Unveiled: Secret Portal from King David's Era Found in Mysterious Biblical City
This gate — uncovered on a rocky hill that overlooks Israel’s Sea of Galilee — isn’t the first discovered in the area. But it is the oldest. According to The Jerusalem Post, another gate was found nearby last year. Researchers cautiously identified that gate as part of the biblical city of Zer, dating to the First Temple period (around 1000-586 B.C.).
Rami Arav/University of Nebraska Numerous archaeological findings have been unearthed at Bethsaida dating to various time periods.
“There are not many gates from capital cities in this country from this period,” said Chief Archaeologist Rami Arav of the University of Nebraska, who has been overseeing the excavation project since 1987.
“Bethsaida was the name of the city during the Second Temple period, but during the First Temple period it was the city of Zer,” Arav explained, citing Joshua 19:35 in the Bible which mentions the fortified towns of Zer, among others.
But the new gate that has been found is much older than the first, and has altered what archeologists had previously thought about Bethsaida and the supposed Kingdom of David.
Now, researchers believe that King David may have not been the sole ruler of his time but instead was likely a chieftain of a large tribe of Israelites in the area. The ruins around the gate suggest that 3,000 years ago, Bethsaida may not have been part of an Israelite kingdom, but rather an Aramaic one.
Rami Arav/University of NebraskaAt Bethsaida, where the ancient gate was unearthed, archaeologists have also found jewelry and coins.
Archaeologists found a stone stele bearing the image of the Arameans’ bull-shaped moon god dated to the 11th century B.C.
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