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?

Unifying The Archaeology of Ancient Jerusalem

Multiple theories attempt to explain the complex findings at the Gihon Spring on the eastern slope of Mount Moriah's City of David, the original Jerusalem. Ortal Chalaf, previous lead archaeologist recently wrote about the Iron Age discoveries he excavated. As interesting as that is, this article starts at least 2000 years prior. Controversy abounds about events on the bedrock especially over the first constructions, so I thought it may be useful to learn about this.

Caves on the eastern slope, immediately above the valley floor at the Gihon Spring (@634m above sea level) offered a glimpse into the first paleolithic through calcholithic residents on the mountain. In 2008 an opening to the cave was found, concealed by a fortified passage filled with rocks containing middle Bronze Age debris. Was the fill part of the original construction or was it dumped at a later stage?

Adjacent to and north of the first cave, above Warrens Shaft another opening to a second cave. Along the north-south running eastern face the bedrock falls 2-3 meters supporting these large cave entrances. The sheer drop of the geophysical eastern face may have been the direct result of the cavernous spaces that once formed behind the rock face. However slightly further south the rock face seems to have been cut or quarried.

Eli Shukron stands at the cave entrance (@645m) in the
fortified passage between wall 109 (left) and 108 

Lower and upper floor (@640m) and Warrens Shaft (lower
 right) that leads down to the floor below (@635m)

The original residents of these caves were elevated @645m and had limitless access to water from the Gihon Spring. However, growing a population in the caves was restricted by their small size. Further up the hill important people were entombed during the early bronze age and sophisticated artifacts were found in the burial caves @685m. The archaeology of all these caves and the first man-made structures does not suggest a large urban center, rather a small enclave and leaders with a degree of regional importance.

Sophisticated Early Bronze pottery from burial caves

Toward the end of the early Bronze Age the population on and around the mountain began to expand and the archaeology changed. The first break-away's may have lived on the lower valley floor around the Gihon Spring, but most of the growth was supported in caves and rudimentary building constructions, further south along the water line that followed the natural downhill slope of the Kidron valley. In any event there is little evidence of significant population expansion until the Middle Bronze Age from which time the archaeology begins to differentiate.

Ronnie Reich on the upper floor (@645m) of the entrance to
the cave  that was blocked above Warrens Shaft 

The fortified passage, built between walls 108-109 may have originally been filled, as it was when discovered with Middle Bronze age debris that blocked the cave entrance to support a walkway to a temple complex built of rock-cut-rooms. Alternatively fill was dumped into the passage at a later date in which case the purpose of walls 108-109 was to shield entrance into the cave and Warrens Shaft System. The rock-wall that blocked entrance to the second cave, immediately above Warrens Shaft was built to block entry to the Warrens Shaft System, but not necessarily constructed simultaneous with walls 108 and 109. 

Gray color denotes structures in or below bedrock

Whether the fortified passage was filled or open, between walls 108-109 the rock-cut-rooms, adjacent to and below Area U (see map above) along passage XIX or via XVIII were the obvious destination. But, why such a massive building scale for the small local population? The temple complex built on the bedrock of the rock-cut-rooms is a significant structure and may answer this question.

Rock-cut-room temple complex

Unlike other cult sites in Israel the features of the rock-cut-rooms are very “Jewish”. By its design, priests would have to face the west, facing toward the altar platform, their backs to the sun while offering sacrifices. The altar platform terminates on the southeast corner (highly specific to Jewish mystical tradition) into a liquids channel, adjacent to a matzevah, oil press, grain press, animal pen and restraints. It's not so unusual that a Middle Bronze Age temple, one that preceded the Jewish nation under Moses could have Jewish characteristics. Religious scholars acknowledge documented practices included in the Bible that predated Moses, including the use of a matzevah, which was specifically disqualified by Moses toward the end of the Late Bronze Age.

A significant event that prompted construction of the rock-cut-room temple complex may explain why it was developed as well as the minimal archaeology on the mountain and areas surrounding the Gihon Spring. The temple complex must have originally been motivated by a spiritual heritage, an event or legendary figure that led to construction especially of the significant Middle Bronze Age walls 108-109. This expanding religious site, as the centerpiece of Mount Moriah during the Early and Middle Bronze Ages may be better explained by a small, priestly or religious residency and their archaeological remnant of this extended period.

