02x07 - The Legacy of King Solomon: Part 2

[bunniefuu]

Whoa, don't take me too far.

Now that's naked archeology.

[SIMCHA] In the last episode

I went looking for proof that King Solomon

was a real historical figure.

Because let's face it,

without him the entire Messianic bloodline,

from King David all the way to Jesus, falls apart.

And that would be very bad, because that means

no Christmas, no Hanukkah, and no Easter.

So I looked into the Bible, which says:

I went to Jerusalem but finding evidence

of the temple Solomon built is impossible now.

The Muslim Dome of the Rock stands

where the temple once stood,

and digging there is forbidden.

I also visited the ancient sites of Megiddo and Hazor

and I found two almost identical gates

that could have been built by Solomon.

In fact, Amnon Ben-Tor, the man who excavated Hazor,

believes the gates there do belong to Solomon.

Is this somebody's living room?

No.

What is this?

It is a Solomonic gate.

[SIMCHA] But at Megiddo, archaeologist Norma Franklin

says the gates there don't belong to Solomon.

She says they were built

hundreds of years after Solomon d*ed.

Solomon never saw it.

Even if he came to Megiddo

and we don't even know if he came here.

[SIMCHA] It's a stalemate.

Two very different opinions and so much at stake.

But I'm determined to find evidence

that Solomon not only existed,

but was a great King of Israel.

So I'm going to keep looking. But before I do that...

This is the falafel place, and why am I here?

Because I'm on my way to find King Solomon

and I can't tell you nothing makes me hungrier

than looking for evidence of King Solomon.

[HEBREW]

A special. -Look at that.

Layer on those spices.

Oh, I'm hungry because I'm looking for King Solomon.

This is a thing of beauty. Look at this! Look at this!

This is delicious.

I've been thinking about King Solomon.

How could the Bible describe him as this amazing guy

who has a thousand wives,

who builds the house of God, who's the son of David,

he's the Messianic line, he built these amazing cities...

[indistinct]

[SIMCHA] Let me repeat that...

the Bible says Solomon was King,

and there seems to be archaeology that matches

the biblical description, so....what's the problem?

In the end, the biggest issue is whether the Bible

should be used as a tool for archaeology.

You see, there are two different camps

when it comes to Biblical Archaeology.

There are the "maximalists"

and there are the "minimalists."

The maximalists use the Bible

as a reference for archaeology.

The minimalists refuse to.

And all these archaeologists, these minimalists

they say he didn't exist. And the reason they give is:

[indistinct]

[SIMCHA] Or in other words, the minimalists

use a very different approach for dating archaeology.

The way they do it... Solomon disappears.

The debate between minimalist

and maximalist archaeologists has always been heated,

but it reached new levels

over the now-famous Jehoash Inscription.

Back in , an antiques collector named Oded Golan

introduced to the world to an ancient stone

that contained an inscription that could have

provided firm archaeology linked to Solomon's Temple.

Here's what the inscription says:

[SIMCHA] Maximalist archaeologist

celebrated the find as the first concrete proof

of Solomon's Temple.

But the minimalists were quick to declare the stone a fake,

claiming that some of the grammar in the inscription

could not have been used in ancient times.

Soon after, Oded Golan was charged with fraud,

and the stone was confiscated.

Golan maintains his story that the inscription is authentic,

and many leading scholars agree. Here's why.

Eighth-century BCE carbon particles

were found on the stone.

Ash was b*rned into the stone from a great fire,

which corresponds to the destruction of the Temple

by the Babylonians in the th century BCE.

There are also minute flecks of gold fused into the stone,

corresponding to the gold used in the decoration of the Temple.

Finally, the inscription corresponds to a passage

in the Bible concerning the repair of the Temple.

But whether you side with the maximalists or the minimalists

the point for the time being is moot.

Recently, the Antiquities Authority found

an Egyptian artist who has confessed

to faking the Jehoash stone.

And unless the controversial confession is debunked,

the stone no longer proves anything.

In the s another artifact showed up

in the antiquities market and experts

thought this ,-year-old ivory pomegranate

may have come from Solomon's Temple.

What does an ivory pomegranate have to do

with the First Temple of God? Let me explain.

