Eli Shukron (

Hebrew Hebrew (; ''ʿÎbrit'') is a Northwest Semitic languages, Northwest Semitic language within the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family. A regional dialect of the Canaanite languages, it was natively spoken by the Israelites and ...

: אלי שוקרון) is an Israeli

archaeologist Archaeology or archeology is the study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of Artifact (archaeology), artifacts, architecture, biofact (archaeology), biofacts or ecofacts, ...

employed by the Israel Antiquities Authority. He has made several significant finds from the period of the Second Temple of Jerusalem. In 2004, Shukron and archaeologist Ronny Reich excavated the Second Temple period Pool of Siloam. The find was formally announced on August 9, 2005. The pool was used for Jewish healing rituals and is cited in the

New Testament The New Testament (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus, as well as events relating to Christianity in the 1st century, first-century Christianit ...

as the site of a healing miracle of Jesus. In 2007, Shukron and Reich excavated an ancient

Jerusalem water channel The Jerusalem Water Channel is a central drainage channel of Second Temple Jerusalem, now an archaeological site in Jerusalem. It is a large drainage tunnel or sewer that runs down the Tyropoeon Valley and once drained runoff and waste water from ...

that drained Jerusalem. Items discovered in the tunnel appear to confirm

Josephus Flavius Josephus (; , ; ), born Yosef ben Mattityahu (), was a Roman–Jewish historian and military leader. Best known for writing '' The Jewish War'', he was born in Jerusalem—then part of the Roman province of Judea—to a father of pr ...

's account of Jews using the sewer as a refuge and escape from the burning city. Among the finds was a rare half-shekel coin, used to pay the Second Temple tax; only seven other such coins have been found in archeological digs. In September 2009, Shukron and Reich uncovered the ancient Jerusalem pilgrim road. Limited sections are currently open to the public. In May 2012, Shukron told the public, that archaeologists, while sifting through the debris from the excavation site City of David just south of the walls of the Old City of

Jerusalem Jerusalem is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest cities in the world, and ...

, found a shard from a bulla bearing the name of the city of

Bethlehem Bethlehem is a city in the West Bank, Palestine, located about south of Jerusalem, and the capital of the Bethlehem Governorate. It had a population of people, as of . The city's economy is strongly linked to Tourism in the State of Palesti ...

. This is the first time that Bethlehem is mentioned outside the Bible from the period of the First Temple. In May 2014, Shukron claimed to have discovered the legendary Citadel of David described in the Bible during his excavation of the ancient City of David in East Jerusalem. In December 2022, it was announced that, together with Gershon Galil, he had discovered a summary inscription in the Siloam tunnel recording the deeds of

Hezekiah Hezekiah (; ), or Ezekias (born , sole ruler ), was the son of Ahaz and the thirteenth king of Kingdom of Judah, Judah according to the Hebrew Bible.Stephen L Harris, Harris, Stephen L., ''Understanding the Bible''. Palo Alto: Mayfield. 1985. "G ...

, including the cutting of the tunnel, and giving the date it was completed. An extension of the Siloam inscription was also discovered.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Shukron, Eli Israeli archaeologists Living people Year of birth missing (living people)