City of David

The excavations in the City of David, Jerusalem, which uncovered a third-century AD Roman villa just weeks ago, have now found something much older. Israeli archaeologists have found what they believe to be the region's earliest fort: a wall dating back 3,700 years.

Thought to have been built by the Canaanites, its original purpose was to protect the city's water supply and shows that they had considerable engineering skill and were able to construct major buildings – the wall is eight metres high.

The dig director, Ronny Reich, an archaeology professor at the University of Haifa, told the BBC: "The wall is enormous, and that it survived 3,700 years - this is, even for us, a long time.”

A third-century AD house from the Roman period has been uncovered at excavations in the City of David in Jerusalem. The building covers about 1,000 square metres and has emerged during a dig that is being carried out by the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA).

Dr Doron Ben-Ami is the excavation director on behalf of the IAA, and he believes that the house was centred on a large open courtyard encircled by columns. He said: “Galleries were spread out between the rows of columns and the rooms that flanked the courtyard. The wings of the building rose to a height of two stories and were covered with tile roofs”.

Israeli authorities are raging this week, after what they perceive to be their deliberate exclusion from a World Archaeological Congress on Wednesday. The conference, which concerned 'overcoming structural violence' and the negative impact of politics on archaeology, was held in the Palestinian city of Ramallah. The Israeli Antiquities Authority is outraged on three fronts: that their experts weren't informed of the event; that it was held in Palestine, which has a notoriously bad record on preserving ancient remains; and that the WAC conducted a tour of the Temple Mount and City of David Archaeological Park - even though both currently reside within Israeli hegemony.