This is a pomegranate.

It has a magical quality to it. Look at it.

It's literally royalty, fruit royalty-it wears a crown.

And it has special status in the biblical tradition.

You say a special blessing over the pomegranate.

And it's said that there are as many seeds

inside the pomegranate as there are commandments,

, in the Bible.

The temple high priests used to have pomegranates

on little staffs when they used to perform the ritual

in the Temple of Solomon.

[SIMCHA] The ivory pomegranate

caused a bit of stir when it first showed up

on the antiquities market, not only because it dates

back to the First Temple Period,

but because it also bears an inscription that says:

Or in other words, belonging to Solomon's Temple.

But before we examine the controversy

surrounding the ivory, I want to get a taste

of the symbolic importance of the pomegranate.

And what better place to start than a juice stand

in Jerusalem's marketplace?

This is my friend. I'm interested in pomegranates.

Pomegranate. Pomegranate. Pomegranate. Important, right?

Pomegranate is the best health in the-

They're holy, right?

Six hundred and thirteen seeds.

-Six hundred and thirteen seeds.

But my friend counted them, and there was only .

You'll have to count another one.

It was a defective pomegranate?

Yeah. Now, look. This is the pomegranate.

You see this is like crown?

It has a crown.

Now, the son of David is like this.

That's why the Star of David.

Oh, the Star of David comes from that crown?

Yeah.

Oh. Let me see. Oh, I see.

Oh my goodness. It's a Star of David.

[SIMCHA] The pomegranate truly is a holy fruit.

You get a star.

Six hundred and thirteen seeds

or the six hundred and thirteen laws of the Bible,

and a crown that may be the origin of the Star of David.

Unfortunately, the ivory pomegranate

has left a bit of a sour taste.

After years of being displayed as a real artifact

in the Israel Museum,

it too has now been declared a forgery,

and removed from display. The controversy continues.

We kind of struck out on the artifacts.

So I'm going back to the Bible.

The Book of Kings says Solomon fortified

several cities in ancient Israel.

I've visited two of them already.

But archaeologists can't agree

on whether they belong to Solomon or not.

But the Bible mentions a third city that Solomon fortified:

The city of Gezer.

Let's see if we can find some Solomonic gates there....

[SIMCHA] In my search to find evidence

for a historical King Solomon,

I've discovered a w*r being waged by two camps of archaeologists.

The maximalists, who believe that the Bible should

be used as a reference for archaeology,

and the minimalists, who believe that the Bible

is not a historical and shouldn't be used in the field.

The biggest battle is being played out

in the ancient cities that the Bible says Solomon fortified.

So far I've visited two of them, Megiddo and Hazor.

But the archaeologists I spoke to can't agree

on whether they belong to Solomon or not.

So I'm headed to the third city Gezer, to break the tie.

[SIMCHA] According to the Bible,

Gezer was actually a dowry payment

from the pharaoh of Egypt when his daughter

was married to King Solomon.

But before handing it over,

the Egyptians b*rned the entire city to the ground.

Some dowry.

If Solomon was as big as the Bible says he was,

he would have rebuilt Gezer

and left some big things behind:

a big city with big, fortified gates.

I'm looking for big stuff with Ofri Harari,

the man in charge of the site.

This is a pretty awesome site.

I was expecting something much smaller.

Oh, it's a large city.

Large. Large.

Very large city.

Look at that. I mean, this is beautiful.

This is real! It's still standing.

Tell me where we are

and what the significance of this place is.

We are standing in the middle of the encasement wall.

This wall surrounds the city from degrees

around the city, with about to towers,

watchtowers, and I think there are some more gates

on the other side.

So what you have is as they would have come up,

they would have seen these huge walls.

How high?

I guess in some ways it would be metres, feet or so.

That's high.

Yeah, and considering they're coming from the lower side,

from the valley, and they're looking at the big monument

of a city in front of them.

And then, as you go inside, you can go

into the living quarters and the city itself.

The city itself. I'm going to go down there,

if you don't mind. I'm stepping into history, literally.

This is King Solomon's time.

I mean, we're talking about , years ago.

I mean, can't you imagine the life of this city?

You've got a wall over there,

you've got a wall over here, you've got people doing things.

