Jerusalem in the Persian Period – 2

We may now turn to the city wall of the Persian period restored by the returning exiles. As we have seen, the minimalists (including such eminent archaeologists and scholars as the late Michael Avi-Yonah, Yoram Tsafrir of Hebrew University, Hugh Williamson of Oxford University, Hanan Eshel of Bar-Ilan University and Ephraim Stern of Hebrew University) limit the wall of Persian period Jerusalem to the City of David.

There was no First Temple period wall on the western side of the City of David for the exiles to restore, however. The theoretical possibility that Nehemiah restored the Middle Br onze wall that had extended along the western side of the City of David and had gone into disuse one thousand years earlier does not make sense. As suggested by the maximalists (including Pere Hugues Vincent, Jan Simons and recently Meir Ben-Dov), I believe the returning exiles restored the walls of the First Temple period city that enclosed the large area of King Hezekiah’s Jerusalem.

Another reason why I believe the Persian period city was not confined to the City of David relates to the city’s gates. At least seven gates are mentioned in the books of Ezra and Nehemiah. In walled cities, the city gate forms the weakest point in the defense line. Hence, smaller cities like Megiddo and Lachish had only a single city gate. Larger cities, such as Bronze Age Hazor and Ebla, had several city gates located along various parts of the city wall. Jerusalem of the First Temple period, which spread across several hills, must have had city gates situated in different parts of the city wall at a fair distance from one another. It would be very unlikely, however, that a city of 10 or 12 acres—the size of the city of David—would have more than one, or possibly two gates. Surely it would not have had seven. Such a large number of city gates would much better fit a larger city, as the gates would then be located at a considerable distance from one another.

The answer to this argument is that not all of the area within the Persian period walls was inhabited by the few returning exiles. Large areas of the city remained unpopulated. Most of the returning exiles lived in the City of David and the area near the Temple Mount.