1923-25 Palestine Exploration Fund Excavations at the City of David, Jerusalem, Israel

The project will present for the first time all the information from the P.E.F. excavation of this critical area of Jerusalem. The resulting publication will make a significant contribution to the debate about Jerusalem's size and chronology in the biblical period, with particular relevance to the current controversy between the biblical minimalists and low chronologists on the one hand, and those supporting the traditional dating on the other. It will also serve as a necessary complement to publications of subsequent excavations in the same area by K. Kenyon and Y. Shiloh. The City of David, the site of ancient Jerusalem, lies to the south of the present Old City on a narrow spur of land extending from the south wall of the Temple Mount in the north to the Siloam Pool in the south. The area excavated by the P.E.F. is toward the north end of the east slope, in and around the location now commonly referred to as `Area G'. Finds dating from the Chalcolithic to the Hellenistic periods, including a stepped stone structure, several towers, a possible Middle Bronze Age city gate and an early Iron Age fortress, as well as a large number of artifacts, were uncovered in the excavation.