In 2004 I was proud to participate in the initial excavations alongside Ronny Reich and Eli Shukron, during which they uncovered the northern portion of the pool with finely cut ashlar-stone steps descending toward the south. Shortly thereafter Reich and Shukron published their report identifying this phase as the Pool of Siloam mentioned in the Gospel of John.¹ The conventional name “Siloam Pool” had previously been attached to a smaller pool further north, at the outlet of the water conduit known today as Hezekiah’s Tunnel.⁽²⁾ The discovery by Reich and Shukron challenged that identification.³ The sheer size of the finely cut stones and the dating of the steps to the late Second Temple period made it reasonable to accept that this newly exposed pool was the handiwork of Herodian-period Jerusalem — and thus the pool where the blind man was healed (John 9:1-11).⁽⁴⁾
In early 2023, without much public fanfare, the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA), the City of David Foundation and lead archaeologist Nahshon Szanton launched into a Herculean effort to fully excavate the pool.⁽⁵⁾ When the City of David announced its intention to excavate the remainder of the reservoir, the task did not initially appear to break new ground—at least superficially. Approximately two Olympic-sized swimming pools’ worth of material would need to be removed. Many scientists viewed the exercise as more earth-moving than true archaeological excavation, since it was assumed that all the occupation layers uncovered would be Herodian or later.⁽⁶⁾ Nevertheless, the IAA team in fact uncovered what is now being described as the largest water reservoir in Israel, dated to the era of Jerusalem’s early biblical kings.⁽⁷⁾ In their August 30 press release they described:
“This is the largest dam ever discovered in Israel and the earliest one ever found in Jerusalem. Its dimensions are remarkable: about 12 meters high, over 8 meters wide, and the uncovered length reaches 21 meters.”⁽⁸⁾
I was aware of Dr. Szanton’s theory that the reservoir known as Birkat el‑Hamra was not the Pool of Siloam, contrary to Reich and Shukron’s suggestion. It is not unusual for new excavators to reinterpret or even overturn long-standing conclusions by previous archaeologists. I wondered whether Dr. Szanton was seeking to reverse the conclusions of Reich and Shukron. As it turned out, Dr. Szanton was actually restoring an earlier line of reasoning, one which (in my view) fits much better with the scientific data, the historical record and the biblical text.
Many assumed the wall dated to the time of King Hezekiah (late eighth century BCE), since it seemed logical to associate the conduit from the Gihon Spring that Hezekiah built (2 Kings 20:20) with a pool in the southwest part of the city — close to where this reservoir is located.⁽⁹⁾ Yet although the end of Hezekiah’s Tunnel is some distance away, it was assumed this conduit fed the large reservoir.
It is true that the presence of this reservoir (Birkat el-Hamra) and its dam wall were known prior to the recent excavations, and even before Reich and Shukron uncovered the stepped northern side in which excavations I took part in 2004. Indeed, drawings from the mid-19th century show the presence of a dam wall in this area. But until this recent excavation we had no detailed knowledge of the reservoir’s full scale or its precise construction date — the interior was filled with earth and fruit trees and thus largely unexplored.⁽¹⁰⁾
The new data was striking — especially because it challenged my prior assumption about the larger interpretive framework of this site. When the Herodian-period steps were discovered 20 years ago it seemed entirely reasonable to conclude that Birkat el-Hamra was the Pool of Siloam mentioned in the Gospels. Without delving deeply into the question, many archaeologists and tour guides (myself included) accepted that conclusion. However, during the 2023 tour the excavation team asserted: “This massive dam predates Hezekiah by a century. If not Hezekiah’s, then whose?”⁽¹¹⁾
The new dating results were published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS) in the paper “Radiocarbon Dating of Jerusalem’s Siloam Dam Links Climate Data and Major Waterworks.”⁽¹²⁾ The authors describe how the team from the Weizmann Institute of Science extracted four organic samples from the mortar of the dam wall for radiocarbon dating: three samples (uncharred straw and twigs) from the upper part of the wall, and one from the core of the slanted reinforcement. The calibrated “R_combined” date was given as 805-795 BCE (68.3 percent) and 809-792 BCE (95.4 percent).⁽¹³⁾ In short, all four samples point to roughly 800 BCE.
In their press release, lead author Dr. Johanna Regev and laboratory head Prof. Elisabetta Boaretto noted how exceptional it is to have four distinct carbon samples converge on such a narrow window:
“Short-lived twigs and branches embedded in the dam’s construction mortar provided a clear date at the end of the ninth century BCE, with extraordinary resolution of only about 10 years, a rare achievement when dating ancient finds.”⁽¹³⁾
The confirmation of this early date for the massive dam wall — and therefore for the earliest phase of the reservoir — was jarring for many scholars. Many had believed that Jerusalem’s urban population did not expand across the Tyropoeon Valley until the late eighth century BCE under Hezekiah. Yet this monumental construction, which effectively dams the Tyropoeon, was built at least a century earlier.⁽¹⁴⁾ In comments to Haaretz, renowned minimal-historian Prof. Israel Finkelstein admitted that this discovery “likely speaks to a larger Jerusalem than previously thought.” He said, “I see no logic in investing in this project had it not been for the need to bring water to the new quarter. The question remains open, but it is possible that the city’s expansion toward the Western Hill … was already starting by 800 BCE … and the pool and dam were meant to serve this new neighbourhood.”⁽¹⁵⁾
Redating the dam wall a century earlier suggests Jerusalem’s royal administration possessed far more infrastructural capability than often assumed. “The exposure of the largest dam ever found in Israel, in the heart of ancient Jerusalem, is tangible evidence of the strength of the kingdom of Judah and the creativity of its kings in dealing with natural and environmental challenges,” commented Heritage Minister Rabbi Amichai Eliyahu (Israel).⁽¹⁶⁾
In the world of archaeology, few things speak more loudly to the power of a king than massive public works. The ruling elite of Jerusalem at that time clearly had the vision—and the means—to build this enormous reservoir.
The IAA and the City of David Foundation are to be commended for this discovery, especially given that most of us never anticipated such a momentous find from so early a period. For historians and archaeologists, the earlier date for this pool raises serious questions.
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