That’s the story of a remarkably rare archeological discovery, which no one has heard about. For some reason, possibly political, the Israeli authorities have been trying to silence this discovery which could usher in a breakthrough in our understanding of the periods of King David and his son, King Solomon.The story has also been covered by Arutz Sheva: Is the State Hiding a Major Bible Era Find? Makor Rishon says authorities are keeping lid on what may be a royal castle from David's time. For those who read Hebrew, the Makor Rishon article that broke the story is here. And Todd Bolen has a blog post up on the subject as well at his Bible Places Blog: Royal Architecture Found Near Jerusalem.
The column crown Tropper ran, or rather climbed down into, is very likely part of a complete temple or palace buried underground.
Tropper, who expected nothing short of a medal for his fortunate discovery, called over the field school’s director, Yaron Rosenthal, who in turn alerted a senior employee of Israel’s Antiquities Authority. But no medals were to come any time soon.
At this point all we know is a little about the structure and that the IAA had known about it for some time, but had elected, for reasons not yet clear, not to make it public. All else is speculation. Note that the first comment at Bolen's blog post, by Israeli archeologist Aren Maier, casts doubt on the structure being as early as the United Monarchy. A potentially "complete" ruin of a structure of this sort from any time in the Monarchic Period would still be exciting, but would not be as profoundly important as one from as early as the United Monarchy.
Just as an aside, I'm having trouble getting a mental picture of how you get a column attached to the relatively untouched (at least recently) ruin of an Iron-Age palace buried in the wall of a deep cave. But maybe that's just me. Presumably the full picture will become clear as more details emerge.
All of the links above were circulated by Joseph I. Lauer on his e-mail list.