This is a room. You see the cooking area?

You see the walls? Look at this:

you still have pottery shards.

Do you see the defensive walls?

You could see right into the valley.

You see the strategic importance of this place.

[SIMCHA] The fact that Gezer was fortified

, years ago, in the th century BCE,

is a strong argument for Solomon's influence.

Now I need to find the gates to check

if they look like the ones I've already seen

at Megiddo and Hazor.

OK. Let's go to the gates.

Let's go to the gate.

So this is it. This is a Solomonic gate.

Yeah.

I've never sat in a Solomonic gate before.

I'd like to sit one.

Then you can sit down.

Enjoy yourself, sitting in the middle of the street,

on the steps of the gate.

Look, it's being invaded by the bourgeoisie.

Oh, yeah.

When you actually sit inside the gate,

you can see how big it is, how strong the stones are.

And you can even see the hinges.

Hinge where the door posts were.

Oh, there's the other one.

Yeah.

We're talking about a ,-year-old structure.

You can just see the wooden doors.

[SIMCHA] The "casement" style gate at Gezer

consists of a thick exterior wall

and a series of six interior chambers, or rooms,

built into the gate- exactly like the gates

I saw at Megiddo and Hazor.

I have to say that this is a payoff,

this is an archaeological payoff.

You know, like, oftentimes you go, you travel,

you go to the ends of the world,

and it's two stones, and I get excited.

But here-it says in the Book of Kings,

Solomon fortified-he built-Hazor,

Megiddo, and Gezer.

We're at Gezer, and there's the fortification.

Why isn't this place one of the wonders of the world?

Maybe in the future.

[SIMCHA] The evidence for King Solomon

in the gates here at Gezer is pretty convincing.

But as much as it matches the biblical narrative to the T,

minimalist archaeologists are suggesting

that the gates here should be dated later,

not in the tenth century,

when Solomon was supposed to have been king.

Once again, two teams of archaeologists

fighting over dates,

and Solomon is left hanging in the balance.

Who do you believe?

I need something more,

something to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt

that King Solomon was here.

So, back to the Bible for clues.

The Bible says that Solomon didn't build the Temple alone,

he had the help of a foreign king: Hiram of Tyre.

Perhaps if we look for Hiram,

we'll find evidence of the deal

that led to the building of the temple of Solomon.

[SIMCHA] I'm looking for one more piece of evidence

that can prove

that the biblical Solomon is fact, not fiction.

So I'm taking another look at the Bible,

which tells me that Solomon, son of King David,

built the First Temple to God in Jerusalem.

But it also says that he didn't build it alone;

he had help from a neighbouring king, Hiram of Tyre.

He was the king of the Phoenecians,

the coastal Canaanites.

And in return for helping him

and bringing the cedars of Lebanon

to build a Temple of God, King Solomon gave him something.

He gave him, basically, the Tribe of Asher.

I don't know how happy the Asherites were,

but that's what he gave him.

And I'm in Cabul, Cabul in the Galilee.

And that was centre of the tribe of Asher.

And I heard that archaeologist Zvi Gal

may have found the smoking g*n,

the connection between Solomon and Hiram of Tyre.

Zvi Gal, you found something amazing,

at least that's what I heard.

I came schlepping all the way to the Galilee.

It's a pile of stones with an interesting story.

It's a pile of stones, right? But we're in Cabul.

Yeah. Biblical Cabul.

Biblical Cabul. We're not in Afghanistan.

No. This village over there is modern Cabul.

It's a mile to the south,

the closest modern village to this side,

and it's named Cabul.

So when I started my research,

I decided to look for an Iron Age site

in the immediate vicinity of modern Cabul.

Now, Iron Age, we're talking about , years ago.

Yeah. And when we first came here, we saw two things.

One, we're very close to Cabul, modern Cabul.

And on top of this, when we started our survey,

it was all Iron Age.

That's a good technique.

You find the biggest pile of stones...

And you start.

And you start digging.

Well you have to be smart enough to find a pile of stones.

Then it's halfway to the discovery.

The first season, we found this section of the building,

and they call it fort, although it's a very small structure.

But I use the term "fort"

because it's fortified by a wall.

So I started to ask the question: who did it?

