Stepped Stone Structure

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The Stepped Stone Structure is the name given to the remains at a particular archaeological site (sometimes termed Area G) on the eastern side of Ophel, the oldest part of Jerusalem. The curved, 60ft high, narrow stone structure is built over a series of terraces (hence the name). A casemate wall adjoins the structure from a northerly direction at the upper levels, and may have been the original city wall.

It was discovered during a series of excavations by R.A.S. Macalister, Kathleen Kenyon, and Yigal Shiloh. Kathleen Kenyon dated the structure to the start of Iron Age II (1000-900 BC); Macalister believed it to be Jebusite. Macalister, the first to excavate the structure, called the remains he had found a ramp; other scholars, after the more recent discoveries by Kenyon and Shiloh, have suggested that it might be a retaining wall, or a fortress.

It is hypothesized that the structure may be the Biblical Millo.

[edit] See also

• Large Stone Structure
• Millo
• City of David