The Date of the Gihon Spring Tower in Jerusalem

Abstract

This is a response to a recent article by Regev, Szanton, Uziel, and Boaretto (2017), in which they suggested a new dating for the Gihon Spring Tower in Jerusalem—a dating they based on radiocarbon dates for samples extracted from under the outer side of its northeastern corner. The author maintains the original Middle Bronze Age dating of the tower, citing three arguments: 1) the samples taken for radiocarbon dating could have been embedded during flood events in the Kidron Valley; 2) the spot from which the samples were taken could have been an Iron Age renovation of the old Middle Bronze fortification; 3) the cyclopean construction of the tower resembles other Middle Bronze fortifications (e.g., at Gezer, Hebron and Shechem) and differs considerably from the Iron II fortifications in Judah in general and in Jerusalem in particular.