Obscure Find Verifies Biblical Story

Read the Book of Nehemiah in the Old Testament, or the Tanach as it is known to Jews, and you will get a detailed description about the rebuilding of the wall of Jerusalem that had been destroyed earlier by the Babylonians. Through the years, many biblical scholars insisted the wall didn't really exist. Guess what? Israeli archaeologists have found it. It does exist--just as the Bible says.

The Associated Press reports that the wall was found in Jerusalem's ancient City of David while archaeologists were attempting to rescue a tower that was in danger of collapsing. Underneath that tower and near the wall, they found pottery shards and arrowheads that date from the 5th century B.C.--the time of Nehemiah. Eilat Mazar, head of the Institute of Archaeology at the Shalem Center, a Jerusalem-based research and educational institute, and leader of the dig, said the findings suggest the structure is part of the same city wall described in Nehemiah. "We were amazed," she told AP. "This was a great surprise. It was something we didn't plan."

So do scholars now agree that this is Nehemiah's wall? That depends on whom you ask. Ephraim Stern, professor emeritus of archaeology at Hebrew University and chairman of the state of Israel archaeological council, says it's the wall. He told AP, "The material she showed me is from the Persian period," which is the period of Nehemiah. "I can sign on the date of the material she found."

Meanwhile, Israel Finkelstein, a professor of archaeology at Tel Aviv University, allowed that the discovery is "an interesting find," but said the pottery and other artifacts do not indicate that the wall was built in the time of Nehemiah, reports AP. He argues that the debris found near it doesn't mean the wall couldn't have been built later. "The wall could have been built, theoretically, in the Ottoman period," he said. "It's not later than the pottery--that's all we know."

This dig has been extraordinarily successful. The first phase was completed in 2005 and uncovered what archaeologists believe are the remains of King David's palace, which was built by King Hiram of Tyre.