and 1445 BCE.

Samples above and closest to the plaster declare that the system was only ever used, during 30 of these maximum 80-100 years, to propel water (by gravity) onto the bedrock floor of at least one of two rooms (1 and 3) of the Temple Zero complex immediately below (east of) Area U. The water channel was not used previously nor has it been used since. Slaughtered animals would have frequently been processed and offered as a sacrifice, thus requiring water be flushed via the channel to clean blood and excrement. Almost 600 years later similar hydraulic systems were engineered and used in the first and second temples further up the mountain.  

 Water Channel in blue -South (Top)

According to Biblical chronology Jacob and his family arrived on Mount Moriah in 1553 BCE at that time he also became known as Israel. 30 years later they left the region, for Egypt in 1523 BCE, where they lived in exile for 210 years before the nation of Israel journeyed back to their land. Based on the strata position of evidence, closest to plaster in the channel, a more precise 30 year use of the drainage channel would overlap Jacobs final 30 years in the region. This finding  becomes spectacular because of its exciting context to the Temple Zero location.

Strata of W and V samples closest to plaster.

In the Biblical context of Area U, the rock-cut-rooms of Temple Zero and the Gihon Spring, Bible commentators relate events of Adam, Noah, Shem or Malchi-Tzedek, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joshua, King David and subsequent kings. Spanning thousands of years, the area on Mount Moriah is also referred by many names including; Salem, Beit El, Yireh (Yireh-Salem), Luz, Tzion, Jebus, City of David and Jerusalem. 

Temple Zero South (Top)

Immediately after King Solomon, King Jeroboam mis-directed and split the nation in part by leveraging confusion over Jacob's Beit El. Therefore, his actions and motivations must be understood before one can truly appreciate the magnitude of  discoveries being made at Temple Zero, Jerusalem. The recently discovered, possible City of Ai (associated with Beit El) is located just 1.3 kilometers east of  Temple Zero, resolves Jeroboam's Bethel ruse, 17km north, establishing Jerusalem's Temple Zero the exclusive, common Beit El of Abraham (Genesis 12:1-8, 13:3-4) and Jacob (Genesis 28:11, 35:14).

By aligning the city of Ai and Biblical events with the 100 year overlapping use of the drainage channel, confidence rises that Temple Zero is the location Jacob erected the recently discovered matzevah on which he made a covenant, to which he returned and accepted upon himself the name "Israel". 

For the modern nation to rediscover the original beacon, erected by Jacob on which he accepted the name of their national identity would be nothing short of miraculous, perhaps too much for the archaeological fraternity to acknowledge.

 

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.