the steep slope. Based on the pottery she found,
Mazar dates the building to around 1000 B.C.—
the traditional date assigned to the Israelite take-
over of Jebusite Jerusalem.
She is so deep in thought that I have to call
her name twice to bring her out of her reverie. “I
like to come here when it is quiet to think,” she
explains. She invites me down steps that lead to
a metal catwalk above her famous excavation.
She leans over the rail and points at the rubble
below. “This was an extension of the old Canaan-
ite palace, but the building is something new.
This is a king with a vision, who built something
large and impressive in a skilled manner.” For
Mazar, that can only be King David. “Everything
fits the story in the Bible.”
Her 2005 discovery made headlines around
the world, but colleagues remain mostly uncon-
vinced. She relies heavily on pottery for dating,
rather than more modern methods such as
radiocarbon, and her literal reading of the Bible
is seen by many archaeologists as flawed. Even
the sign on the catwalk adds a question mark to
the identification of the site: “The remains of
King David’s palace?”
“I rely on facts,” she says, a touch of irritation
in her voice when I raise the objections of other
academics. “What people believe is a different
story. It takes time for people to accept what’s
new. I can’t wait.”
Mazar is eager to dig just to the north, where
she believes the famous palace of David’s son,
Solomon, lies hidden. “I am sure it is there,”
she says with a sudden fierceness. “We need to
excavate this!”
She’s preparing a request for permission to
dig the site. Whether the IAA will approve her
further excavation is in question. “Today, if
you dig, you need solid data—not just coins or
pottery, but results using physics and biology,”Inside the underground
Al Marwani Mosque,
Muslim men await the
start of Friday prayers.
In 1999 workers used
bulldozers to open
a wide new entrance,
raising fears that
historical layers on
the sacred platform
had been damaged.
FAIZ ABU RMELEHUNDER JERUSALEM 63