Well, its the archaeological silly season again! How I wish newspapers would publish more real information, or archaeologists would write blogs.

The Jerusalem Post has an article "First Temple wall found in City of David" which though it seems to claim (probably as Jim Davila notes because of a misprint!) that a wall from Solomon's temple has been discovered. The only scrap in the article that seems like a fact is this:

A 20-meter-long section of the 7-meter-thick wall has now been uncovered.

The temple would hardly have had 7m thick walls! So what we seem to have is a massive, presumably not casemate, wall that Eliat Mazar seems to be dating to the Iron 1 period, probably in the "city of David" area of Jerusalem near where she reported the large building (part of this building? the city wall?). How frustrating!

(Jim W also notes the find. All he can add is that:

It’s probably a bit early to say that the wall proves the existence of a 'davidic empire.'

Tyler also merely notes the find. How I wish either archaeologists would keep silent till they publish a report, or they would keep blogs, so we at least knew something to discuss sensibly when students come asking questions!