A wall in Jerusalem (image), previously attributed to King Hezekiah, is now believed to have been constructed earlier by King Uzziah. This finding suggests that Jerusalem was expanding before the influx of refugees following the Assyrian conquest of the northern kingdom of Israel in 732 BC.
The reassessment of the wall's dating utilized advanced technology to establish an 'absolute chronology.' Traditional radiocarbon dating is less effective for Iron Age artifacts due to the Hallstatt Plateau phenomenon. For the past decade, archaeologists have combined radiocarbon results from four excavation sites with a precise timeline derived from dendrochronology, the study of tree rings.
A visible section of the wall, ascribed to Hezekiah, can be seen in the Jewish Quarter of Jerusalem's Old City. It is suggested that Lehi, a figure from the Book of Mormon, may have been among the refugees arriving in Jerusalem around the time of the Assyrian conquest.
Four Clay Tablets
In another significant discovery, four small clay tablets found in a tomb at Umm el-Marra in northern Syria have pushed back the earliest known use of alphabetic writing by 500 years, dating back to 2400 BC during the Early Bronze Age. The tomb, discovered in 2004, contained gold and silver burials and was located at a crucial trade crossroads.
Johns Hopkins University archaeologist Glenn Schwartz announced his findings at the American Society of Overseas Research meeting, revealing that the artifacts suggest the origins of the alphabet may differ from previous beliefs centered around Egypt post-1900 BCE.