- Stepped Stone Structure
The Stepped Stone Structure is the name given to the remains at a particular archaeological site (sometimes termed Area G) on the eastern side of the
City of David , the oldest part ofJerusalem . The curved, 60ft high, narrow stone structure is built over a series of terraces (hence the name). Acasemate wall adjoins the structure from a northerly direction at the upper levels, and may have been the original city wall.It was uncovered during a series of excavations by
R.A.S. Macalister in the 1920s,Kathleen Kenyon in the 1960s, andYigal Shiloh in the 1970s-80s. Kathleen Kenyon dated the structure to the start ofIron Age II (1000-900 BC); Macalister believed it to beJebusite . Macalister, the first to excavate the structure, called the remains he had found a "ramp"; other scholars, after the more recent discoveries by Kenyon and Shiloh, have suggested that it might be a retaining wall, or a fortress.Israel Finkelstein "et al" suggest that the upper part of the structure was substantially rebuilt in theHasmonean period.Israel Finkelstein ,Ze'ev Herzog ,Lily Singer-Avitz andDavid Ussishkin (2007), [http://www.tau.ac.il/humanities/archaeology/info/TA34-2_King_David.pdf Has King David's Palace in Jerusalem Been Found?] , "Tel Aviv: Journal of the Institute of Archaeology of Tel Aviv University", 34(2), 142-164; p. 154]It is hypothesized that the structure may be the Biblical
Millo . A recent excavation byEilat Mazar directly above the Stepped Stone Structure suggests it was connected to and perhaps built in support of theLarge Stone Structure , which Mazar claims to identify asKing David 'spalace .ee also
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Large Stone Structure
*Millo
*City of David References
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