Gezer

Gezer (Template:Lang-he-n) was a Canaanite city-state and biblical town in ancient Israel.^[1] Tel Gezer (also Tell el-Jezer), an archaeological site midway between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, is now an Israeli national park.

Interesting discoveries related to Biblical archaeology are eight monumental megaliths; a double cave beneath the high place, probably used for divinatory purposes; 13 inscribed boundary stones, making it the first positively identified Biblical city; a 6-chambered gate similar to those found at Hazor and Megiddo;^[2] and a large water-system comprising a tunnel going down to a spring, similar to that found in Jerusalem.

Location

Gezer was located on the northern fringe of the Shephelah, approximately thirty kilometres west of Jerusalem. It was strategically situated at the junction of the international coastal highway and the highway connecting it with Jerusalem through the valley of Ajalon. Verification of the identification of this site with Biblical Gezer comes from Hebrew inscriptions found engraved on rocks several hundred meters from the tel. These inscriptions from the 1st century BCE read "boundary of Gezer."

History

Bronze age

Inhabitants of the first settlement at Gezer, toward the end of the 4th millennium BCE, lived in large rock-cut caves. In the Early Bronze Age, an unfortified settlement covered the tel. It was destroyed in the middle of the 3rd millennium BCE and abandoned for several hundred years. In the Middle Bronze Age (first half of the 2nd millennium BCE), Gezer became a major city in the Land of Israel. The tel was surrounded by a massive stone wall and towers, protected by a five meter high earthen rampart covered with plaster. The wooden city gate, near the southwestern corner of the wall, was fortified by two towers.^[3]

Cultic remains discovered at the site were a row of ten monolithic stone steles, the tallest of which was 3 meters high, and a large, square, stone basin, The Canaanite city was destroyed in a fire, presumably in the wake of a campaign by the Egyptian pharaoh Thutmose III. The Tell Amarna letters, dating from the 14th century BCE, include ten letters from the kings of Gezer swearing loyalty to the Egyptian pharaoh.^[4] In the Late Bronze Age (second half of the 2nd millennium BCE) a new fortification wall, four meters thick, was erected. In the 14th century BCE, a palace was constructed on the high western part of the tel. Toward the end of the Bronze Age, the city declined and its population diminished. It is mentioned in the victory stele of Merneptah, dating from the end of the 13th century BCE, which also specifically mentions "Israel" as a nation that had been defeated.

The city-state of Gezer (named Gazru in Babylonian and unrelated to modern day Gaza which was named Hazzatu) was ruled by four leaders during the 20-year period covered by the Amarna letters circa 1350 BC.^[5]

Iron age

According to the Bible, Joshua defeated the King of Gezer (Joshua 10:33), but the Tribe of Ephraim did not expel the Canaanite inhabitants and that they lived together with the Israelites.^[6]

In 12th-11th centuries BCE, a large building with many rooms and courtyards was situated on the Acropolis. Grinding stones and grains of wheat found among the sherds indicate that it was a granary. Local and Philistine vessels attest to a mixed Canaanite/Philistine population. In the early 10th century BCE, Gezer was conquered by an Egyptian pharaoh (probably Siamun), who gave it to King Solomon as the dowry of his daughter, Solomon's wife. The Egyptians destroyed it by fire and killed the Canaanite inhabitants (I Kings 9:16). Solomon rebuilt Gezer as a royal Israelite center fortified by a double wall with gates. Soon after the death of Solomon, Gezer was destroyed during the campaign waged by Shishak King of Egypt against Rehoboam King of Judah in 924 BCE. (I Kings 14:25)^[7] Jeroboam was the first king of the northern Israelite Kingdom of Israel after the revolt of the ten northern Israelite tribes against Rehoboam that put an end to the United Monarchy.

Gezer was sparsely populated during Roman times and remained uninhabited until the 1st century CE.^[8]

In 1177, the plains around Gezer were the site of the Battle of Montgisard, in which the Crusaders under Baldwin IV defeated the forces of Saladin.

Archaeology

Archaeological excavation at Gezer has been going on since the early 1900s, and it has become one of the most excavated sites in Israel. In the modern era, the site was discovered by Charles Simon Clermont-Ganneau in 1871. R. A. Stewart Macalister dug in the site between 1902 and 1907 on behalf of the Palestine Exploration Fund. Macalister recovered several artifacts discovered several constructions and defenses. He also established Gezer's habitation strata, though they were later found to be mostly incorrect (as well as many of his theories). Other notable archaeological expeditions to the site were made by Alan Rowe (1934), G.E. Wright (1964-5, at the head of the Hebrew Union College expedition), William Dever, Yigael Yadin, as well as the Andrews University.

One of the best-known findings is the Gezer calendar. This is a plaque containing a text appearing to be either a schoolboy's memory exercises, or something designated for the collection of taxes from farmers. Another possibility is that the text was a popular folk song, or child's song, listing the months of the year according to the agricultural seasons. It has proved to be of value by informing modern researchers of ancient Middle Eastern script and language, as well as the agricultural seasons.

In 1957 Yigael Yadin identified a Solomonic wall and gateway identical in construction to the remains excavated at Megiddo and Hazor.^[9]

Excavations were renewed in June 2006 by a consortium of institutions under the direction of Steve Ortiz (Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary) and Sam Wolff (Israel Antiquities Authority). The Tel Gezer Excavation and Publication Project is a multi-disciplinary field project investigating the Iron Age history of the ancient biblical city of Tel Gezer.

Canaanite Water Tunnel

In 2010 a team from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary ("NOBTS") launched an effort to clear a massive water tunnel, discovered first by Macalister over a hundred years earlier.^[10] Macalister never fully excavated the tunnel because a strong storm blew debris back into the tunnel and he considered it too expensive and time consuming to re-excavate the site. The NOBTS effort to re-clear and examine the tunnel has been chronicled in multiple sources including the Biblical Archaeology Review^[11] and the Baptist Press.^[12] In 2011 professor Dennis Cole, archaeologist Dan Warner and engineer Jim Parker from NOBTS, led another team in an attempt to finish the effort.^[13] In just two years the teams removed approximately 299 tons of debris from the ancient water system.

In 2010, the team removed approximately 1,040 cubic feet (39 cubic yards – 29 cubic meters) of debris (approximately 50 percent rock and 50 percent dirt) which equated to 336 bags, equating to approximately 68 tons of debris, averaging about 400 pounds per bag. In 2011 the team removed approximately 3,560 cubic feet (132 cubic yards- 101 cubic meters) which equated to 1,372 bags or 231 tons, at about 337 pounds per bag.^[14]

Also in 2011 BorderStone Press launched a "Research Israel" project in cooperation with NOBTS to participate in the dig and to document and publish a book on the findings.^[15]

Boundary Stones

13 Boundary stones have been identified at the site, the most recent having been found by archaeologists from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.

References

External links

31°51′32″N 34°55′08″E / 31.859°N 34.919°E / 31.859; 34.919

[1] Gezer in the Tell Amarna Letters

[2] Relevance of 6-Chambered Gate

[3] Gezer, Jewish Virtual Library

[4] Gezer, Jewish Virtual Library

[5] Gezer, Jewish Virtual Library

[6] Gezer, Jewish Virtual Library

[7] Gezer, Jewish Virtual Library

[8] Gezer in the Tell Amarna Letters

[9] Gezer

[10] ts.edu

[11] rs.bib-arch.org

[12] tistpress.com

[13] ts.edu

[14] tsarchaeology.blogspot.com

[15] rderstonepress.com

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