Queries & Comments

Text and Pictures on the City of David

To the Editor:

I must congratulate you on a spectacular November/December issue. This issue is one of the best and most interesting I have received during my two years of subscribing. The article by Hershel Shanks summarizing Yigal Shiloh’s book on his excavations in the City of David was particularly helpful to me. When I visited Israel in June, 1983, I took pictures of the area of the “stepped-stone structure” and Ahiel’s house, but at the time no one in our party was able to say much of anything conclusive about these excavations. It’s been great to go back to my snapshots after reading this article and identify structures that puzzled me earlier.

I am inclined to agree with Mr. Shanks’s statements concerning Warren’s Shaft. If it is truly a natural crevasse in the rock, why wouldn’t it have been used in the time of David?

The crowning glory of this month’s magazine is Lloyd Townsend’s watercolor of Solomonic Jerusalem. When I saw it, I was thrilled. While it may not be 100 percent accurate (I would have put more trees and signs of occupation in the environs), that painting gave me more of an appreciation for what ancient Jerusalem was like than all the maps in all the Bible atlases I have on my shelves. Would you kindly let me know how I can obtain a print of this work? BAR would be doing its readers a great favor by making it available in the catalogue. I’m sure many synagogues and Sunday schools would be glad to have a painting like this on their walls. Please convey my appreciation to Mr. Townsend. I would like to see more of his work in the pages of BAR.

Thank you again for a marvelous issue.