On the mountain , the cultural heritage of ancient descendants who predated the Jewish nation would also support the actions of King David, as described in the Bible. After 7 years as king in Hebron, David felt sufficiently compelled to raid the Gihon Spring, enter Zion and move his kingdom to Jerusalem, on Mount Moriah. We are told the raid was via a "tzinor", a narrow pipe likely to have been Warrens Shaft. At that time the Warrens Shaft System was the main tunnel route for water transport into the city. Once David controlled that route, residents and their leaders were beholden to him. By the time David settled, well into  the Iron Age religious worship at the rock-cut-temple may have already been abandoned, bedrock buried by debris and no remaining sign of his ancestral origins on the mountain. The rock-cut-rooms were next seen during the reign of King Hezekiah several hundred years later and are presently the subject of intense excavation by the Israel Antiquity Authority.  

  

Jerusalem vs. The Sun!

The origins of Christianity and Judaism differ significantly, including by a clergy who faced east to herald the sun or west to obviate it. Priestly orientation in church architecture faces to the rising sun, interposing the altar, the main interior interest east toward the sun, the main entrance behind the priests. But, Jerusalem's temple architecture was opposite, its priests opposed the rising sun rise and biblical history is replete (2 Kings 23:1-25) with sun worshipers who challenged its main point of interest, its altar and Holy Inner Sanctuary positioned toward the west. 

A recent ~2600 year old City of David, Jerusalem discovery relates the last period in which the horses of the sun gods were destroyed by King Josiah (see video).

                                        

What's the big deal you may ask? Respect or disrespect - not as much about the direction Jerusalem's priestly practitioners face, rather the direction their rear ends face when serving sacrifices on their altar! That insult laid waste untold millions of lives over thousands of years and provides a fascinating insight to the origins of Jerusalem's temple culture and subsequent rise of organized religion. 

The discovery of rock-cut-rooms on the east facing, lower slope of Jerusalem's Mount Moriah, in proximity to the Gihon Spring may be Jerusalem's original temple, so called Temple Zero. 

West end features including raised platform for altar

The notable direction of Temple Zero is by the placement of its most important features including matzevah, or standing stone and raised platform, the remnant of its altar toward the west. Priests offering and attending to sacrifices on this altar would have faced west and wine or water poured onto the altar would have run in the liquids channel toward the pit on the east. Facing west obviated glorification of the sun, especially obvious during sunrise worship. 

Looking west to the matzevah

West to the altars' raised platform

Jewish religious practice does not permit the use of any medium or physical depiction as a conduit or substitute to a unified, omnipotent and directly approachable God. This premise dates back prior to the biblical record through establishment of monotheism. The practice transferred from Adam to Noah, to his son Shem known as Malchi-Tzedek (the Righteous King) and finally his descendant Abraham was the first to effect and teach the religious philosophy that was distinguished from the duality of paganism. 

The bible prohibited post-Egyptian Israelite's from using a matzevah to covenant with God. Abraham's grandson Jacob was the last to erect such a stone at Beit El (Bethel) before the prohibition. Approximately 650 years after Jacob (Israel) was exiled to Egypt before King David returned the nation's central administration to Mount Moriah.  

Practically the steep eastern slope is crowd unfriendly. The bedrock to the west rises (as seen by the retainer wall constructed for these excavations) and to the east falls away rapidly (as seen in the people walking up the steep ascent). Yet, by its very layout worship at this site did not pay homage to the sun. So, what was its purpose in context to the site of Solomon's first temple through the Herodian second temple further north on Mount Moriah?

                    

                                            

East to the Kidron Valley

From the great work of Israel Antiquities Archaeologist, Ortal Chalaf (standing @2 - middle image above) and Joe Uziel, we are fortunate to glimpse the ten times this space was built, destroyed and rebuilt over hundreds of years from the eighth century BCE to the end of the Iron Age (image @3). This evidences the tension between eagerness of and opposition to occupants that once heralded this sacred place. The biblical record at the end of the Iron Age reveals the fickle character of Jewish Kings who permitted or shunned idol worship in this period and the evidence at this location may directly reflect the Royal attitudes.

Remarkably, the matzevah has withstood the tests of at least 2800 years, from the earliest layer of  construction and destruction above the bedrock. Almost certainly Temple Zeros' rock-cut-rooms precede the first layer built on the bedrock of the image @3, but was it in existence when King David arrived in the 10th century, ~200 years earlier? Most archaeologists agree that part of the fortified passage made up by Wall 109 (left) and Wall 108 (right) (see below) rises to intersect the bedrock ridge of the rock-cut-rooms and it dates to the middle bronze age.  

 Wall 109 and 108 and rock-cut-quarry block passage to Temple Zero (top center)

The fortified passage was a major construction, involving imported, regional labor forces an event that is not recorded in the bible. Despite Joe Uziel carbon dating the north east tower corner, the complex is not considered to be a part of King David's early Iron Age activities. Reference to a pre-Solomon temple is also not mentioned in the 24 books of the bible, therefore a search for Temple Zero dating clarity should be directed to the Bronze Age.

