Arti-Facts
A Rejoinder to "Was the Siloam Tunnel Built by Hezekiah?"
In an article entitled "Was the Siloam
Tunnel Built by Hezekiah?" published in
the September 1996 issue of ΒA, John Roger-
son and Philip Davies argue that the Siloam
Tunnel and its accompanying inscription do
not date to the time of Hezekiah in the eighth
century BCE. They base their argument on
three sets of evidence: the history of the
Gihon water systems and the line of the city
walls; biblical references to the Gihon water
systems; and the genre and paleography of
the Siloam inscription. In a rejoinder solicited
by ΒA and published in the December 1996
issue, Ronald S. Hendel demonstrates that
Rogerson and Davies' paléographie argu-
ments are deeply flawed. Rogerson and
Davies' historic arguments that the Siloam
Tunnel cannot date to the time of Hezekiah
because the Siloam Pool lay outside the
bounds of the fortified city during the Iron
Age II and because as long as Warren's Shaft
lay inside the bounds of the fortified city
Jerusalem did not need an additional strate-
gic water supply system, are equally flawed
and equally deserve a rejoinder.
In support of their argument that the
Siloam Pool lay outside the bounds of the
fortified city during the Iron Age II, Roger-
son a n d Davies assert that K e n y o n ' s
"excavations on the south-eastern slope of
the western hill yielded no Iron II relics,"
and that "Shiloh's.. .excavations were unable
to provide any either" (1996:141). These
assertions not only misrepresent but actu-
ally misstate the evidence because, contrary
to Rogerson and Davies' assertions, Kenyon
found remains dating to the Iron Age II on
the southeastern slope of the western hill
and in the lower reaches of the Tyropoeon
Valley, and Shiloh found remains dating
to the Iron Age II on the southeastern slope
of the western hill.
Following each of her first four seasons
of excavation, Kenyon published accounts
of finding Iron Age Π material on the bedrock
in Site F—located at the southeastern cor­
ner of the western hill (1962:84-85; 1963:19;
1964:11; 1965:16-17, fig. 2). Moreover, at the
1841 Biblical Archaeologist 60:3 (1997)
mouth of the Tyropoeon Valley, Kenyon dis­
covered Iron Age II deposits extending over
1.25 m in depth, covering a network of partly
rock-hewn and partly stone-built plaster-
lined tunnels (1965:16). Because these Iron
Age II deposits lay directly atop quarried
bedrock and because she did not find archi­
tectural remains other than the network of
tunnels associated with them, Kenyon con­
cluded that these Iron Age II deposits did
not evidence a fortified settlement on the
western hill (1974:93,146, fig. 26,158).
Like Kenyon, Shiloh found Iron Age II
material deposited above bedrock on the
southeastern slope of the western hill in Area
H—the only area that he excavated on the
western hill (DeGroot and Michaeli 1992:35,
49, fig. 27,51). Due, however, to the nature
of archaeological accumulation in Jerusalem,
where builders of all periods sought to found
their structures on bedrock and in so doing
often damaged and/or destroyed remains
of earlier periods, Shiloh rejected Kenyon's
conclusion and accepted the sparse—but
incontestably p r e s e n t — r e m a i n s of the and the line of the city walls bespeak their
Iron Age II as evidence that the western hill
was both occupied and fortified at that time
(1984:25, 72, fig. 34).
Rogerson and Davies argue that the
Siloam Tunnel was not needed as a strate­
gic water supply system as long as Warren's
Shaft lay inside the bounds of the fortified
city because "it seems...rather excessive
to assign both Warren's Shaft and Hezekiah's
Tunnel to Judean kings. After all, if in Hezekiah's porting the Siloam Tunnel's traditional date
time there already existed a perfectly safe
water supply.. .why would he need to build
another one, especially one which went
underneath the city and came out the other
side?" (1996:142, italics in original).
The answer to their query lies in the
nature of the Gihon which is a syphon-type
karst spring, fed by groundwater that gushed
intermittently through cracks in a cave floor
(Gil 1994:27; Simons 1952:163). Because the
frequency and force of the Gihon's outflow
varied with the season of the year and the
annual precipitation, its waters could not be
used efficiently unless they could be cap­
tured, stored, and distributed. While Warren's
Shaft provided access to the waters of the
Gihon as they gushed forth and flowed into
its feeder channel, it provided no means
of using the Gihon's excess waters. Both the
Siloam Channel and the Siloam Tunnel were
designed to capture, store, and distribute
the excess waters of the Gihon. Because the
earliest of these two systems—the Siloam
Channel—was a partly open, partly closed
channel that ran outside the line of the city's
fortification wall, it served no strategic func­
tion and, as asserted by Rogerson and Davies,
it is "unlikely to have been constructed [or
used] in times when there was even a threat
of war" (1996:138). However, once the threat
of war arose, there also arose the urgent need
to construct a strategic water supply system
designed to capture, store, distribute, and
conceal the excess waters of the Gihon. The
Siloam Tunnel answered this need.
Rogerson and Davies' arguments con­
cerning the history of the Gihon water systems
unfamiliarity with the archaeological record,
the nature of archaeological accumulation
in Jerusalem, and the natural characteristics
of the Gihon spring that s p a w n e d the
need for the city's three subterranean water
supply systems. Finally, BA's readers should
know that—although not generally avail­
able p r i o r to Rogerson a n d D a v i e s '
publication—the most recent evidence sup­
comes from a stalactite removed from its