Who built the structure? And for what purpose?

The first clue was the architectural style.

If you look at this wall, over there you can see

dressed stones: headers and stretchers.

Headers and stretchers?

Yes.

[SIMCHA] The technique of alternating between

the ends and sides of bricks, called headers and stretchers,

is used to create very sturdy walls.

And it was the Phoenicians who were famous

for this type of construction.

This was the first evidence that say, wait, wait, wait.

Maybe we got a Phoenician background for this stuff.

And which king of Israel had the most relationship

at that time with the Phoenicians?

Solomon. Of course it's Solomon. Yeah.

I love it. It's like a detective story.

Yeah. Well, it's an archaeological detective story.

That's fantastic.

[SIMCHA] In the Book of Kings,

it says that Solomon gave the land here in Cabul

to the Phoenician king, Hiram of Tyre.

When I come here, I find buildings constructed

in the Phoenician building style,

headers and stretchers, a style that King Hiram

perfected when he helped Solomon build the First Temple

in Jerusalem.

But is the brickwork here at Cabul

really enough to prove what the Bible says

about King Solomon? Not entirely.

But Zvi Gal has one more piece of evidence

that may seal the deal.

[SIMCHA] I'm hot on the trail of evidence

that King Solomon of the Bible was a real guy.

The Bible says that King Hiram of Tyre

provided lumber and craftsmen

to help King Solomon build his temple to God.

In return King Solomon sent Hiram oil, wheat, and wine...

and a parcel of land in northern Israel called Cabul.

If that was really the case,

then maybe there's some evidence of it here in Cabul.

King Hiram named this area the land of Cabul.

It's a fertile land then and now.

And if you look into what we found in the structure,

we found mostly storage jars. It is a storage facility.

Storage for what?

Storage of what? For wheat,

that we found seeds of, of wine and olive oil.

We have the capacity of about , liters.

That's a lot of storage.

It's a lot of storage.

They had lots of wine.

So what doing boss in antiquity is collecting taxes.

What kind of taxes? Wheat, wine, and olive oil.

Oh. Great.

And this was found in quantities.

This is a center for taxation.

Exactly. Now, this facility was destroyed by a huge fire.

We don't know why it was destroyed. It was a huge fire.

We don't know who?

Don't know who.

So this place was b*rned, right?

Heavy b*rned.

Now, if you have fire, right, evidence of fire,

but you don't have evidence of w*r,

and they're burning the actual tax records

and the tax stuff, isn't it possible

that what we have here is a tax revolt?

We have evidence, and you have your speculation,

which is fine. But the building is b*rned.

Period. I mean, we don't know.

You have a taxation center of foreigners, right?

Yeah.

It would seem to me that you had, like, a peasant revolt.

If I was a farmer here, I wouldn't be happy

if you just gave my land away.

I was living in Israel until today; now suddenly

you gave me away, and I'm living under the Phoenicians,

and they're taxing me to the bone.

Yeah, everybody looks for monumental structures,

which of course are important.

But you found Solomon by finding Hiram.

Here you find synchronicity between the biblical story

and the archaeology. You find a taxation building,

well-protected, with the evidence of tax, with architecture.

You're finding the footprint of Hiram.

Yeah. Exactly.

I feel like I'm standing at a site

where King Hiram and King Solomon might have stood.

There is a core of evidence in the Bible

that you can and should rely on.

I'm amazed. Can I go visit the taxation center?

I'd normally avoid, you know, revenue services,

but since this one seems to be defunct.

Zvi Gal's findings here at Cabul

may not be irrefutable evidence of Solomon,

but it does seem to show evidence of a transaction

between the Phoenicians and the king of Israel

back in the th century BCE,

evidence that corresponds with the Biblical story.

Santa, the Easter Bunny, and the Davidic line

are safe for the time being,

especially when you consider all I've seen at Megiddo,

Hazor, and Gezer, three identical gates

at three ancient cities that the Bible says Solomon fortified.

When I look back on all the archaeology I've seen,

I can't help but wonder: if the Bible is wrong

and Solomon had nothing to do with any of this,

then who did?

Unless someone can come up with a theory

that can answer that question,

I'm keeping my bets on Solomon.