Courtney McGrailArchaeologists in Israel believe they have uncovered the site of the biblical battle between David and Goliath.
According to experts who have led excavations for the past seven years at a site today known as Khirbet Qeiyafa in the Elah Valley, the Old Testament city of Shaaraim has been found.
The city is mentioned in the Book of Samuel, 1:17-52, which relates: “And the men of Israel and Judah rose with a shout and pursued the Philistines as far as Gath and the gates of Ekron, so that the wounded Philistines fell on the way from Shaaraim as far as Gath and Ekron.”
What tipped archaeologists to the magnitude of their find was the fact that the Shaaraim site, although relatively modest in size, contained two access gates, an unusual feature, except for Shaaraim, which translates from Hebrew as ‘two gates’.
Border
According to the excavation team, Shaaraim, located just 20 miles from Jerusalem, “was built between Sokho and Azekah, on the border between the Philistines and the Judeans, in the area identified as the location the battle of David and Goliath”.
Lending further weight to the dating of the find, researchers carbon-dated a number of olive pits in the city, placing it to the time of Kings Saul and David.
The Shaaraim find now forms part of the In the Valley of David and Goliath exhibition, newly opened in Jerusalem.