ceiling which produced a radiocarbon date
calibrated to the eighth century BCE (Gil
1996:22).
Bibliography
DeGroot, A. and Michaeli, D.
1992 Area H: Stratigraphie Report. Pp.
35-53 in Stratigraphical Environmental
and Other Reports, edited by D. T.
Ariel and A. DeGroot. Excavations
at the City of David 1978-1985:
Arti-Facts
 Directed by Yigal Shiloh, vol. 3.
Qedem 33. Jerusalem: Institute of
Archaeology, Hebrew University.
Gil, D.
1994 How They Met: Geology Solves the
Mystery of Hezekiah's Tunnelers. Kenyon, Κ. M.
Biblical Archaeology Review 20 (4):20- 1962 Excavations in Jerusalem, 1961. Pales­
33,64.
1996 The Geology of the City of David
and its Ancient Subterranean Water­
works. Pp. 1-28 in Various Reports,
edited by D. T. Ariel and A. DeG­
root. Excavations at the City of David 1965 Excavations in Jerusalem, 1964. Pales­
1978-1985: Directed by Yigal Shiloh,
vol. 4. Qedem 35. Jerusalem: Insti­
t u t e of Archaeology, H e b r e w
University.
Spirit Houses
From January 17th to August 31st, 1997
the Centre de Cultura Contemporania de
Barcelona presented the exhibit Spñrit-Houses
(5500 BCE to 300 CE): The Earliest Models in
History. This exhibit explored representa-
tions of a r c h i t e c t u r e from t h e ancient
Mediterranean both as architects' models
and magicians' or priests' equipment.
Spirit-Houses was the first exhibition
devoted to the plans and models of antiq-
uity. It showcased approximately one hundred
pieces, almost all originals, representing
votive objects as well as some of the few pre-
served documents created by architects. The
exhibition included a selection of works from
the four main interactive cultures of the
ancient Mediterranean: Egypt, Mesopotamia,
Greece, and Rome. The objects were arranged
according to culture, function (civil, mili-
tary, a n d religious), a n d typology. The
exhibition was completed by some images
of architecture in the arts of the past.
Spirit-Houses traced the development
and use of models and plans from the ear-
liest three-dimensional models in stone and
clay of houses, granaries, and temples to
architects' plans and models similar to those
of today, including orthographic projections
Hendel, R. S.
1996 The Date of the Siloam Inscrip­
tion: A Rejoinder to Rogerson and
Davies. Biblical Archaeologist 59:233-
37.
tine Exploration Quarterly 94:72-89.
1963 Excavations in Jerusalem, 1962. Pales­
tine Exploration Quarterly 95:7-21.
1964 Excavations in Jerusalem, 1963. Pales­
tine Exploration Quarterly 96:7-18.
tine Exploration Quarterly 97:9-20.
1974 Digging Up Jerusalem London: Ernest
Benn.
Model of a tower dating to the ca. 1600-
1200 BCE from the middle Euphrates region
of Syria (59.5 χ 30 χ 38 cm).
Rogerson, J. and Davies, P. R.
1996 Was the Siloam Tunnel Built by
Hezekiah? Biblia! Arclmeologist 59:138-
49.
Shiloh, Y.
1984 Excavations in tlie City of David 1:1978-
1982: Interim Report of the First Five
Seasons. Qedem 19. Jerusalem: Insti­
t u t e of Archaeology, H e b r e w
University.
Simons, J.
1952 Jerusalem in the Old Testament. Lei­
den: E. J. Brill.
fane M. Cahill
City of David Archaeological Project
Institute of Archaeology
Hebreiv University of Jerusalem
and perspectives. The exhibit empha­
sized the enduring magical and religious
quality of architectural plans and mod­
els by examining the early use of models
in the cult of the dead as dwellings for
the soul and, for the later technical draw­
ings, the tendency to attribute architecture
to divine or royal inspiration rather than
the architect or craftsperson. Spirit-
Houses offered us a window, not only
on where and how people of the ancient
Mediterranean lived, but also the image
those people had of their built environ­
ment.
Coinciding with this exhibit. The
Centre de Cultura Contemporania de
Barcelona also organized a seminar dur­
ing February and May 1997 entitled The
Models of Architects of Antiquity, under
the direction of exhibit curator Pedro
Azara.
Centre de Cultura Contemporania
de Barcelona Press Dossier, adapted
 ^ s
Copyright and Use:

As an ATLAS user, you may print, download, or send articles for individual use
according to fair use as defined by U.S. and international copyright law and as
otherwise authorized under your respective ATLAS subscriber agreement.

No content may be copied or emailed to multiple sites or publicly posted without the
copyright holder(s)' express written permission. Any use, decompiling,
reproduction, or distribution of this journal in excess of fair use provisions may be a
violation of copyright law.

This journal is made available to you through the ATLAS collection with permission
from the copyright holder(s). The copyright holder for an entire issue of a journal
typically is the journal owner, who also may own the copyright in each article. However,
for certain articles, the author of the article may maintain the copyright in the article.
Please contact the copyright holder(s) to request permission to use an article or specific
work for any use not covered by the fair use provisions of the copyright laws or covered
by your respective ATLAS subscriber agreement. For information regarding the
copyright holder(s), please refer to the copyright information in the journal, if available,
or contact ATLA to request contact information for the copyright holder(s).

About ATLAS:

The ATLA Serials (ATLAS®) collection contains electronic versions of previously

published religion and theology journals reproduced with permission. The ATLAS
collection is owned and managed by the American Theological Library Association
(ATLA) and received initial funding from Lilly Endowment Inc.

The design and final form of this electronic document is the property of the American
Theological Library Association.