"The excavations conducted by Ronny Reich and Eli Shukron in the City of David augured a new era of large-scale archaeological research. They began their work in 1995 as a modest tourism development project in connection with Jerusalems 3000th anniversary celebrations. Today, more than 25 years later, the project is still underway. It was only natural for the academic committee of The Ancient Jerusalem Publication Series to begin publication with the astounding results of their excavations and research studies." -Yuval Baruch, Jerusalem Regional Archaeologist "To put things simply, there is no way to decipher the history of Ancient Israel without the archaeology of Jerusalem, with no access to the Temple Mount, there is no way to understand the archaeology and history of Jerusalem without the City of David ridge, and there is no way to study the City of David without the results of the Reich/Shukron excavations. This volume is therefore a landmark in the archaeology of Jerusalem and the Land of Israel." -Israel Finkelstein, Chair, Academic Committee