Temple Zero's altar faced the sun, its priests were before the altar, with their backs to the sun. This opposed most, if not all idolatrous practitioners who otherwise would place their deities or human gods in the place of the altar facing the sun and priests before their deity, with their backs to the sun. Alternatively as with Christianity, priests were after (behind) the altar facing east toward the sun. 

Is this the reason Temple Zero was relegated to a rock-cut-quarry (or pool) that blocked ascent from the east and a fortified passage that blocked access from the north-west? It did not celebrate deities or human gods and had no place for priests to practice after the altar, for idol worshiping occupants of ancient Jerusalem it had little use.

The holy center of Jerusalem opposed sun worshipers (Temple Zero bottom left)

In the time before King David whether buried or blocked, even detractors of Temple Zero preserved its sanctity and the matzevah stands as a testament. Perhaps it was concealed so that its spiritual attractiveness to Israelite worshipers of a monotheistic God would be diminished or forgotten and with it their desire to return to The Mountain.

 

 

 

Under The Rock - New Evidence Proof For Temple Zero!

Seldom do senior archaeologists disagree over a hundred years let alone a thousand! A four roomed Bronze Age 'Temple Zero' complex, was discovered and named by Eli Shukron, but his boss, Ronnie Reich openly contradicted him by publishing a video in which he claimed the complex to be a creation of the Iron Age.

Orientation

Lower down the eastern slope under boulders on the bedrock, adjacent to the Gihon Spring was a missing layer of important evidence. Precisely two full missing strata, eight and nine - that can represent up to 1000 years! How did the evidence trapped under a boulder miss out from strata 10 through strata 7? After all it was trapped under the same rock, but nothing from strata eight and nine. How did this missing evidence phenomena occur? 

Sunken Round Chamber (closest) and present day platform suspended in quarry

One answer comes directly from Ronnie Reich who separately explained that a wooden platform was once suspended across the rock-cut-pool or quarry (south of the Gihon Spring) much like the platform on which people are sitting in the image above, only fully extended. The indentation for this platform can still be seen cut into the stone above the heads of the people who are standing.  (also see rendering below) 

Depicted, ancient wooden platform suspended above bedrock

Evidence trapped under the rock

If the ancient suspended platform was maintained in place for the entire period spanning strata eight and nine, evidence from that era would have been prevented from falling to the bedrock. Once the platform was built, during strata 10 it would have locked in strata 10 evidence on the bedrock and no later evidence could fall on top of it. In simple terms strata 10 is around late bronze age - ~3400 years ago, strata 7 late iron age, ~2600 years ago.

From this evidence we can conclude activity existed from the late bronze age. This critical dating is conclusive for the citadel complex built from boulders that most likely originated on the adjacent double wall north of the quarry. Further, it clarifies that water channeled from the Gihon Spring into the deep round chamber (feature of the quarry) was drawn from and processed on the platform for distribution to the people living +50 meters higher up on the mountain plateau. All this has been confirmed by Ronnie Reich.

Gihon Spring Citadel complex
Quarry (south), double wall (west) and guard tower (east) by Ronnie Reich

Since digging the quarry post-dated the deposit of strata 10 evidence, two possibilities emerge: 1) Either the designer hoped the quarry would dam up with water from the Gihon Spring, but never did because it's a geophysical impossibility since the spring is only 1 meter above the base of the Round Chamber, or: 2) The Citadel, double wall and quarry cavity, were the objective of the massive construction effort, if so why?  Its important to recognize that the quarry cavity forever changed the previous natural bedrock slope. Further if the the smaller diameter, round chamber were originally cut into the natural slope the much larger quarried cavity lowered natural access to the round chamber. This required the construction of a wooden platform to conveniently access and process water for distribution.

Perhaps the best clue to the construction objective is not in the quarry or the new water route through the double wall, but at the highest westerly point, at the termination of the double wall at the top of the 35m vertical rise, in a place now known as the Parker Tunnel.

Double Wall Termination

Parker Tunnel

Parker's "cyclopean" clearance

To highlight the steep rise on the eastern slope of Mount Moriah, each color in the image below represents a 5 meter rise above sea level. Ronny Reich's Citadel complex is overlaid on the topography to give you an idea of the impassable access to and from the Parker Tunnel. The highest point, the termination of the double wall abuts the bedrock at an ancient wall section that blocked access to the Parker Tunnel, @670m.

Parker's excavation notes recorded that he removed one of the giant"cyclopean" boulders to improve access, but he failed to discover the complete Temple Zero complex immediately to the south. When Eli Shukron found it in 2011, it strengthened evidence that termination of the double wall, its construction, the quarry cavity and citadel watchtower served a dual purpose: 1) to cut the eastern slope of the mountain and prevent access to the southern end of the Parker Tunnel and the Temple Zero location @670m and 2) to protect the transport of water through the underground passage, now known as Warren's Shaft System.

