Radiocarbon And Hezekiah’s Tunnel
Excavating Hezekiah’s Tunnel
Radioisotope dating has confirmed that an underground tunnel bringing water into the city of Jerusalem was built around 700 B.C., confirming the biblical story that it was constructed by King Hezekiah to provide water in anticipation of a siege of Jerusalem by an invading Assyrian army. Experts say the tunnel, known either as the Siloam tunnel or as Hezekiah’s tunnel, is one of the first biblical structures to have its age precisely determined. “This is one of the dramatic confirmations of the Bible,” said Hershel Shanks, editor of Biblical Archaeology Review.
According to the Bible, Hezekiah ordered the Gihon spring blocked - - denying its waters to the approaching army — and the waters diverted into the newly constructed tunnel. The tunnel was built by two groups of men, one of which began at the spring and the other at the pool. An inscription inside the tunnel, discovered in the 1880s and now in a museum in Turkey, describes the effort, telling how the teams could hear each other hammering when they got to within about 5 feet of each other. The inscription fails to mention Hezekiah, however, which led some historians to question the biblical account.
To solve the riddle, Frumkin, Aryeh Shimron of the Geological Survey of Israel and Jeff Rosenbaum of Britain’s University of Reading dated two types of materials. Removing some of the original plaster from the tunnel, they were surprised to find well–preserved plant fragments that must have been accidentally incorporated into the plaster as it was mixed outside. Radiocarbon dating showed the plants dated to about 700 B.C., plus or minus 100 years. The team also examined stalactites formed in the ceiling.
Copyright 2003 Journal Sentinel Inc. http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4196/is_20030921/ai_n10907870
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