Jerusalem: The Biography

* The Bible cites the fortresses of Megiddo, Gezer and Hazor as Solomon’s store-cities. But in the debates of the twenty-first century, revisionists, led by Professor Israel Finkelstein, argue that they are actually Syrian-style palaces built a hundred years later, leaving Solomon without any buildings. Other archaeologists challenge the revisionist dating. The black-onred pottery found at these sites belongs in the late tenth century BC, roughly the time of Solomon’s reign and Pharaoh Sheshonq’s invasion, nine years after the king’s death, while exciting new analysis of the buildings suggests they were indeed huge, tenth-century stables, and therefore plausibly evidence of Solomon’s cavalry power and Mediterranean horse-trading operations. The debate continues.