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King David palace may have been found

JERUSALEM, Aug. 5 (UPI) -- An Israeli archaeologist says she has uncovered in East Jerusalem what might be the palace of the biblical Old Testament King David.

Eilat Mazar uncovered a major public building from around the 10th century B.C., with pottery shards that date to the time of David and Solomon and a government seal of an official mentioned in the book of Jeremiah, reported the New York Times.

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The find might be used in the battle over whether Jews have their roots in Jerusalem or, as many Palestinians say, the idea of a Jewish origin in Jerusalem is a myth used to justify conquest and occupation.

The find may be the Fortress of Zion that David conquered from the Jebusites or some other structure.

"This is a very significant discovery, given that Jerusalem as the capital of the united kingdom is very much unknown," said Gabriel Barkay, an archaeologist from Bar-Ilan University. "This is one of the first greetings we have from the Jerusalem of David and Solomon, a period which has played a kind of hide-and-seek with archaeologists for the last century."

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