David is celebrated as the greatest, and most famous king of Israel.  It was quite interesting, therefore, that archaeologists had never turned up any reference to David outside of Biblical records.  The absence of evidence led many to conclude that David was not a historical figure.  That changed in July 1993 when archaeologists discovered three stone fragments while excavating the city gate at Dan.[1]  The stones contained an Aramaic inscription dating to the mid 9th century BC that mentions “the house of David.”  The 13 extant lines of text read:

(more…)