[Avodah] 3000 Year Old Mansion Implies a Sizable Malkhus Beis David

[Micha Berger]

>From <https://www.livescience.com/62472-lost-biblical-kingdom-remains.html>.
What struck me is what appears to be the weakness of the objection --
some of the results are from a poor source, and even though they converge
with other results, we'll question the whole thing?

   Does This 3,000-Year-Old House Confirm King David's Lost Biblical
   Kingdom?
   By Owen Jarus, Live Science Contributor | May 3, 2018 02:50pm ET

   Archaeologists have discovered a sprawling, possibly 3,000-year-old
   house that suggests a biblical kingdom called the United Monarchy,
   ruled by King David and later Solomon according to the Hebrew Bible,
   actually existed.

   The archaeologists who excavated the house, at a site now called
   Tel Eton, in Israel, said in an article published online March 13 in
   the journal Radiocarbon that the date, design and size of the house
   indicates that a strong organized government existed at Tel Eton
   around 3,000 years ago. They added that this government may be the
   United Monarchy. The site is located in the central part of Israel
   in a region called the Shephalah.
...
   In their paper, Faust and Sapir argue that evidence supporting the
   existence of the United Monarchy is often not studied because of a
   problem they call the "old house effect."

   The site of Tel Eton, including the massive house, was destroyed by
   the Assyrians during the eighth century B.C. As such, the house held
   a vast amount of remains dating to that century, but relatively few
   remains that date to 3,000 years ago when the house was first built.

   This "old house effect" is a problem commonly seen in Israel and at
   archaeological sites in other countries, the archaeologists said.
   "Buildings and strata can exist for a few centuries, until they are
   destroyed, but almost all the finds will reflect this latter event,"
   wrote Faust and Sapir, noting that archaeologists need to be careful
   to dig down and find the oldest remains of the structures they are
   excavating so they don't miss remains that could provide clues to
   the United Monarchy.

   Israel Finkelstein, a professor at Tel Aviv University who has written
   extensively about the United Monarchy debate, expressed skepticism
   about the results.

   Two of the four samples used for radiocarbon dating are olive pits,
   which pose a problem, he said. "The single olive pits come from
   fills [material that accumulated on the surface of the floor before
   the floor broke apart]. They have no importance whatsoever [for]
   dating the building. At Megiddo, my dig, samples like this, single
   items/fills, are not being sent to the lab to be dated, because they
   enter bias into the dating system," Finkelstein said. "There is no
   connection whatsoever between the finds at Tel Eton and the biblical
   description of the United Monarchy."

   Faust told Live Science he expects that some archaeologists would be
   critical of the use of material found in the remains of the floors for
   radiocarbon dating. He noted that all the radiocarbon dates, those from
   the olive pits and from the charcoal, converge around 3,000 years. "The
   convergence of the dates suggest that we are on safe grounds," Faust
   said. He also noted that one of the charcoal samples is not from the
   floor but from the foundation deposit (the chalice), strengthening
   the conclusion that the house was built around 3,000 years ago.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             Today is the 38th day, which is
micha at aishdas.org        5 weeks and 3 days in/toward the omer.
http://www.aishdas.org   Tifferes sheb'Yesod: How does reliability
Fax: (270) 514-1507           promote harmony in life and relationships?