Three millennia ago, in the year 1000 B.C.E., after ruling in Hebron for nearly eight years, King David captured the Canaanite town of Jebus, today known as Jerusalem. Renaming the hilltop fortress the City of David, he built a palace and held court there for the next 33 years.

David was followed on the throne by his son Solomon, who ruled for nearly four decades. Their reign — called the United Monarchy — symbolizes a golden age for Jews and Israelis in which the temple and the royal precinct crowned Jerusalem’s acropolis.

A new exhibit, “Kingdom of David and Solomon Discovered” — on display now through Jan. 31, 2025, in the lobby of the Armstrong Auditorium in Edmond, Oklahoma — reflects on the panoply of the royal house of Judah, whose influence extended from Tyre in ancient Phoenicia, to Sheba or Saba — modern-day Lebanon to Yemen and Ethiopia. On display are 49 outstanding artifacts illuminating the material culture of those Hebrew monarchs. Some are on display for the first time.

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The exhibit was created and funded by the Oklahoma-based Armstrong International Cultural Foundation in association with Jerusalem’s Armstrong Institute of Biblical Archaeology, the Israel Museum, the Israel Antiquities Authority and the Institute of Archaeology of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

The opening was broadcast live this past Feb. 25. Showcased are artifacts from 10th century B.C.E. Israel, many discovered by Hebrew University archaeologist Eilat Mazar during her dig in the Ophel adjoining the City of David from 2009 until 2018 and funded by Daniel Mintz and Meredith Berkman. Artifacts found at King Solomon’s copper mines at Timna in the Arava are also on display, as is a copy of the stele from Tel Dan in the Upper Galilee which mentions the House of David.

Mazar was aided by a large contingent of volunteers from Herbert W. Armstrong College in Oklahoma. The pioneering American radio and TV evangelist founded the Worldwide Church of God in 1933 as the Radio Church of God. He frequently inspected the archeological site that had been excavated in the 1970s by Eilat’s grandfather and former president of Hebrew University, Benjamin Mazar. Armstrong was often seen walking arm-in-arm with Jerusalem’s legendary Mayor Teddy Kollek.

Treasures on display

Among the treasures on view for the first time is the enigmatic Ophel pithos — a fragment of an inscribed clay storage jar. Not surprisingly, the oldest alphabetic script found in Jerusalem is the subject of considerable scholarly debate — and problematic to decipher. Ben-Gurion University of the Negev epigrapher Daniel Vainstub has maintained that the inscription is written in ancient South Arabian rather than Canaanite.

He said there’s a connection to the queen of Sheba who journeyed north to pick the brain of Solomon the Wise Man. The jar may have contained rare spices used in the temple service. Mazar discovered the pithos fragment not far from the Temple Mount in 2012. It’s been stored since at the Hebrew University while it is being researched.

Also on display for the first time is an exquisite piece of jewelry called the Ophel electrum basket pendant that was discovered during the 2012 dig. The pendant is composed of an alloy amalgam of gold and silver with trace amounts of copper and other metals.

IAA Iron Age jewelry expert Amir Golani has identified the piece as resembling jewelry found at other Mediterranean sites settled and colonized by the Phoenicians in Spain, Sardinia and Cyprus.

The implication? Phoenician artisans were living in David and Solomon’s Jerusalem — just as was detailed in the Hebrew Bible.

As for the future of these artifacts, Eames said negotiations are currently being held regarding displaying the exhibit in 2025.

And what of the pithos and the electrum basket pendant?

“I’m sure the Israel Museum will snap them up,” Eames quipped.

Out of this world

In 1994, when astronaut Neil Armstrong visited Israel at the behest of Herbert W. Armstrong — the two were unrelated — he toured the Ophel. Brought to the now-sealed Hulda Gates that once led to Herod’s Temple, he asked his host and noted archeologist Meir Ben-Dov if Jesus himself walked there.

“I told him, ‘Look, Jesus was a Jew,’” Ben-Dov recalled. “These are the steps that lead to the Temple, so he must have walked here many times.”

Armstrong asked if these were the original steps. Ben-Dov responded with a yes.

“So Jesus stepped right here?” asked Armstrong.

“That’s right,” replied Ben-Dov.

“I have to tell you,” Armstrong said to the Israeli archaeologist, “I am more excited stepping on these stones than I was stepping on the moon.”

Gil Zohar was born in Toronto and moved to Jerusalem in 1982. He is a journalist writing for The Jerusalem Post, Segula magazine and other publications. He’s also a professional tour guide who likes to weave together the Holy Land’s multiple narratives.