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 So did the grave of two dogs point to the remains of Nehemiah's wall? Archaeologist Eilat Mazar says she has found the infamous wall built by Nehemian and incredibly, part of her evidence is the bones of two large dogs.
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While Liberal theologians paint the Bible as little more than a compilation of myths, their conclusions are repeatedly challenged by archaeologists finding evidence the Scriptural record involved very real people and very real events.
The latest is the discovery of Nehemiah's wall by archaeologist Eilat Mazar.
Background to Nehemiah
When Persia conquered the Babylonian Empire -- overthrowing the city of Babylon in 539 BC in a bloodless cue -- they basically assimilated the Israelites in exile under the Babylonians.
The Book of Nehemiah records the story of one of those Jews who rose up to be a cupbearer for the Persian king Artaxerxes I (also known as Longimanus 465-424 BC) at his palace in Susa located in modern day Iran. A contingent of Jews, led by Nehemiah' brother, visited Nehemiah and told him of the tremendous stress the Jews who remained in Jerusalem were under (Nehemiah 1:1-3).
Nehemiah became burdened for Jerusalem and entered a time of prayer and fasting. After this intercession, he petitioned Artaxerxes for permission to return to Israel to rebuild the city of Jerusalem.
"So the king said to me, 'Why is your face sad though you are not sick? This is nothing but sadness of heart.' Then I was very much afraid.'
'I said to the king, ’Let the king live forever. Why should my face not be sad when the city, the place of my father's tombs, lies desolate and its gates have been consumed by fire?'" (Nehemiah 2:2, 3 NASV)
Ataxerxes not only gave permission (in the form of documents -- Nehemiah 2:7) but even supplied materials to rebuild the city walls. Artaxerxes3 obviously looked upon Nehemiah as a loyal servant and also appointed him governor of Judea (Nehemiah 5:14; 10:1). This effectively created a separate province as up to this point Judea was under the jurisdiction of the governor of Samaria. Most agree this took place in the latter half of Artaxerxes’ reign (445 BC).
This appointment caused considerable friction in the region led primarily by Sanballat the Horonite (Nehemiah 4:1ff). The Elephantine papyrus4 tell us that Sanballat was governor of Samaria and he obviously believed Nehemiah was undermining his authority in the region.
Sanballat allied himself with another local governor Tobiah of Ammon to resist the Jewish upstart. In Nehemiah 2:10, 19, Tobiah is referred to as an Ammonite and a servant. The word servant referred to his official title as governor -- servant of the King.
Though gentiles, both Sanballat and Tobiah had strong connections with the Jewish community in Jerusalem. Both had married Jewish women as evidenced by their children who had Jewish names1. Sanballat was connected with the Jewish High Priest through marriage (13:28) and Tobiah and his son had married into leading families in the Jewish community (6:17-19). Because of their strong connections, Nehemiah was uncertain of who he could trust in Jerusalem.
Sanballat and Tobiah then aligned themselves with a third individual, Geshem, who was described as an Arab (2:19; 6:1, 6). John Bright in his book "A History of Israel" reports that Geshem “is known from inscriptions as a powerful chieftain of Qedar (Dedan) in northwester Arabia. Under nominal Persian control, his rule extended westward across Sinai as far as Egypt, and included Edom, the Negeb, and southern Judah.” (p 382)
According to the ancient Jewish historian Josephus, this evil triumvirate (Sanballat, Tobiah and Geshem) orchestrated a number of attacks against outlying Jewish communities in an effort to destabilize the region. Sanballat and Tobiah pretended to be ignorant of the events (Nehemiah 4:7—12).
Nehemiah constructs wall
Three days after Nehemiah arrived in Jerusalem he inspected the walls. Uncertain, of where the Jews’ allegiances were, he went out under the cover of darkness to do it:
"And I arose in the night, I and a few good men with me. I did not tell anyone what my God was putting in my mind to do for Jerusalem and there was no animal with me except the animal which I was riding.
So I went out at night by the Valley Gate in the direction of the Dragon's Well and on to the Refuse Gate, inspecting the walls of Jerusalem which were broken down and its gates which were consumed by fire.
Then I passed on to the Fountain Gate and the King's Pool, but there was no place for my mount to pass (Nehemiah 2:12-15)
Shortly after this Nehemiah started construction organizing families loyal to him to work on specific sections of the wall. Sanballat and company aggressively resisted these efforts.
According to Josephus, the raids around Jerusalem resulted in a numerous Jews being killed. Fearing armed confrontation against Jerusalem, Nehemiah initiated a number of measures, including:
- Posting watchmen while the Jews worked with swords at their sides (Nehemiah 4:12)
- Creating two shifts of workers – one which provided protection while the other shift worked (Nehemiah 4:13-33).
- Bringing Jews from outlying communities into Jerusalem which gave them protection and also provided extra workers for the wall (Nehemiah 4:22).
In the end the wall was completed in record time – 52 days (Nehemiah 6:15). It was an outer shell -- sufficient protection against any enemies in the immediate area – but further work was needed to reinforce the battlements. According to Josephus this took another two and half years and was completed in 437 BC.
