JERUSALEM BEGINS

An ancient threshing floor, showing the solid rock on which grain was processed

The village/town of Jebus/Jerusalem was built around a local threshing floor:

• the hard flat rock (on which the Temple later stood) was used for threshing grain after the harvest.
• cavities in the hollowed-out rock were ideal for storing grain.

Before David intruded, the people of Jebus worshipped the fertility gods. They probably continued to do so for many years, even though this was officially frowned on in later centuries. Ordinary farming people reasoned that the forces of Nature had made the land blossom, and that it would be ungrateful - and foolish - to neglect them.

The biblical writers do not mention this - hardly surprising, since it would draw attention to the fact that their Temple was built on what had once been the scene of riotous harvest festivals celebrating the fertility of the land.

Overbuilding like this, one sacred site built over the ruins of another, was common in the ancient world.

Later on, when the village of Jebus grew into a town and then into the city of Jerusalem, the rock floor provided a solid foundation for monumental buildings like the Temple.

 1937 photograph of a Threshing Sledge

BIBLE ARCHAEOLOGY has more information on work/tasks in biblical times