BIBLE HISTORY DAILY

Eilat Mazar at Odds with IAA, Elad

Bible and archaeology news

Eilat Mazar, whose excavations in the City of David have revealed important insights into Jerusalem’s Biblical past, claims ongoing excavations at the site are being carried out “without any commitment to scientific archaeological work.”
In a letter to Professor Ronny Reich, chairman of the Israel Archaeological Council, Mazar claims that the so-called “Jeremiah’s Pit” excavation, conducted jointly by the Israel Antiquities Authority and Elad, the nonprofit organization that runs the City of David, are in violation of accepted archaeological standards. According to Mazar, the excavation project, which she calls a “tourism gimmick,” focuses on an unusually small area of a mere “two squares” (or 10 square meters) and also “interferes with [other] nearby excavations,” including her own.

Eilat Mazar, whose excavations in the City of David have revealed important insights into Jerusalem’s Biblical past, claims ongoing excavations at the site are being carried out “without any commitment to scientific archaeological work.”