Residents of Mount Moriah could not have completed this massive construction project without significant help. They relied on allies, imported workers, but what compelled their alliance. Blocking access to Temple Zero may sound a bit far-fetched, but not if you were living their at that time. The new, much enlarged Israel were rising up out of Egypt, nations living on land that was sacred to Jacob knew that Israel would return. If Temple Zero were exposed Israel would have been more compelled to conquer the mountain, like a red flag to a bull. Perhaps the occupants who built this construct knew that when Israel returned they would surely seek it out so they blocked and obfuscated access to Temple Zero!

The evidence trapped under the rock and the quarry proves the quarry construction from the Bronze through the Iron Age. It dates the entire complex on the eastern slope of the Gihon Spring, including Temple Zero to the period around 3400 years ago, around the time Israel rose up out of Egypt and not to the Strata 7 Iron Age.

Jerusalem's 3800 Year Old Water Bottling Plant!

Between 1923 and 1925 archaeologists MacAlister and Duncan, for the Palestine Exploration Fund and The Daily Telegraph excavated on the Mount of Ophel, Mount Moriah, Jerusalem: Their extensive report included an aerial photo of the area they called the Jebusite City, now known as the City of David. That image (below) was marked by them to illustrates the location of the Fields 5 (north of),7 and 9 they excavated.  To the east, the Gihon Spring in Valley of the Kidron, which they referred to as the Virgins Fountain they wrote: "In fact we have come to the conclusion that there are no Jebusite cisterns at all in the city, but that the Jebusite city was dependent entirely on the Virgins Fountain ([the Gihon Spring] and possibly other springs since dried up) for their water supply."

1925 R.A.F. reconnaissance photo over City of David. 

Of their bedrock discoveries in Fields 5,7 and 9 which rise to between @680-700 meters above sea level they wrote: "We thought, when they were first uncovered that they were cisterns and in the original draft of this report we described them as such. We have now definitely abandoned this theory. There is no trace of a water line on the walls. There is no cup-hollows such as usually exists in the bottom of rock-cut cisterns to catch the last dregs of the water. We now hold that these carefully hewn chambers were tombs of a very early date, presumably belonging to notables of the Jebusite city." Pottery discovered and reported from the grave caves in these Fields dated back well before Biblical Jebusites to neolithic and early bronze ages.

How did life, development and water use evolve from the "very early date" these "notables" were buried on the mountain ridge? We have ample evidence of the embedded bedrock implements that were used for processing food or worship, the cave dwellings carved into rock, quarried bedrock structures and foundations that supported stone houses and walls. However, we must find the main route and the way water was transported from the Gihon Spring or we will not understand how 1000-2000 people began to live on the ridge of the mountain.

Bedrock of eastern slope in context Parker, Reich and Eli Shukron expeditions

Occupation was initially clustered close to or at the level of the Gihon Spring. Moving heavy water from the spring up mountain slope would have required substantial effort. The steep grade of the eastern slope rises 50 vertical meters from the Gihon Spring @634m to Field 9 starting @680m above sea level and within a walking distance of 100 meters from the Kidron Valley floor. Enterprising solutions must have been required to service populations once settlement moved above 650 meters. (Sea level heights are indicated in the image above.) To resolve this problem a King, attributed to the Emorites, Jebusites or one of the seven Canaanite tribes, during the period circa 1800-1700 B.C.E ordered work to expand an east sloping, natural underground tunnel that once ran from around @660m toward the Gihon Spring and Kidron Valley below.

In the video below Ronny Reich explains this underground tunnel now known as a water system or the Warrens Shaft System. There are several important points to note: 1. The iron steps, on which Ronny stands marks the termination of the tunnel and no evidence of steps, at that point has ever been found. Ropes may have hoisted water up the vertical shaft where the iron steps are now built. 2. Ronny indicates the system was used by common people to obtain their daily water, I dispute that, it was used by professional water carriers only. 3. The tunnel route evolved in three stages initially via the natural cave entry-exit to or from the water source immediately north of the double wall fortress and after it was constructed, between the double walls. The final route was more direct through an entry to the tunnel system immediately south of the double walls. These indications support a royal, efficient enterprise that controlled water from the Gihon Spring that had been channeled into the Round Chamber for 'bottling' and distribution.

In a previous article I detailed how the Warrens Shaft System had transformed the sanctity of the ancient bedrock on the lower eastern slope, specifically how it cut the four room worship complex from growing populations on the northern mountain ridge. The water enterprise of the Jeubusites, its capture and continued use by King David, its transformation to industrial zone and food market for the city, by the kings that followed forever changed the ancient character of the eastern slope.