Journal of Archaeological Science 157 (2023) 105823 0305-4403/© 2023 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Destruction by fre: Reconstructing the evidence of the 586 BCE Babylonian destruction in a monumental building in Jerusalem N. Shalom a, b, * , Y. Vaknin a, c , R. Shaar c , E. Ben-Yosef a , O. Lipschits a , Y. Shalev d , Y. Gadot a , E. Boaretto b a Institute of Archaeology, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel b Kimmel Center for Archaeological Science, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel c Institute of Earth Sciences, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel d Israel Antiquities Authority, Jerusalem, Israel A R T I C L E INFO Keywords: Babylonian destruction FTIR spectroscopy Archaeomagnetism Fire analysis Iron age Jerusalem ABSTRACT Evidence of fre is one of the most important features for identifying and characterizing destruction events. Analysis of microscopic remains of fre has developed exceedingly in recent years, enabling archaeologists to examine new questions relating to the intensity of destruction events and to the circumstances of the creation of destruction layers. One of the most crucial events in the history of the Southern Levant is the Babylonian destruction of Judah and its capital Jerusalem in 586 BCE, which shaped the biblical narrative and theology for generations to come. Building 100 was an extraordinarily large and rich elite building, thoroughly destroyed during the Babylonian campaign. This paper presents a study of the destruction layer excavated within the rooms of the building. FTIR spectrometry and archaeomagnetic analysis were combined in the micro-archaeological study of the remains in order to create a detailed reconstruction of the destruction event. This reconstruction sheds new light on how the Babylonian destruction was manifested in reality in the elite buildings of Jerusalem. 1. Introduction Destruction layers are essential for the reconstruction of southern Levantine history, as they can provide nearly complete contexts within sites that underwent destruction and abandonment. In recent years, however, there has been increasing awareness of the fact that destruc- tion layers cannot be automatically identifed by simply recognizing a collapse or an ash layer (e.g., Finkelstein, 2009). A prominent charac- teristic of destruction layers is damage caused by fre and the presence of charred remains is one of the main features that help determine whether an archaeological layer can be defned as a destruction layer (Finkel- stein, 2009: 113; Kreimerman, 2017: 176). Such remains, however, can also be created by various activities other than destruction. Therefore, analyzing fre events is central to determining whether a structure did undergo violent destruction and how that destruction process should be reconstructed. These statements are especially true for a multi-layered urban site like Jerusalem. Jerusalem has undergone several cata- strophic political upheavals, a central one being the Babylonian or First Temple destruction in 586 BCE. This destruction event has reached an almost mythical status in collective memory and in reconstructions of this region’s history. A detailed micro-archaeological study of material remains from this phase can help provide a more factual and nuanced understanding of the historical event. Several approaches have been utilized for the study of fre and its effects on ancient built environments, including burning experiments intended to observe the visible effects and behavior of fre under known conditions (Bankoff and Winter, 1979; Lally and Vonarx, 2011) or to characterize its microscopic remains (Kreimerman and Shahack-Gross, 2018). A different approach explored how modern tools of forensic fre investigation may be applied to the study of structural fres in the archaeological record (Harrison, 2013). Recent works have applied micro-archaeological methods to study the destruction of structures in specifc tel sites, emphasizing the evidence of fre (Berna et al., 2007 in Tel Dor; Namdar et al., 2011 in Tel es-Saf; Regev et al., 2015 and Shahack-Gross et al., 2018 in Tel Megiddo; Faust et al., 2017 in Tel ‛Eton; Kreimerman et al., 2022 in Tel Lachish). The current study utilizes several methods to analyze the effects of fre in one elite building in Jerusalem (Building 100), destroyed by the * Corresponding author. Institute of Archaeology, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel. E-mail address: nitsans3@mail.tau.ac.il (N. Shalom). Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Journal of Archaeological Science journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jas https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jas.2023.105823 Received 28 April 2023; Received in revised form 4 July 2023; Accepted 5 July 2023