Evidence of a major earthquake from the Bible found by archaeologists in Jerusalem

Archaeologists in Jerusalem say they have found evidence of damage to their excavations as a result of the earthquake mentioned in two books of the Bible. References in the Old Testament have led to earlier archaeological discoveries throughout the Middle East, and this new discovery may finally help establish a more accurate date of events. This can help synchronize archaeological finds across the region.

The new find was made in the City of David National Park, located in the Silwan neighborhood of East Jerusalem. Archaeologists have found evidence of a devastating incident with broken dishes, cooking utensils and storage utensils dating back to the eighth century BC that appear to have been shattered when the walls fell. Other archaeological sites showed an earthquake in Israel 2,800 years ago, but this is the first to show that it reached Jerusalem.

“When we excavated the Temple and discovered a layer of destruction from the eighth century BC, we were very surprised, because we know that Jerusalem continued to exist successively until the destruction of Babylon, which occurred about 200 years later. We asked ourselves what could have caused this,” said Dr. Joe Ozil and Ortal Khalaf, directors of the excavations on behalf of the Israel Antiquities Authority, said in a statement we sent to IFLScience, that the dramatic layer of destruction we discovered.”

“When examining the results of the excavations, we tried to check whether there was a reference to it in the biblical text. Interestingly, the earthquake that appears in the Bible in the books of Amos and Zechariah, occurred at the time when we excavated the building in the city of David collapsed. The combination between the finds in the field and the biblical description to the conclusion that the earthquake that struck the land of Israel during the reign of Uzziah, king of Judah, also struck the kingdom’s capital, Jerusalem…”

The first mention of the earthquake in the Bible is found in the book of Amos, which begins by saying that the prophecy of Amos occurred “in the days of Uzziah, king of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam son of Joash, king of Israel, two years before the earthquake.” Based on geological evidence, the earthquake occurred between 785 and 735 BC, with historical evidence pointing to dates in the middle of that. Historical references to the two kings indicate that the earthquake occurred in the 660s / 750 BC.

The second reference is in the book of Zechariah, which says, “You flee as you fled from the earthquake in the days of Uzziah, king of Judah.” The earthquake is believed to have been large, easily above 7.8 but likely stronger. Six archaeological sites have evidence of such an event, and now this seventh site has been discovered.

“The earthquake that occurred in the middle of the eighth century B.C. was probably one of the most powerful and damaging earthquakes of antiquity, and evidence of its occurrence in the past has been discovered in excavations carried out at a variety of sites throughout Israel, such as Hazor, Gezer and Tel Agul and Tal al-Safi/Jet,” Dr. Uziel and Shallaf continued.

The excavation area in the City of David. Photograph: Ortal Khalaf – Israel Antiquities Authority

The team concluded that the items were destroyed as the wall in which they were stored collapsed, which is consistent with a major earthquake. They ruled out other causes, such as the absence of a fire indicating that it was not an intentional event. They also ruled out that this was a single accident. One building collapsed due to some unique structural damage. What happened there was evidence of something more widespread.

′′ As there are no signs of fire, this is not an intentional event, and the reason for the collapse of the Temple was the earthquake that occurred in Israel during the eighth century BC, during the Kingdom of Judea,” Dr. explained in a Facebook post.

The pottery was reconstructed in the laboratories of the Israel Antiquities Authority. A detailed analysis of the samples as well as more findings from this catastrophic earthquake will be presented in September at the Megalam Institute’s annual archaeological conference.

This week at IFLScience

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