Jerusalem's City of David New Findings: Four Bronze Coins That Rewrites History

Last week four bronze coins were found in the south side of the Western Wall. The coins found were minted 20 years after Herod's death, confirming for the first time historical descriptions of Josephus Flavius. According to Josephus, King Herod began the construction but only at the time of the great-grandson, King Agrippa II, in the 50 of the first century AD, the work was completed.

The Temple is shown on top (with a current picture of the Western Wall at night). The City of David is shown in an Israel Museum model  (shown on the right the exposed stones found today in the area)

The coins found last week are shown below:

The new excavations in the last couple of years revealed a water tunnel running from the City of David in the south all the way to the north where the Temple was. Visitors can actually walk in the ancient tunnel for a couple of kilometers (or one mile) and feel the history (the stones and the tunnel was kept untouched) beneath their feet and above their head (the height of the tunnel is approximately 1.8 meters (about 6 feet).

The four coins were found near a ritual bath along the route of the Western Wall. The bath belonged to a residential neighborhood that existed before King Herod decided to expand the Temple Mount.

So the latest scientific conclusion is that the Western Wall was completed only during Nino era. King Herod began construction of the walls of the Temple Mount, but others had finished their work.

Background:

Jerusalem and the City of David, were destroyed with the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 and it was resettled in 135, when the Roman emperor Hadrian built the Roman city of Jerusalem and called it Aelia Capitolina. It appears that the City of David area remained outside the Roman city.

During the Byzantine period the city is spread to Mount Zion and the city of David. North of the City of David  were residential buildings from the Byzantine period. 

The Pool of Siloam found there was used for purification rituals of the visitors to the Temple. The Siloam Church was built in the mid 5th century AD. The church was established in memory of Christ's miracle story of the blind man. Siloam Pool is described in the Gospel of John T. 1-7.