Experts Uncover Evidence of Ancient Jerusalem's Devastation
JAKARTA, CNBC Indonesia — An international team of scientists has uncovered evidence of a major destruction event in ancient Jerusalem through modern archaeological and radiocarbon dating research. The findings are believed to corroborate historical records in the Bible, including the city’s destruction by Babylon in 586 BC.
Published in the journal ‘Radiocarbon Chronology of Iron Age Jerusalem Reveals Calibration Offsets and Architectural Developments’, the research team sought to reconstruct Jerusalem’s urban history.
They employed radiocarbon dating, atmospheric radiocarbon measurements, and tree-ring analysis. However, the task proved more challenging than anticipated.
Researchers faced challenges from the Hallstatt plateau. A mix of cosmic rays and atmospheric conditions interfered with radiocarbon dating, preventing precise age determination.
To overcome these challenges, scientists used biblical texts and historical records. They also studied pottery and other evidence through radiocarbon measurements.
They successfully conducted over 100 radiocarbon measurements on organic materials. The collected samples were also successfully identified.
New precise dating of archaeological sites in Jerusalem supports several key historical events described in the Bible, including the city’s settlement, major earthquakes, and its destruction by the Babylonians.
Elisabetta Boaretto, a researcher and director of the Weizmann Institute’s Scientific Archaeology Unit, stated that Jerusalem is a living city. She described the area as continuously built-up, with scattered archaeological evidence.
‘Despite the challenges of layered construction and the Hallstatt plateau, we were able to establish a chronology for the Iron Age,’ she said, cited from the Jerusalem Post.
Researchers examined 103 seed samples and other remains from five sites in the ancient City of David area of Jerusalem, south of the Temple Mount.
This new approach applied radiocarbon dating and precise analytical methods, collectively termed ‘micro-archaeology’, to sediment layers associated with seeds, then verified dates using atmospheric radiocarbon measurements from tree rings growing between 624 and 572 BC.
This effectively eliminated uncertainties in most of the Hallstatt plateau period, Boaretto said. They established the chronology using evidence of the Babylonian destruction in 586 BC.
The settlement period ended with a major fire identified as the Babylonian destruction of 586 BC, as described in the Bible and Neo-Babylonian records.
However, not all experts are convinced of the new chronology’s reliability.
Israel Finkelstein, a professor at Tel Aviv University not involved in the study, said many samples used in the research came from less-than-ideal archaeological contexts. Only one of the five historical sites was deemed reliable.