King David is the most vividly drawn character in the Bible, a popular hero who stands as the personification of Jewish national independence.
But towards the end of the last century, a view began to gain ground in academic circles that David was simply myth, a figure who never actually lived.
Even when in 1993 the Tel Dan inscription was discovered, recording the victory of King Hazael of Damascus over the “House of David”, the historical “minimalists” argued David was merely a tribal chieftain and his united monarchy the stuff of folklore.
They believed it was the Northern, and according to the Bible rebellious, Kingdom of Israel that laid the foundations of Israelite civilisation, while the Kingdom of Judah arose later.
But the excavations of an ancient ruin in Israel conducted from 2007 to 2013 has challenged that theory. Khirbet Qeiyafa was once a fortified city that lay south-west of Jerusalem in the Valley of Elah where, according to the Bible, the young David defeated the Philistine warrior Goliath.
While it may not yield any evidence of David himself, it does support the idea that a kingdom existed at the time that the Bible says it does. The layout of the city resembles those of other cities identified as belonging to Judah, rather than the Kingdom of Israel or Philistine settlements.
While the archaeological team unearthed remains of cattle or goats, there were no pig bones, as was the case in Philistine sites. In rooms used for religious worship, there were no human figurines (reflecting the biblical strictures against graven images). Model temples — probably used as portable shrines — displayed recessed doorways that featured in the Temple design.
Moreover, the archaeologists discovered what is believed to be the oldest known Hebrew inscription, on an ostracon (an inscribed potsherd). A second inscription revealed the name of Eshbaal (the name Chronicles uses of David’s son Ishbosheth).
Thanks to carbon-dating of olive pits turned up by the dig, the team were confident that the ruins — which they identify with the biblical city of Shaaraim — dated back to the e
