After a year of conservation work by the IDF's Civil Administration Archaeological Department and by Ariel University, the Tel Hebron archaeological site in the ancient city was opened to the public in a ceremony Tuesday evening.
The work excavated the city's walls, which date from the early and middle Bronze Age, and also turned up First Temple-era pottery vessels, jewelry, and coins, as well as olive presses, kilns and giant vats used to produce oil and wine in accordance with Jewish law.
Additional discoveries from the time of the First Temple, unearthed from the bottom layer of the mound, tell the story of the Jewish community at Tel Hebron in that period.
Deputy Defense Minister Eli Ben-Dahan, who promoted the excavation and development of Tel Hebron as a visitors' site, spoke at the opening event.
"We are standing here, at the birthplace of Jewish history, in the City of the Patriarchs, and inaugurating a place that our children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren, and descendants after them, will visit and learn the most important thing of all: Hebron is the eternal city of the Jewish people, the eternal people," Ben-Dahan said.
