Archaeologists claim to have found King David’s fiefdom

An archaeologist claims the ruins of five fortified cities on the outskirts of Jerusalem belonged to a kingdom ruled by a biblical character King David.

Yosef Garfinkle of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem believes the cities date back to the early 10th century BC. C., about 200 years from what was previously thought, which places its construction in the time of David.

Garfinkel’s study, published in June, describes cities with two parallel walls in the center and organized roads, suggesting the network was connected to the kingdom.

Although the cities were discovered separately, the archeologist claims that he was the first to connect thingsestablishing that it is an organized urban network built around 1000 BC.

And King David ruled from 1104 to 960 BC during the Iron Age.

David is said to have been a shepherd who became the third and most important king of Israel around 1000 BC. C. when he united all the tribes of Israel under one monarch, but the story has been disputed due to lack of evidence.

“I hate to use the phrase ‘trying to prove the Bible,’ because I’m not trying to prove anything,” Garfinkel told the Times of Israel.

“There are biblical traditions, and we can see if they have historical memories or not… It doesn’t mean that they are all, 100 percent, historical memories,” he said.

The sites of the ruins are at Khirbet Qeiyafa, Tell en-Naṣbeh, Khirbet ed-Dawwara, Lachish and Beth Shemesh, north and west of Jerusalem.

Garfinkel also discovered several Proto-Canaanite and Canaanite inscriptions at some sites, indicating a greater demand for communication signifying centralized authority and a strong kingdom, he argued.

However, not all archaeologists are convinced of Garfinkel’s claim.

Professor Aren Maeir, an archaeologist from Bar Ilan University, told The Times of Israel: “I think that’s an oversimplification. “There was probably a small kingdom in Jerusalem, but we don’t know how influential that kingdom was,” he said.