Bunimovitz, S. and Lederman, Z. 2013. Solving a Century-old Puzzle: New Discoveries at the Middle Bronze Gate at Tel Beth-Shemesh. Palestine Exploration Quarterly 145: 6-24. (original) (raw)
Related papers
SOLVING A CENTURY-OLD PUZZLE: NEW DISCOVERIES AT THE MIDDLE BRONZE GATE OF TEL BETH-SHEMESH
At Ain Shems (Beth-Shemesh) in 1911–1912, Duncan Mackenzie exposed a massive city wall and its ‘South Gate’. Mackenzie published only a schematic plan of the gate, which he dated back to the ‘Canaanite period’, and covered it at the end of his work. The gate comprises one of the finest examples of Middle Bronze city gates known from the Land of Israel, yet its asymmetrical plan and final date of use remained a puzzle for almost a century. Combining archaeological clues on the ground with a study of Mackenzie’s unpublished documents in the PEF archive, the authors’ renewed excavations at Tel Beth-Shemesh, located the hidden ‘South Gate’ and exposed it anew. The new excavation revealed unknown details about the gate’s plan and determined Late Bronze IIA as the terminus ad quem for its function as a gate. A reassessment of the ‘South Gate’ architecture, roofing, and system of closure provides new insights concerning its daily functioning, and raises doubts about the conventional uniform reconstruction of known MB gates. The role of Beth-Shemesh as a fortified MBIIB-C city in the northern Shephelah is discussed vis-à-vis its neighbouring sites: Tel Batash, Tel Miqne, and Gezer.
The Early Bronze Age Fortifications At Tell Es-Safi/Gath, Israel
Palestine Exploration Quarterly, 2016
Tell es-Safi/Gath is a multi-period site located on the border between the Judean foothills (Shephelah) and the southern coastal plain in central Israel, which has been subject to survey and excavations over the last two decades. Excavations by Bliss and Macalister in 1899 exposed a fortification system which was dated to the "Jewish period". In this paper, we present updated data on these fortifications which have led to fresh insights. In two separate excavation areas, we excavated portions of the fortification system that surrounded the site which can now be dated to the EB III of the southern Levant. The EB fortification system influenced the location of later fortifications at the site. The nature of the construction techniques of these fortifications and the character of the settlement which they surrounded suggest that Tell es-Safi/Gath was a major regional urban centre during the EB III and was governed by a centralised administrative hierarchy.
Tell es-Safi/Gath is a multi-period site located on the border between the Judean foothills (Shephelah) and the southern coastal plain in central Israel, which has been subject to survey and excavations over the last two decades. Excavations by Bliss and Macalister in 1899 exposed a fortification system which was dated to the " Jewish period.. In this paper, we present updated data on these fortifications which have led to fresh insights. In two separate excavation areas, we excavated portions of the fortification system that surrounded the site which can now be dated to the EB III of the southern Levant. The EB fortification system influenced the location of later fortifications at the site. The nature of the construction techniques of these fortifications and the character of the settlement which they surrounded suggest that Tell es-Safi/Gath was a major regional urban centre during the EB III and was governed by a centralised administrative hierarchy. The excavations by Bliss and Macalister at Tell es-Safi/Gath in were one of the first archaeological excavations of a large multi-period site in the Levant, and as such have an important role in the history of the development of archaeological research in the region (e.g. Avissar and Maeir ; Avissar Lewis and Maeir ). As this excavation was done under the auspices of and with the support of the Palestine Exploration Society (Bliss and Macalister ), the preliminary publications of the excavations were published in the issues of the Palestine Exploration Fund Quarterly Statement. The current excavations at Tell es-Safi/Gath (Maeir ) have uncovered various remains which were also dealt with in the earlier excavations, including aspects relating to the fortifications during various periods of this site. In the present paper, we wish to present a renewed look at the Early Bronze Age (EB) fortifications at the site, based both on the finds from Bliss and
Davide Nadali, 2014-15, The Northern Gate at Tell Mardikh-Ebla: An Attempt at Reconstruction
Excavated in the years 1999-2001 within the programme of archaeological exploration of the defensive system of the ancient city of Ebla, the Northern Gate (labelled as Aleppo Gate) in Area DD has been only partially investigated. In particular, excavations showed the organization of the defensive system on the external eastern side of the rampart with the presence of a tower (following the line of the earthen rampart) and rooms, probably workshops or places for commercial and industrial activities. Despite the lack of any evidence of the typical architectural structure of Middle Bronze gates, the present paper attempts a reconstruction of the organization and arrangement of spaces, based on the comparison with the two most complete and well-preserved gates of Ebla in Area A (South-West) and Area BB (North-East).
“Walled Up to Heaven”: The Evolution of Middle Bronze Age Fortification Strategies in the Levant
2008
As the first comprehensive study of fortification systems and defensive strategies in the Levant during the Middle Bronze Age (ca. 1900 to 1500 B.C.E.), Walled up to Heaven is an indispensable contribution to the study of this period and of early warfare in the ancient Near East. Although archaeologists and ancient historians alike have discussed a variety of theories regarding the origin and cultural significance of the construction of earthen ramparts during the Middle Bronze Age, only this work addresses these questions in detail. In a tour de force, Burke traces the diachronic evolution and geographic distribution of the architectural features and settlement strategies connected with the emergence of Middle Bronze Age defenses in the Levant. By synthesizing historical and archaeological data from Mesopotamia and Egypt as well as the Levant, he reveals the interconnectedness of the Near Eastern world during the first half of the second millennium to an extent not recently considered. The result is a detailed employment of cognitive, social, and dirt archaeology to reconstruct the political, social, military, and cultural implications of the construction of monumental defenses and the development of defensive networks during the period of Amorite hegemony in the Levant. Based on author's Ph.D. dissertation: The Architecture of Defense: Fortified Settlements of the Levant during the Middle Bronze Age (2004). Ph.D. Dissertation. Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, University of Chicago.