King David's palace was discovered in Israel, along with an ancient royal storeroom.
The structures are believed to be from the tenth century, an Israel Antiquities Authority press release reported.
The palace is called Khirbet Qeiyafa, and is considered to be the best example of a fortified city to date.
"Around the palace's perimeter were rooms in which various installations were found - evidence of a metal industry, special pottery vessels and fragments of alabaster vessels that were imported from Egypt. The palace is located in the center of the site and controls all of the houses lower than it in the city. From here one has an excellent vantage looking out into the distance, from as far as the Mediterranean Sea in the west to the Hebron Mountains and Jerusalem in the east," archaeologists Professor Yossi Garfinkel and Sa'ar Ganor said in the statement.
"This is an ideal location from which to send messages by means of fire signals. Unfortunately, much of this palace was destroyed 1,400 years later when a fortified farmhouse was built there in the Byzantine period," they said.
The southern part of the palace was about 2,280 square feet. The pillared storehouse structure located nearby was about 50 by 20 feet.
"It was in this building the kingdom stored taxes it received in the form of agricultural produce collected from the residents of the different villages in the Judean Shephelah. Hundreds of large store jars were found at the site whose handles were stamped with an official seal as was customary in the Kingdom of Judah for centuries," the researchers said.
The structures are examples of state sponsored construction that King David had ordered at the time.
"This is unequivocal evidence of a kingdom's existence," the researchers said.
"To date no palaces have been found that can clearly be ascribed to the early tenth century BCE as we can do now. Khirbet Qeiyafa was probably destroyed in one of the battles that were fought against the Philistines circa 980 BCE. The palace that is now being revealed and the fortified city that was uncovered in recent years are another tier in understanding the beginning of the Kingdom of Judah," they said.
