Millo
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The Millo was a structure in Jerusalem mentioned by the Books of Kings, and corresponding passages in the Books of Chronicles. The texts simply describe the Millo as having been built by Solomon[1] and repaired by Hezekiah[2], without giving an explanation of what exactly the Millo was, and hence there is some debate among scholars as to its nature.
Hezekiah's repair of the Millo is mentioned within a list of repairs to military fortifications, and several scholars generally believe that it was something connected to military activity, such as a tower, citadel, or simply a significant part of a wall[3]. However, taking into account that the potentially cognate term mulu, from Assyrian, refers to earthworks[4], it is considered more likely that it was an embankment which flattened the slope between Ophel and the Temple Mount[5].
However, no evidence of monumental building programmes from the era of Solomon have been found in Jerusalem[6], and most archaelogists believe that the constructions attributed to him by the Bible actually date from the era of the Omrides[7] - a dynasty whose religious viewpoint was opposed by the Biblical authors[8] and whose achievements were consequently subjected to a form of damnatio memoriae by being reassigned to Solomon[9].
[edit] Citations and notes
- ^ 1 Kings 9:24
- ^ 2 Chronicles 32:4-5
- ^ Peake's commentary on the Bible; Jewish Encyclopedia
- ^ Jewish Encyclopedia
- ^ Peake's commentary on the Bible
- ^ Israel Finkelstein, The Bible Unearthed
- ^ ibid
- ^ ibid; Jewish Encyclopedia passim
- ^ ibid
