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Archeology

Jerusalem vs. Tel Aviv And The Battle Over Israel’s Biblical Archeology

In 1993, archaeologists working at the Tel Dan site in Northern Israel unearthed an Aramaic inscription featured on a monumental stone jab. Once deciphered, the artifact offered something absolutely unprecedented: the first archaeological reference to biblical King David.

 The issue of the historicity of the monarch had been debated by scholars for decades within the context of whether the Bible can be considered a historical source and of what role it can play in archaeological studies in the land of Israel. From the first European archaeologists making their way to the Middle East to explore the Holy Land in the nineteenth century to this day, the dispute has not ceased.

In 1993, archaeologists working at the Tel Dan site in Northern Israel unearthed an Aramaic inscription featured on a monumental stone jab. Once deciphered, the artifact offered something absolutely unprecedented: the first archaeological reference to biblical King David.

 The issue of the historicity of the monarch had been debated by scholars for decades within the context of whether the Bible can be considered a historical source and of what role it can play in archaeological studies in the land of Israel. From the first European archaeologists making their way to the Middle East to explore the Holy Land in the nineteenth century to this day, the dispute has not ceased.

Read More: Jerusalem Post