Overview
A series of eight rooms cut into the bedrock of the City of David's eastern slope, about 300 yards from the Temple Mount, were published in 'Atiqot 116 (January 2025) by Eli Shukron and co-authors. They interpret the rooms as a cultic complex, 'likely constructed in the Middle Bronze Age, with its final stage in Iron Age IIB'.
According to the Biblical Archaeology Society's summary (21 January 2026), the features include an altar with a drainage channel, a standing stone (massebah) left upright, an oil press, a winepress, V-shaped floor carvings of unclear use, and a sealed cave (favissa). The favissa held 8th-century BCE cooking pots and storage jars, Hebrew inscriptions, loom weights, scarabs, stamp seals and grinding stones.
Shukron states that the complex 'ceased to function during the eighth century, possibly as part of King Hezekiah's religious reform'. Helena Roth notes that it is built in rock-cut chambers rather than as a stone-built temple, and that a missing eastern wall may mean it was 'open to the valley'.
What the evidence shows
- Eight rock-hewn rooms on the eastern slope, over 2,300 sq ft in total, about 300 yards from the Temple Mount (BAS 2026).
- Features: an altar with a drainage channel, an upright massebah, an oil press, a winepress, and V-shaped floor cuttings (BAS 2026).
- A sealed favissa (a storage pit or cave for retired cult objects) held an 8th-century assemblage: cooking pots, storage jars, Hebrew inscriptions, loom weights, scarabs, stamp seals and grinding stones (BAS 2026).
- The excavators' phasing: 'likely constructed in the Middle Bronze Age, with its final stage in Iron Age IIB' ('Atiqot 116 abstract).
- No eastern wall survives (Roth, as reported by BAS 2026).
Open questions
- Temple or cult installation? The 'Atiqot authors (Shukron, Freud, Roth, Avisar and Bocher 2025) call it a 'cultic complex'. The BAS headline calls it 'A Second Temple in First Temple Jerusalem'. BAS notes that the deity is not identified and that two temples to the same deity so close together would be unusual. Roth contrasts the rock-cut plan with stone-built Iron Age temples such as Arad, Beersheba, Lachish and Moza. No published counter-reading by a named scholar is cited here.
- Did it close because of Hezekiah? Shukron says the complex went out of use in the 8th century, 'possibly' because of Hezekiah's reform. The evidence is the 8th-century favissa and the deliberate sealing. Linking the closure to a specific king is his inference.
- How are the Hebrew inscriptions read? BAS reports inscriptions of possible magical or religious significance in the favissa, but the readings are not available in the sources cited here (the 'Atiqot PDF was not openly accessible).
Since 2024
- 2025-01Final publication of the complex in 'Atiqot 116 by Shukron and colleagues. [1]
- 2026-01BAS popular report brings the 'Atiqot results to wide attention and reports Shukron's suggestion of closure under Hezekiah. [2]
Sources
- Shukron, E., Freud, L., Roth, H., Avisar, R. and Bocher, E. 2025. "Evidence of Worship in the Rock-Cut Rooms on the Eastern Slope of the City of David, Jerusalem." 'Atiqot 116, article 5. doi:10.70967/2948-040X.1126 link excavation report
- Steinmeyer, N. "A Second Temple in First Temple Jerusalem." Bible History Daily, Biblical Archaeology Society, 21 January 2026. link study
Corrected from the earlier edition of this page
- Headlines calling this a 'second temple' in Jerusalem go further than the excavators' own words. The report calls it a 'cultic complex', and the deity is not identified.
- Statements that it was 'closed by Hezekiah' present a possibility as fact. The excavator says the complex ceased in the 8th century, 'possibly as part of King Hezekiah's religious reform'.
Checked against new publications through 2026-09.