Tulul adh-Dhahab, the site where a group of 10 incised ashlar blocks were found in Jordan, can be used to identify the area with the biblical city of Mahanaim, according to research conducted by the Institute of Archeology at Tel Aviv University.
The research article detailing the discovery, “An Israelite Residency at Mahanaim in Transjordan?,” was published last month in Tel Aviv, the peer-reviewed journal of TAU’s Institute of Archeology.
In a post on social media, researcher Israel Finkelstein wrote that he and co-author Professor Tallay Ornan from the Hebrew University “propose that the site of Tulul ed-Dhahab in Transjordan may be the biblical Mahanaim.”
“We analyzed exceptional carved stone slabs featuring lions and banquet scenes, suggesting they were part of a monumental structure built during the Kingdom of Israel’s rule in the region around 2,800 years ago,” Finkelstein wrote. The 10 blocks likely date back to the first half of the eighth century BCE.
