When the Stones Speak: The remarkable discovery of the City of David and What Israel’s Enemies Don’t Want You to Know
Book review by Dr Anne Sarzin
A tiny golden bell with a clasp attached has brought the sounds and sights of the High Priest’s processional splendour in King Solomon’s Temple on Mount Moriah vividly to life. It was an exciting moment for shift supervisor Nissim, who found this miniature survivor from Jewish antiquity in the water drainage channel under the City of David archaeological site, south of the Old City walls and the Temple Mount.
The record of Nissim’s breathtaking discovery provides an electrifying moment for readers of Doron Spielman’s book, When the Stones Speak: The remarkable discovery of the City of David and What Israel’s Enemies Don’t Want You to Know. Instantly, one is transported back through millennia to the Jewish people’s biblical era. With its inner chime miraculously intact, the tinkling bell powerfully evokes the ceremonial robes of the High Priest adorned with bells, documented so specifically in parasha Tetsaveh in the book of Exodus in the Hebrew Bible. This discovery is a potent reminder of our ancient Temple rituals and its poignant relevance to biblical texts.
Archaeologists at the site speculated that the bell might have fallen off the High Priest’s robe while he was working at the Temple or, probably, while fleeing the Roman army’s advance. As Spielman states, ‘Apparently, it had rolled through a crack in the road and had fallen down into the tunnel below, where it had rested—for two thousand years—until now’. Doron quotes archaeologist Eli Shukrun, ‘This is the only golden bell ever found in an excavation in Israel with the chime still inside. It was found directly next to the Temple Mount where the High Priest officiated. It is just as the Torah describes’.
In previous eras, the rediscovery of the ancient City of David would have aroused scholarly interest and triggered countless academic papers in peer-reviewed journals. Sadly, today the site’s dedicated team found themselves at the centre of an ideological firestorm, when Arab leaders, international organisations, such as the United Nations, and anti-Zionist activists did all in their power not only to neutralise the importance of the City of David and to discount its revelation of ancient Jewish linkages to Jerusalem but they also launched court battles in a powerfully concerted effort to stymie further excavations, in which they succeeded for some time. A cascade of hostile events threatened the future of the site. Suddenly, Israeli archaeologists and the City of David team found themselves in the divisive and duplicitous realm of geopolitics, rallying their resources to wage an ideological battle against forces determined to disrupt and stop the excavations. Clearly, their opponents feared that the site itself and the discovery of its artefacts would reinforce the Jewish people’s origin story and the ancient Jewish connection to this hilltop city that King David established 3800 years ago in Jerusalem.
There are so many heroes associated with this story: those who pioneered this magnificent archaeological excavation, those who withstood the onslaught of powerful antagonistic forces, and those who sustained hope and support through the decades. Pre-eminent among these was the visionary founder of the City of David National Park, Davidleh Beeri; his co-founder Yehuda Maly, archaeologist Eli Shukron of the Israel Antiquities Authority and head of excavations at the site; Eli Alony, who played a major role in raising funds to support the project; and author Doron Spielman, who worked for two decades against the odds to transform the City of David into one of the world’s most significant archaeological sites.
The first archaeologist in charge, Dr Eilat Mazar, who conducted the initial survey of the land, believed that its extensive archaeological evidence correlated with the Bible. Despite opposition, she proclaimed, ‘Let the stones speak for themselves’, a phrase Spielman modified for the title of this book. She quoted from the Book of Samuel, ‘King Hiram of Tyre sent envoys to David with cedar logs, carpenters and stonemasons; and they built a palace for David’. In a suspenseful passage in the book, we read how an excavator, Yoav Farhi, spotted a clay seal inscribed with letters in paleo-Hebrew, an older version of Hebrew. Written in the sixth century BCE during the time of the prophet Jeremiah and the period leading up to the destruction of the First Temple by the Babylonians, the seal is inscribed with the name, ‘Yehuchal son of Shelemiah’, whose story is told in the Book of Jeremiah. Predictably, a bitter Palestinian opponent has stated, ‘The Bible should be put aside. It’s not a history book’. As Spielman notes, this was part of the broader trend of denying Jewish history in Jerusalem that had persisted for decades There were many artefacts uncovered in the City of David, each proving the ancient Jewish history of Jerusalem. Perhaps, none more exciting than the excavation of monumental stairs at the base of the City of David, leading to the Pool of Siloam, which was used as a vast mikvah, a ritual bath.
This is a complex story with reversals of fortune, dashed hopes and Palestinian claims aimed at erasure of Jewish history that gained momentum and support. Yet, somehow, the team’s persistence and profound commitment to the project triumphed. An important part of this story concerns the generous philanthropists, who sustained initial and subsequent digs on this site over the decades. There is still so much that could be accomplished, possibly including the ambitious excavation of the Pilgrimage Road that led to the Temple. Professor Ronny Reich, one of Israel’s chief archaeologists, stated that ancient Jewish sources describe huge crowds flocking to the Temple, especially on holidays such as Passover. They would have processed from the ritual bath at the Pool of Siloam along the Pilgrimage Road to the Temple. As the author notes, ‘The City of David is not just an excavation of Jerusalem; it is an experience that encapsulates Jewish history’.
In many ways, Spielman is the narrator and hero of his own story. He asks important questions and gives significant answers. In this book, he is also an essential member of a team at the forefront of a battle to ensure that the truth of the Jewish people’s ancient connections to the land of Israel cannot be erased. It is a story he develops with a propulsive tempo, fascinating anecdotes and a broad sweep of biblical and contemporary history. It is a thorough and comprehensive account that spans the era of Victorian explorers, Spielman’s own journey, court cases and procedures, media coverage, the Obama era and UNESCO, and a plethora of fascinating information that readers will find absorbing and most rewarding.
When the Stones Speak: The remarkable discovery of the City of David and What Israel’s Enemies Don’t Want You to Know
Doron Spielman
Centre Street, Hachette Book Group
New York, 2025
