Absolute Dating of the Gihon Spring Fortifications, Jerusalem

Abstract

One of the most impressive structures in Jerusalem’s ancient landscape is the tower that was built to surround and protect the Gihon Spring, Jerusalem’s perennial water source. The structure, first discovered by Reich and Shukron (2004), encompasses the cave in which the spring sprouts from, with walls 7 m thick built of large boulders. The Spring Tower, along with the other features relating to it, were all attributed to the Middle Bronze Age II, based on their architectural and stratigraphical relationship, the type of architecture, and the pottery found. In the continued excavations carried out by the Israel Antiquities Authority along the outer, eastern face of the Spring Tower, it was noted that at least the northeast side of the tower was not built on bedrock, but rather on layers of sediment, which were sealed by the massive boulders at the base of the tower. In order to provide an absolute dating for the structure, two sections were sampled for radiocarbon (14C) dating beneath the foundation stones at two locations. Scenarios for the construction of the tower during Middle Bronze Age (MB) and Iron Age II are considered, based on the new 14C data, yielding a series of dates, the latest of which falls in the terminal phases of the 9th century BCE, alongside previous excavation data.

Middle Bronze Age Jerusalem: Recalculating Its Character and Chronology

“…A section was cleaned, documented, and sampled beneath the massive stones of boulders of the northeastern corner of the tower. The tower-thought to be dated to the MB II-yielded dates in the late 9th century BC directly beneath the stones, indicating that it was not built (or at least in its current form) until that time (Regev et al 2017a). That said, in situ layers significantly below the tower did yield Middle Bronze Age dates (see below) and are relevant to the current discussion.…”

“…These floors yielded dates between 1920-1690. The fact that these floors are situated below the foundation of Wall 104, the northeastern corner of the tower, prove that the area of the spring was settled during the Middle Bronze and that the Spring Tower was definitely built later (see Regev et al 2017a). Middle Bronze Age Jerusalem 871 Figure 7 Sample locations and their calibrated ranges from the room in area U.…”

“…In a previous published paper, measurements from MBA layers underneath the Spring Tower were reported (Regev et al 2017a). The tower, surrounding Jerusalem's perennial water source, had been exposed and dated to the Middle Bronze Age by the excavators (Reich and Shukron 2010).…”

“…We will introduce results of samples collected from three different areas of excavation along the *Corresponding author. Email: elisabetta.boaretto@weizmann.ac.il eastern slope of the southeastern hill, the location of ancient Jerusalem, offering a revised understanding of the site and its development during the first half of the second millennium BC (Figure 1): Area E, along the eastern slopes of the hill (De Groot and Bernick-Greenberg 2012;Eisenberg 2012), including what has been defined as the city wall of the period; Area U, some 80 m north of Area E and just above the Gihon Spring, Jerusalem's primary water source; and the Spring Tower, the results of which were published elsewhere (Regev et al 2017a). It is important to note that save for the remains uncovered in Area E; the eastern slope has yielded significant amounts of MB finds (particularly pottery), although more often than not, they cannot be directly related to particular architectural remains (Roth 2020a(Roth , 2020b(Roth , 2020c.…”

“…Ussishkin (2016) suggested that no city existed before the late 8th century BC at the site, offering a reevaluation of the remains attributed to the Middle Bronze Age based on the published archaeological data, suggesting a later date for specific features and a different interpretation for others. Concrete evidence for the misdating of elements to the Middle Bronze Age-particularly the large tower surrounding the spring (hereafter Spring Tower) -was presented through radiocarbon dating (Regev et al 2017a). The new finds created a need to re-evaluate the character and chronology of the site in this period, the task of this article.…”