LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - "We have a city with a population relating to the Kingdom of Judah," Yosef Garfinkel, an archaeologist at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem says. "This is totally different from Philistine, Canaanite or the cult in the Kingdom of Israel."

Known as Khirbet Qeiyafa, is about 20 miles southwest of Jerusalem, on top of a hill overlooking the Valley of Elah. Garfinkel and his colleagues for the past five years have been excavating the ruins of a fortified city there, situated across from what was once the Philistine city of Gath.

In the Bible, the giant Goliath came out from Gath to face the Israelites, and was smitten by a rock hurled from David's sling.

Garfinkel says he can't vouch for the story of Goliath, but says the weapons, the cult items and even the animal bones found around Khirbet Qeiyafa support his view that the settlement was a key military outpost for the historical House of David. "There was something here quite military and quite aggressive," he said. "It was not a peaceful village."

Based on radiocarbon dating, archaeologists believe the ancient city lasted for only 40 years, from 1020 to 980 B.C., before it was destroyed. Other experts have suggested that Khirbet Qeiyafa was just another Canaanite settlement, and that David was at best a minor chieftain, or perhaps a folkloric figure like Robin Hood.

Garfinkel said the items found at the site strengthen the connection to King David and the religious practices specified in the Bible.

"Over the years, thousands of animal bones were found, including sheep, goats and cattle, but no pigs," he wrote in a news release from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. "Now we uncovered three cultic rooms, with various cultic paraphernalia, but not even one human or animal figurine was found. This suggests that the population on Khirbet Qeiyafa observed two biblical bans - on pork and on graven images - and thus practiced a different cult from that of the Canaanites or the Philistines."

In addition, the absence of human imagery was peculiar to the Judeans. "In the northern Kingdom of Israel, you find human representations," he said.

The cult objects included five standing stones, two basalt altars, two pottery libation vessels and two portable shrines. Garfinkel said the shrines reflected a Mesopotamian architectural style that went back centuries before the era of King David, and probably inspired the look of the palace built by Solomon, David's son.

"It seems that Solomon didn't want to be Canaanite and took a different model from Mesopotamia," Garfinkel says.

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