Joel Kontinen
Archaeologists have excavated a huge two-storey house in the Shephelah area in the Judean Hills, not far from Jerusalem.
“The archaeologists who excavated the house, at a site now called Tel Eton, in Israel, said in an article published online March 13 in the journal Radiocarbon that the date, design and size of the house indicates that a strong organized government existed at Tel Eton around 3,000 years ago. They added that this government may be the United Monarchy,” Live Science explains.
The United Monarchy refers to the reigns of David and Solomon before the kingdom split into two (Judah, the area in and around Jerusalem, and the northern kingdom known as Israel).
“Excavated between 2006 and 2015, the two-story house is constructed partly of ashlar stones. The ground floor is about 2,500 square feet (230 square meters) in size, putting it among the largest 1 percent of buildings that existed in the region around 3,000 years ago, Avraham Faust, an archaeology professor at Bar-Ilan University who leads excavations at Tel Eton, told Live Science.”
This is not the only archaeological evidence we have of King David. A few years ago, some sceptics still doubted his historicity. But then archaeologists found a 9th century B.C. inscription with the text House of David in Tel Dan in northern Galilee.
Some other recent discoveries, for instance excavations at Khirbet Qeiyafa, likewise confirm the existence of the United Monarchy.
We should not be surprised, as the Bible records history accurately. (See examples here, here and here.)
Source:
Jarus, Owen. 2018. Does This 3,000-Year-Old House Confirm King David's Lost Biblical Kingdom? Live Science (3 May).
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