Avigad's discoveries also provided an answer to a contemporary debate about the extent of Iron Age Jerusalem. Before the excavation of the Jewish quarter, scholars had been divided between those that believed the city had been confined to its eastern ridge, including the Temple Mount and the City of David, and those who believed the biblical city has already expanded to encompass the southwestern hill. Avigad's discoveries, since augmented by additional finds, had proven that by the end of the First Temple period, Jerusalem's city walls had expanded to the Hinnom Valley in the west and had encompassed the entire southwestern hill.