Jerusalem was already occupied in the 12th–10th centuries BC, expanded westward by at least the 9th century BC, underwent major rebuilding after an earthquake around 760 BC, and continued developing until Babylonian destruction in 586 BC. Those conclusions come from a 2024 peer-reviewed study that combines 103 archaeological radiocarbon samples with 100 individually measured tree rings, stratigraphy, pottery, microarchaeology and historical anchors.
The study did not point cosmic-ray detectors at Jerusalem’s walls. Cosmic rays are part of the atmospheric process that creates carbon-14. Tree rings provide calendar-dated records that make radiocarbon calibration more precise; the buildings themselves were dated through organic remains preserved in their archaeological contexts.
What the Jerusalem chronology study actually established
Regev and colleagues’ 2024 study in PNAS addresses selected Iron Age contexts, approximately 1200–586 BC, rather than every building ever erected in Jerusalem. Most samples came from excavations on the Southeastern Ridge and at the Giv‘ati Parking Lot. The team dated 103 archaeological samples, chiefly short-lived charred materials such as seeds recovered from construction-related deposits.
Short-lived material matters because a seed generally records the carbon balance of the plant shortly before it was burned or deposited. Dating the seed can therefore approach the time of the associated activity more closely than dating a long-lived timber whose inner rings may have grown decades before construction. The researchers did not date mortar or plaster directly. They dated organic remains and then evaluated whether those remains genuinely belonged to the floors, fills or construction phases where excavators found them.
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“Absolute high-precision radiocarbon dating is pivotal in efforts to resolve complex historical and archaeological sequences,” the study authors write. Their chronology is consequently a framework built from several kinds of evidence, not a single laboratory result assigned automatically to a king or a wall.
Cosmic rays, carbon-14 and what was (and was not) measured
How cosmic rays enter the dating story
Cosmic rays constantly interact with Earth’s atmosphere. Among the products of those interactions is carbon-14, a radioactive form of carbon that becomes part of atmospheric carbon dioxide. Plants absorb that carbon dioxide, and animals acquire it through food. Once an organism dies, it no longer exchanges carbon with the atmosphere in the same way, and its carbon-14 gradually decays.
Radiocarbon dating estimates the elapsed time since that exchange largely stopped. The calculation cannot assume that atmospheric carbon-14 was constant through all of history, because production and circulation varied. A calibration curve converts a radiocarbon measurement into calendar dates by accounting for those variations.
What the study did not do
No cosmic-ray instrument was used to date Jerusalem’s stones, walls or bedrock. Cosmic rays are a natural cause of changing carbon-14 production; they are not a direct clock aimed at a building. The measured objects in this study were archaeological organic remains, and the calendar comparison used independently dated tree-ring records.
Why tree rings improve radiocarbon calibration
Annual rings supply calendar dates
Trees normally add a growth ring each year. When a ring sequence can be matched to a calendar year, scientists can measure the carbon-14 in individual rings whose dates are already known. Those measurements reveal how atmospheric carbon-14 changed year by year and help define the calibration curve.
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For the Jerusalem project, the team measured 100 individual growth rings from Irish oak and bristlecone pine. The annual measurements reported in the study cover 624–572 BC. The rings were not Jerusalem building material. They were a dated atmospheric record used to compare and refine the radiocarbon measurements from archaeological samples.
The Hallstatt Plateau problem
A particularly difficult part of the calibration curve is the Hallstatt Plateau, broadly around 770–420 BC. In this interval the curve is relatively flat and wavy. A laboratory result can therefore map to a wide calendar interval or to several possible intervals instead of one narrow date. A conventional calibrated date may be statistically correct yet still too broad to decide whether one floor predates another by a few decades.
Wiggle matching
“Wiggle matching” fits a sequence of radiocarbon results from samples that are known to be in order against the shape of the calibration curve. The individual dates retain uncertainty, but their pattern can align with a particular part of the curve. In Jerusalem, ordered floor sequences and other archaeological relationships supplied that order. The authors report decadal resolution for portions of the sequence where ordinary calibration would otherwise produce broad ranges.
The result is not a magical single year for every sample. It is a tighter sequence produced when annual tree-ring information, multiple radiocarbon measurements and secure archaeological ordering are considered together.
How the team tested whether a date belonged to a building phase
- Collect short-lived organic material. The team sampled charred remains, mostly seeds, from excavated contexts rather than treating a nearby stone as automatically contemporary.
- Measure radiocarbon. Each sample produced a radiocarbon result with laboratory uncertainty.
- Inspect microarchaeological context. Sediment and deposit characteristics were examined to assess whether a seed was in its original setting or could have moved from an older or younger layer.
- Establish stratigraphic order. Floors, fills and rebuilding episodes were arranged according to which deposits lay above or below others and which surfaces cut or sealed them.
- Compare pottery sequences. Ceramic forms supplied an independent relative chronology that could support or challenge the radiocarbon order.
- Use tree-ring calibration and wiggle matching. The archaeological measurements were compared with the calendar-dated annual-ring record and the calibration curve.
- Check historical anchors. Events such as the Babylonian destruction in 586 BC helped test the archaeological sequence, while the historical correlations remained interpretations of the combined evidence.
The resulting Iron Age timeline
12th–10th centuries BC: evidence of settlement
The dated contexts support human presence in Jerusalem during the 12th–10th centuries BC. Some of these deposits lack diagnostic pottery. That absence is important: pottery alone would have left parts of the early sequence difficult to date, whereas broad radiocarbon sampling can still detect occupation in a repeatedly rebuilt urban environment.
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“Settlement” here means evidence from the sampled contexts. It does not mean that every quarter of the later city existed at that time, nor does it provide a population total. The study offers a chronological signal for occupation, not a census.
