BIBLE HISTORY

Otago Witness, Issue 3615, 26 June 1923, Page 31

BIBLE HISTORY

EXCAVATION IN PALESTINE. LONDON, June 20. The Palestine Exploration Fund, assisted by the Daily Telegraph, hae arranged with the Palestine Government for the Fund f o conduct important excavations in Ophel Hill, Jerusalem. Dr R. G. Hogarth, at a meeting of the Fund to-day, said it was possible that the tombs of kings might be found and treasures of the time of David and Solomon revealed in the accumulations of rubbish, including an inscribed monument recording David’s victories. Professor R. A. Stswart Maealister, who is in charge of the excavations, recalled the fact that the Daily Telegraph had financed George Smith’s expedition to Kununjik in 1873, which had discovered Babylonian cuneiform tablets relating to Noah’s flood. The excavations at .Teruisalem will begin in September on Eastern Hill, south of the city wall, which scholars have long recognised as the Jebusite fortress, after, wards known as citv of David. Professor Maealister recalled that Josephus states that Simon Maccabaeus demolished the Acra, which was a sort of citadel overtopping the temple. The work of destruction took the townsfolk of Jerusalem three years to accomplish, working day and night. It might be possible to find the remains of the Acra, which Simon Maccabaeus toppled into an adjacent valley. There were also problems to be solved, raised by the records in Tell <vAmarna tablets. King Abdlchiba, who was an accomplished intriguer and diplomatist, might have leU, an archive chamber on the hill of David.