Archaeologist Prof. Gershon Galil on Wednesday night revealed on Channel 14 what they believe to be one of the most important archaeological discoveries of all time in Israel, which they say presents a breakthrough in the study of the history of Israel in the biblical period.
As Prof. Galil put it: “I managed to decipher five new monumental royal inscriptions of King Hezekiah of Judah, which together include dozens of lines and hundreds of letters. The inscriptions mention the name of Hezekiah, king of Judah, and summarize his main actions in the first seventeen years of his reign, among them, the quarrying of Nikbat Ha’Shiloah and its pool; the ritual reform; the conquest of Philistia; and his accumulation of great wealth.”
The most crucial aspect of his discovery, according to Galil, is the fact that “the inscriptions indicate the exact date on which the Ha’Shiloah project was completed: 2 Tammuz, year 17 of Hezekiah, or 709 BCE.”
According to him, “It is now clear that the chronology dating the start of Hezekiah’s reign in 726 BCE is to be preferred,” which was the point of his 1996 book, “The Chronology of the Kings of Israel and Judah.”





