Y. Garfinkel, M. Hasel and M. Klingbeil, 2013. An Ending and a Beginning. Why we’re leaving Qeiyafa and going to Lachish. Biblical Archaeology Review 39/6: 44-51 (original) (raw)
Related papers
Debating Khirbet Qeiyafa: A Fortified City in Judah from the Time of King David.
In 2007 the name “Khirbet Qeiyafa” was still unknown both to professional archaeologists and to the public. In 2008 Khirbet Qeiyafa became world-famous. This spectacular success is entirely due to the figure of King David, who is so well known from the biblical tradition but is a very elusive figure from the archaeological or historical point of view. Nowhere else had an archaeological layer that can be related to this king been uncovered, not even in Jerusalem. For the first time in the archaeology of Judah, a fortified city from the time of King David had been exposed. The date of the site was obtained by accurate radiometric measurements conducted on short-lived samples of burned olive pits. The location in the Elah Valley, just one day’s walk from Jerusalem, places the site in the core area of the Kingdom of Judah. Moreover, it is exactly in this area and this era that the biblical tradition places the famous combat between the inexperienced and anonymous young shepherd David and the well-equipped giant Philistine warrior Goliath. Khirbet Qeiyafa has become the point of contact between archaeology, biblical studies, ancient history and mythology. The fieldwork at Khirbet Qeiyafa lasted seven seasons, from 2007 to 2013. This book, written at the end of the excavation phase, summarizes the main results, supplies answers to various issues concerning the site that have been raised over the last few years, and presents a comprehensive interim report. We are using this opportunity to discuss various methodological issues that relate to archaeology and the biblical tradition, and how to combine the two.
Journal for the Evangelical Study of the Old Testament, May 28, 2021
The notion of a United Monarchy of Israel has been a hotly debated topic since at least the 1980s, especially since the archaeological record did not seem to reflect a vast kingdom that many presume to have existed, perhaps rivaling that of an empire, if the biblical account is accurate. This has called into question whether a Davidic dynasty ever existed, and whether a historical David ever lived. The archaeological evidence that has been excavated between the 1990s and 2010s has counteracted many of these criticisms, and one of the key sites that has contributed to the silencing of the critics is Khirbet Qeiyafa, a military outpost on the western fringe of the Shephelah designed to deter Philistine advances into Judah. Yosef Garfinkel has argued that the site was occupied exclusively during the Iron Age IIA, which equates to the reign of David. Lily Singer-Avitz has countered that Qeiyafa was inhabited instead during the Iron Age IB, which equates to the reign of Saul. The matter to resolve here is whether the short-lived site of Khirbet Qeiyafa was occupied during Saul’s reign, during David’s reign, or spanned both reigns.