Thanks to radiocarbon dating, a research team from the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA), Tel Aviv University, and the Weizmann Institute of Science has uncovered the identity of the builder of a section of wall in the historic center of the city.
Researchers have determined that it was not King Hezekiah, as previously thought, but rather his great-grandfather Uzziah who constructed the wall. This finding aligns with biblical accounts.
Biblical Version Confirmed
The wall is located in the City of David—a historic archaeological site that, according to the Bible, formed the original city of Jerusalem.
Thus, this famous wall was built earlier than scholars had believed for many years. Until now, scientists were convinced that it was erected by Hezekiah, the king of Judah, who ruled during the 7th-8th centuries BCE. He aimed to fortify the city against invaders from the Assyrian Empire.
However, a new study, nearly a decade in the making, revealed that King Uzziah, Hezekiah’s great-grandfather, constructed the wall after a significant earthquake. Joe Uziel from the IAA noted, “Until now, many researchers assumed that the wall was built by Hezekiah during his rebellion against Sennacherib, the king of Assyria, to protect Jerusalem during the Assyrian siege. It is now clear that the wall in the City of David was built earlier, shortly after a major earthquake in Jerusalem.”
Dr. Joe Uziel from the Israel Antiquities Authority (left) and Professor Yuval Gadot from Tel Aviv University.
The construction is described in the Old Testament, in the Second Book of Chronicles: “Uzziah built towers in Jerusalem at the Corner Gate, at the Valley Gate, and at the corner of the wall, and fortified them.”
How Researchers Uncovered the Ancient Wall
The team conducted radiocarbon dating on organic materials found at four different excavation sites in the ancient heart of Jerusalem—the City of David. This method uses the decay of the radioactive carbon isotope (14C) to measure the age of carbon-containing artifacts.
Among these artifacts were grape and date seeds, as well as bat skeletons. The collected material was cleaned and converted into graphite. This mass was then placed in a particle accelerator at a speed of 3,000 kilometers per second to separate carbon-14 from other organic materials. Following this, the measurement of carbon revealed the true age of the samples, as reported by the Daily Mail.
Yuval Gadot from Tel Aviv University remarked, “The new findings support the idea that Jerusalem expanded and spread to Mount Zion as early as the 9th century BCE. This was during the reign of King Joash—one hundred years before the Assyrian exile. The new research showed that the expansion of Jerusalem was a result of internal Judean demographic growth and the formation of a political and economic system.” “This study revealed that in the 10th century BCE, during the time of David and Solomon, the city was populated in various areas and was likely larger than we previously thought,” Dr. Uziel added.
Illustration of a city defensive structure from the First Temple period, built during the reign of King Hezekiah, around 783–742 BCE.
According to him, it is now entirely possible to “determine the age of specific buildings and correlate them with specific kings mentioned in the biblical text.”
The Kingdom of Judah lasted until 587 BCE, when the Babylonians besieged and destroyed its capital, Jerusalem, along with Solomon’s Temple, often referred to as the First Temple.