At least the 9th century BC: expansion westward
The authors place westward expansion from Jerusalem’s earlier core by at least the 9th century BC. Their argument draws in part on the construction date assigned to monumental Building 100 and on large-scale terracing cut into bedrock. “At least” is significant: the evidence establishes that expansion had occurred by that point, not necessarily the exact year when the first western structure was begun.
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One free scan finds every outdated or missing driver and matches the right update for your exact hardware.Free scan · exact hardware matchAround 760 BC: rebuilding after an earthquake
Major changes in the urban plan are placed after an earthquake around 760 BC. The authors associate related fortification work with the period of Uzziah rather than with the conventional attribution to Hezekiah. That is an archaeological interpretation based on the dated sequence, building relationships and historical correlation; it is not a radiocarbon measurement that names a king.
8th–6th centuries BC: continued development and destruction
The city continued to develop through the 8th, 7th and 6th centuries BC. The sequence ends at the Babylonian destruction horizon in 586 BC, which the authors use as a historical chronological anchor. The date anchors the destruction phase; it does not imply that every structure sampled was built immediately before the catastrophe.
What the 2024 study says about radiocarbon offsets
The paper identifies possible regional or site-specific offsets around 730–710 BC and at 586 BC. For the 586 BC horizon, the reported difference from the calibration curve is 14–21 years, a discrepancy that remains within measurement error. The authors lean toward a regional or site-specific effect.
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This observation should not be turned into a universal correction to radiocarbon dating. An offset observed in one region, site or horizon can arise from local carbon sources, environmental conditions or other factors. It requires independent testing before it can be applied elsewhere.
Measured date versus historical interpretation
A measured date answers a limited question: when did the dated organic material stop exchanging carbon, within a stated probability range? Archaeologists then ask whether that material belongs to a particular floor, fill, wall or rebuilding episode. Finally, they may compare the resulting phase with written history and propose an association with a ruler.
Those steps are related but not identical. A seed from a sealed floor can date the activity represented by that floor more directly than it can date a nearby wall whose construction relationship is uncertain. A wall assigned to Uzziah or Hezekiah is therefore an interpretation of several lines of evidence, not a direct reading of a king’s name from the carbon-14 result.
How this chronology compares with other Jerusalem dating studies
| Study | Object and period | Material and method | What it can and cannot establish |
|---|---|---|---|
| Regev et al., PNAS (2024) | Selected Iron Age Jerusalem contexts, approximately 1200–586 BC | 103 archaeological radiocarbon samples, mostly charred short-lived remains; 100 individual Irish-oak and bristlecone-pine rings; stratigraphy, pottery and microarchaeology | Builds a high-resolution sequence for sampled contexts and selected building phases; does not date every structure in the city or prove every biblical event |
| Nature study (2003) | Siloam Tunnel, Iron Age II | Radiocarbon and uranium-thorium dating of that structure | Addresses the tunnel specifically; it is separate from the 2024 city-wide sequence |
| Israel Antiquities Authority journal article (2025) | Roman-period Great Causeway, first century CE | Dating study of later-period construction | Concerns Roman Jerusalem, not the Iron Age chronology |
These studies should not be merged into one claim about “the date of Jerusalem.” They concern different objects, materials, periods and levels of contextual security. A tunnel date cannot automatically date a city wall, and a Roman causeway result cannot revise an Iron Age phase.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What the findings do not prove
- They do not provide a complete construction history for all of Jerusalem.
- They do not establish the population of the city or the number of buildings standing in any period.
- They do not directly date stone with cosmic rays.
- They do not prove every event described in biblical narratives.
- They do not make every proposed ruler attribution a directly measured fact.
- They do not show that a possible local radiocarbon offset applies to every site or region.
The strongest conclusion is narrower and more useful: scientific dates, annual tree-ring calibration and archaeological sequencing can resolve parts of a difficult urban chronology more finely than pottery typology or broad historical correlation alone.
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Why this matters for understanding Jerusalem’s past
Jerusalem was repeatedly rebuilt. Later floors can seal earlier deposits, construction can move soil, and a single urban block can contain centuries of alteration. A chronology that treats one artifact or one written reference as representative of the whole city will miss that complexity.
The combined method allows archaeologists to ask better-grained questions: Was a western terrace already in place by the 9th century BC? Did a rebuilding phase follow the earthquake around 760 BC? Does a destruction layer align with 586 BC? The answers remain tied to the contexts actually sampled, but they are more precise when independent evidence converges.
The study authors describe the outcome this way: “This outcome demonstrates the potential to obtain a high-precision radiocarbon chronology within a relatively flat section of the calibration curve.” That is the methodological achievement: not a cosmic-ray date stamped onto a wall, but a tighter calendar framework for interpreting the remains of a changing city.
Questions readers commonly ask
How old is Jerusalem according to this study?
The sampled contexts provide evidence of human presence in the 12th–10th centuries BC. The study does not claim that every part of the modern city, or every later building, dates to that period.
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When did Jerusalem expand west?
The authors date westward expansion from the ancient core to at least the 9th century BC, drawing on Building 100 and large-scale bedrock terracing.
What happened in Jerusalem around 760 BC?
The authors place major urban-plan changes and associated fortification work after an earthquake around 760 BC and interpret the phase as belonging to the period of Uzziah rather than the conventional Hezekiah attribution.
What happened to the city in 586 BC?
The Babylonian destruction provides the historical anchor at the end of the sequence. The study uses that horizon to help order the final Iron Age phases it sampled.
Did tree rings date Jerusalem’s walls?
No. Tree rings supplied calendar-dated carbon-14 information for calibration. The walls and building phases were assessed through organic samples in archaeological contexts, stratigraphy, pottery, microarchaeology and historical comparison.
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