Era after David: Solomon.

Today Professor Cargill continued onto a new topic, talking about King Solomon and Jerusalem.  He started about, speaking about Jerusalem as a Sacred Space, once again emphasizing the idea of Jerusalem as the axis-mundi, the center of the world.  He implies that Jerusalem is the linkage between heaven and earth.  Its geographical location on Mount Moriah as well as its religious context (ie. the Temple of Solomon) dubs it the "link between heaven and earth."  Inhabitants believe that they can communicate to the heavens from Jerusalem.  There are many biblical accounts about the actual existence of the Temple.  However, Professor Cargill challenges us to think like archaeologists--questioning everything.  Turns out, although there are Biblical accounts about the existence of Solomon's Temple, there is no artifactual evidence that supports the claim of the existence of the Temple.  There is nothing substantial about the excavations.  Like Professor Cargill said, "is the absence of evidence, evidence of absence?"  Did the Temple of Solomon actually exist?  And, if followers have been aimlessly searching for the existence of a faux temple, what does that tell us about all the world religions of today?  I agree with the theory of Professor Cargill.  I believe that the Biblical accounts of Solomon's Temple was modeled after other Near Eastern Temples of Syria and Turkey.  He listed a number of temples, including "Tel-Ta'yinar" and "'Alin Darat," mentioning that they all have physical things as depicted in the Biblical description of Solomon's Temple.  I am suggesting that perhaps Solomon's temple did not rest on top of Mount Moriah, maybe it was on another mountain.  In spite of all this confusing and discrepancy, one thing remains certain.  We know that Solomon's Temple is patterned after existing surrounding Temples.  Hopefully future excavations magically call for new discoveries :)