Archaeologist Dr. Eilat Mazar and several of her prominent finds. (Hebrew University/Ouria Tadmor)
Leading biblical archaeologist Dr. Eilat Mazar, 64, died on Tuesday after a long illness.
Known for her discovery of “King David’s palace” in the City of David and biblically tied artifacts and constructions, Mazar was the scion of an Israeli archaeological dynasty. She led excavations in several sites, including most notably in two locations in the City of David ridge: above the Gihon spring and in the “Ophel” on the lower slope of the Temple Mount or Al-Aqsa compound.
Mazar was a field archaeologist, a scholar and a lecturer at the Hebrew University’s Institute of Archaeology in Jerusalem where she completed all her degrees. Her finds include some of the earliest known artifacts in the ancient city, dating as far back as the 12th and 11th centuries BCE, according to Mazar, who proposed they provide scientifically excavated evidence of the biblical united monarchy.