Overview
In 2005 Eilat Mazar opened an area of over 3,000 square feet at the northern summit of the City of David and exposed a set of very wide walls built of large stones. She treated them as one building, named it the Large Stone Structure, and argued it was part of one complex with the Stepped Stone Structure on the slope below.
Mazar dated construction to the 10th c. BCE: worn Iron I (12th-11th c.) pottery lay beneath the walls, and Iron IIA pottery, including a Cypriot Black-on-Red juglet, came from later phases. She proposed that it was the palace built for David by Hiram's craftsmen (2 Sam 5:11). Among later finds she reported a bulla of Yehuchal son of Shelemiyahu, a name that occurs in Jer 37:3.
Three published readings compete: Mazar's 10th-century palace; Finkelstein, Herzog, Singer-Avitz and Ussishkin (2007), who say the walls do not form one building and date the most elaborate ones to the Hellenistic period; and Faust (2010), who dates the structure to Iron I, before David.
What the evidence shows
- Walls 6-8 ft wide of large stones (Mazar, BAR 32.1, 2006).
- Iron I pottery (12th-11th c. BCE) beneath the structure; Iron IIA pottery (10th-9th c.) in later phases; a Cypriot Black-on-Red juglet (Mazar 2006).
- Seal impression reading 'Yehuchal son of Shelemiyahu son of Shovi' from the site; the building was still in use in the late Iron Age (Mazar 2006).
- Finkelstein et al. (2007): the walls 'do not belong to a single building'; the Stepped Stone Structure has at least two phases (a possible 9th c. BCE phase and a Hellenistic one).
- Regev et al. (PNAS 2024) found that 18 of their dates fall in the 12th-10th c. BCE in other City of David areas ('widespread occupation of yet undetermined character'); the LSS was not sampled.
Open questions
- Date and unity: Mazar (BAR 2006; The Palace of King David, 2009) dates a single building to the mid-10th c. from Iron I sherds sealed beneath it and Iron IIA material in it; Finkelstein, Herzog, Singer-Avitz and Ussishkin (Tel Aviv 34, 2007) say the walls belong to different structures and the elaborate ones are Hellenistic; Faust (ZDPV 126, 2010) dates it to Iron I and says 'the building was not the palace built for King David by the Phoenicians.'
- Relation to the Stepped Stone Structure: Mazar and Faust treat LSS and SSS as one complex; Finkelstein et al. (2007) separate the SSS into at least two phases.
- No radiocarbon date: the 2024 PNAS study that re-dated Iron Age Jerusalem (Regev et al.) did not sample the LSS, so its date still rests on pottery alone.
Since 2024
- 2024-05Regev et al. (PNAS 121) published a high-resolution 14C chronology for Iron Age Jerusalem: occupation in the 12th-10th c. in other City of David areas; Spring Tower and Giv'ati Building 100 dated to the 9th c. The Large Stone Structure was not sampled, so its date is unchanged. [5]
Sources
- Eilat Mazar, "Did I Find King David's Palace?" Biblical Archaeology Review 32.1 (Jan./Feb. 2006). link excavation report
- Eilat Mazar, The Palace of King David: Excavations at the Summit of the City of David. Preliminary Report of Seasons 2005-2007 (Jerusalem/New York: Shoham Academic Research and Publication, 2009). link excavation report
- Israel Finkelstein, Ze'ev Herzog, Lily Singer-Avitz, David Ussishkin, "Has King David's Palace in Jerusalem been Found?" Tel Aviv 34.2 (2007): 142-164. doi:10.1179/tav.2007.2007.2.142 link study
- Avraham Faust, "The Large Stone Structure in the City of David: A Reexamination," Zeitschrift des Deutschen Palästina-Vereins 126.2 (2010): 116-130. link study
- Johanna Regev et al., "Radiocarbon chronology of Iron Age Jerusalem reveals calibration offsets and architectural developments," PNAS 121.19 (2024): e2321024121. doi:10.1073/pnas.2321024121 link study
Corrected from the earlier edition of this page
- Old entry: 'massive ashlar stones'. The walls are of large undressed stones (Finkelstein et al. 2007 abstract: 'large undressed stones'; Mazar describes massive walls, not ashlar).
- Old entry: 2 Sam 5:11 is where 'King David declares his intention to build a palace'. The verse says Hiram sent cedar, carpenters and masons 'and they built David a house'; no declaration.
- Old entry: 'dates to the 10th century BCE' as fact. Three published dates compete: 10th c. (Mazar), Iron I (Faust 2010), and Hellenistic for the main walls (Finkelstein et al. 2007).
- Old entry: 'Approximately 30 meters long, 10 meters wide'. No such measurement was found in a verified source; removed. Mazar gives wall widths of 6-8 ft.
- Old entry: 'Phoenician-style palace' in the facts box. No verified source describes Phoenician building features; the Phoenician link is the biblical text (2 Sam 5:11), not an observation.
Checked against new publications through 2026-09.