Critics, however, have attacked Nehemiah stating if the story is true, we should have evidence of the wall.
Nehemiah's wall discovered
On November 8, 2007 at a conference held on archaeology at Bar Ilan University, Tel Aviv, Dr. Eilat Mazar -- one of Israel's top archaeologists -- stunned the crowd stating she had found a remnant of Nehemiah's wall.
It followed a similar announcement by Dr. Mazar two years earlier when she discovered the remains of King David's palace. Mazar’s most recent find occurred as she was doing excavation at the palace site.
Near the wall of King David's palace was the remains of an old stone tower. Built on a slope, archaeologists noticed it had started to slide indicating imminent collapse. This forced the group to restore the tower resulting in the find and an exciting six week dig.
Mazar's statement to the conference -- reported in Trumpet.com -- was: "Under the tower we found the bones of two large dogs -- and under those a rich assemblage of pottery and finds from the Persian period [6th and 5th century.]"
The pottery
According to Mazar the discovery of this much older pottery shows the tower was constructed at a much earlier date that previously thought -- 500-400 AD -- during the time Nehemiah served in Artaxerxes' court.
Archaeologist Todd Bolen reported on his blog that one piece of pottery had a Persian seal imprinted on it from the fifth century. Seals were traditionally used by Royalty, those in government or with wealth to signify ownership.
Nehemiah returned to Israel with a large contingent of people from the Persian captivity. They would have undoubtedly brought Persian items with them and since Nehemiah worked for Artaxerxes, this would have included items from the Royal household.
Mazar added "no later finds from that period were found under the tower." She said to hold the view the tower was built later -- say in the second or first century -- would leave a chronological discrepancy of 400 to 500 years.
The dogs
Perhaps just as significant as the pottery was the discovery of the two dogs. The Persians had a documented tradition of burying dogs.
A cemetery consisting of the remains of 800 dogs was found at the Persian level of the Philistine city of Ashkelon. The cemetery used between 500 BC and 400 BC coincided with the time of Nehemiah. The dogs buried in shallow graves were hunting dogs and all seemed to have died of natural causes. According to archaeologist L. E. Stager2, the burial of the hunting dogs had a cultic or religious significance for the Persians.
The discovery of dog bones at Mazar's site suggests a similar tradition at work here corresponding with the Persian practice of Nehemiah's day. It would also indicate the Jews had taken on some of the Persian rituals while in captivity not totally unheard of. But we know from the Biblical record that Nehemiah had a Persian military escort when he made the journey (Nehemiah 2:19). The hunting dogs may have been part of this group.
The presence of dogs may possibly shed light on one verse in Nehemiah. When Nehemiah made his midnight analysis of the walls he said he road a horse and added he took no other animals with him (Nehemiah 2:12). That statement has always struck me as quite odd. Why would he mention that he took no other animals? What was significant about this fact, that it would even warrant a mention?.
If you wanted to do a secretive midnight inspection the last thing you would take along is dogs. If my experience with the animals is any indication, at night, they would be barking at everything real or imagined announcing your presence to everyone in the city.
The tower
Prior to this discovery of the Persian artifacts beneath the tower, archaeologists generally believed it dated somewhere between 142 to 37 BC. But Mazar’s discovery puts the tower or at least its base clearly in Nehemiah's day.5
After his arrival, Nehemiah focused his attention on rebuilding the walls and repairing the gates. Nehemiah also specifically mentions that work was done on various towers including the Tower of Meah (3:10), Tower of Furnaces (3:11), the angle and tower (3:25), water gate tower (3:26), the great projecting tower and the Ophel wall (3:27) and the tower of Hananeel (12:39).
Towers were an integral part of the wall and necessary to protect the gates which were the most vulnerable areas of attack. It's possible this tower was one of those mentioned in Nehemiah.
Conclusion
As the site continues to be developed it will be interesting to see what other remains from this period in Israel's history are uncovered.
Footnotes:
1. The Elephantine texts tells us that the name of two of Sanballat's children were Delaiah and Shelemiah. Tobiah's son was called Jehohanan (Nehemiah 6:18).
2. Ashkelon (www.pace.cns.york.ca)
3. Note the Persian leadership style was radically different from that of the Babylonians'. While Babylon chose to remove people from their lands into forced captivity, the Persians were inclined to allow people to return and did so with other cultures displaced by the Babylonian empire.
4. The Elephantine papyri are documents found on an island located on the Nile River. These documents dated between 500 to 400 AD and independently refer to many of the individuals referred to in the book of Nehemiah -- including Nehemiah.
5. It was common for later groups to build on top of previous constructions as in fact Nehemiah was doing.
Source: Nehemiah’s wall found in Jerusalem by Stephen Flurry (www.thetrumpet.com: November 9,2007) / Archaeologists uncovers Scriptures’ famed wall (www.worldnetdaily: November 11, 207)/ A History of Israel by John Bright (Westminster John Knox Press: Louisville) / Excavator claims Nehemiah’s wall found in Jerusalem and Persian period finds in the city of David by Todd Bolen (http://blog.bibleplaces.com)
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