The Babylonian Destruction of Jerusalem as a Symbol?

New excavation areas unearthed in Jerusalem in the last decade provide an oppor- tunity to reexamine the event of the Babylonian destruction of Jerusalem and the interpretation of the archaeological evidence it left behind. In this article I present evidence for destruction from two new sites located in Ancient Jerusalem, highlight- ing the questions raised by it regarding the nature of the destruction. I then survey the evidence for the destruction published from past excavations and show that it suggests that the city's destruction was partial and selective rather than a complete devastation, as previously reconstructed.