(Wikimedia)
Archaeologists in Israel have uncovered charred sycamore wood preserved for 2600 years that may allow researchers to date the destruction of Solomon’s Temple to within a single decade. Source: Aleteia.
The Israel Antiquities Authority and Tel Aviv University archaeologists found the massive charred wooden beams beneath a parking lock. The discovery is believed to date to one of the most consequential moments in the history of ancient Jerusalem: the destruction of Solomon’s Temple by the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar II in 586 BC.
The announcement came on July 20 — days before Tisha B’Av, the Jewish fast day that commemorates the destruction of both the First and Second Temples.
The beams appear to have formed the roof of an inner courtyard in a First Temple-period building.
When the building was destroyed, the roof collapsed onto the floor. Melted plaster from the walls then covered the charred wood, creating the conditions that allowed the beams to survive for approximately 2600 years.
The wood has been identified as sycamore – a timber commonly used in ancient Judah for major construction.
This is the second time that roof beams from this specific building have been found at the Givati Parking Lot excavation site. The first discovery came from the building’s southern section; this new find comes from a different part of the same structure – suggesting the building was large, significant, and almost entirely destroyed in the Babylonian fire.
Alongside the beams, as the Times of Israel reported, archaeologists also found a collection of artifacts consistent with life in First Temple-period Jerusalem: pottery, storage vessels, and administrative objects that together paint a picture of an ordinary building in a city on the eve of catastrophe.
What makes this discovery scientifically extraordinary is the unusual number of growth rings preserved in the wood.
“It is very rare in Israel to find wood with such a large number of growth rings, Johanna Regev, a radiocarbon dating expert, said.
“Until now, we could date finds within a range of hundreds of years. Now we can attain much greater precision, narrowing the dating range down to as little as ten years,” Dr Regev said.
Solomon’s Temple, built in the 10th century BC as the permanent home of the Ark of the Covenant, was the spiritual centre of ancient Israel.
Its destruction in 586 BC by Nebuchadnezzar II marked the beginning of the Babylonian exile and ushered in what scholars call the Second Temple period, the era in which Jesus himself would later live and worship.
The destruction of the Second Temple by Rome in 70 AD is commemorated on the same fast day — Tisha B’Av — as the destruction of the First.
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Beams from Solomon’s Temple found under Jerusalem parking lot (Aleteia)
