Gezer

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Gezer

Gezer was a town in ancient Israel

History of ancient Israel and Judah

The history of ancient Kingdom of Israel and Kingdom of Judah is known to us essentially from the Hebrew Bible . Certain aspects of that history may also be derived from, elaborated and confirmed by other ancient sources and later classical writings such as the Talmud, the writings of Nicolaus of Damascus, Artapanus of Alexandria, Philo of A...
. Scholars believe that Gezer is Tel Gezer (also known as Tell el-Jezer or Abu Shusheh), a site around midway on the route between Jerusalem

Jerusalem

Tel Aviv

Tel Aviv-Yafo , usually Tel Aviv, is the List of largest cities and second largest cities by country List of cities in Israel in Israel, with an estimated population of 390,100....
. Today the site is a national park

List of national parks and nature reserves of Israel

This is a list of national parks and nature reserves of Israel. All are managed by the Israel Nature and National Parks Protection Authority....
in modern Israel

Israel

Israel officially the State of Israel , is a country in the Middle East located on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea. It borders Lebanon in the north, Syria in the northeast, Jordan in the east, and Egypt on the southwest, and contains geographically diverse features within its relatively small area....
.

r was located on the northern fringe of the Shephelah

Shephelah

The Shephelah is a designation usually applied to the region in south-central Israel of 10-15 km of low hills between the central Mount Hebron and the coastal plains of Philistia within the area of the Judea, at an altitude of 120-450 metres above sea level....
, approximately thirty kilometres west of Jerusalem

Jerusalem

Jerusalem is the capital of Israel and its List of Israeli cities in both population and area, with a population of 747,600 residents over an area of if Positions on Jerusalem East Jerusalem is included....
. It was strategically situated at the junction of the international coastal highway and the highway connecting it with Jerusalem

Jerusalem

Ajalon

Ajalon - and Aij'alon, place of deer. A town and valley at the lowland of Shephelah, originally assigned to the tribe of Dan, from which, however, they could not drive the Amorites ....
.

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Encyclopedia

Gezer was a town in ancient Israel

History of ancient Israel and Judah

Jerusalem

Tel Aviv

List of national parks and nature reserves of Israel

This is a list of national parks and nature reserves of Israel. All are managed by the Israel Nature and National Parks Protection Authority....
in modern Israel

Israel

Location

Gezer was located on the northern fringe of the Shephelah

Shephelah

Jerusalem

Ajalon

Ajalon - and Aij'alon, place of deer. A town and valley at the lowland of Shephelah, originally assigned to the tribe of Dan, from which, however, they could not drive the Amorites ....
. The view from Gezer encompassed the whole Coastal Plain below it, making it a strategic military center. Verification of the identification of this site with Biblical

Bible

The Bible is the central religious text of Judaism and Christianity. The exact Books of the Bible is dependent on the religious traditions of specific denominations....
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

Gezer is mentioned in connection with the conquest of the land under the leadership of Joshua

Joshua

Joshua, Jehoshuah or Yehoshua , born in Egypt, was a biblical Israelite leader who succeeded Moses. His story is told in the Hebrew Bible, chiefly in the books Book of Exodus, Book of Numbers and Book of Joshua....
(Joshua

Book of Joshua

The Book of Joshua is the sixth book in both the Hebrew Tanakh and the Old Testament of the Christianity Bible. This book stands as the first in the Former Prophets covering the history of Kingdom of Israel from the possession of the Promised Land to the Babylonian Captivity....
10:33, 12:12), and was home to the Levites. It was noted to be under Philistine

Philistines

The Philistines were a ethnic group who occupied the southern coast of Canaan, their territory being named Philistia in later contexts....
rule as David

David

David , was the second king of the united Kingdom of Israel according to the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament. He is depicted as a righteous king, although not without fault, as well as an acclaimed warrior, musician and poet ....
is said to have broken their rulership "from Geba to as far as to Gezer". It was the last point to which he pursued the Philistines (2 Sam. 5:25; 1 Chr. 14:16) after the battle of Baal-perazim

Baal-perazim

Ba'al-Perazim was a place in ancient History of ancient Israel and Judah.It was the scene of a victory gained by David over the Philistines ....
. Later the Bible claims that Pharaoh

Pharaoh

Pharaoh is a title used in many modern discussions of the ancient Egyptian rulers of all periods. In antiquity this title began to be used for the ruler who was the religious and political leader of united ancient Egypt, only during the New Kingdom, specifically, during the middle of the Eighteenth dynasty of Egypt....
of Egypt

Egypt

Egypt is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Western Asia. Covering an area of about , Egypt borders the Mediterranean Sea to the north, the Gaza Strip and Israel to the northeast, the Red Sea to the east, Sudan to the south and Libya to the west....
destroyed it (see Sack of Gezer

Sack of Gezer

The Sack of Gezer reportedly took place at the beginning of the 10th century BC according to the Holy Bible, when the city was conquered and burned by an Egyptian pharaoh, most likely Siamun, during his military campaign in Palestine....
) and gave it as a dowry to Solomon

Solomon

Solomon is a figure described in the Hebrew Bible and the Qur'an. The biblical accounts identify Solomon as the son of David. He is also called Jedidiah in the Tanakh , and is described as the third king of the United Monarchy, and the final king before the northern Kingdom of Israel and the southern Kingdom of Judah split; following th...
's wife.

Gezer is mentioned in Egyptian records, such as the writings of Thutmose III

Thutmose III

Thutmose III was the sixth Pharaoh of the Eighteenth dynasty of Egypt. During the first twenty-two years of Thutmose's reign he was co-regent with his aunt, Hatshepsut, who was named the pharaoh....
as well as the letters of Amarna

Amarna

The site of Amarna is located on the east bank of the Nile River in the modern Egyptian province of Minya Governorate, some 58 km south of the city of al-Minya, 312 km south of the Egyptian capital Cairo and 402 km north of Luxor....
, the Amarna Letters

Amarna letters

The Amarna letters are an archive of correspondence on clay tablets, mostly diplomatic, between the Ancient Egypt administration and its representatives in Canaan and Amurru during the New Kingdom....
; and Pharaoh Merneptah

Merneptah

Merneptah was the fourth ruler of the Nineteenth dynasty of Egypt of Ancient Egypt. He ruled Egypt for almost ten years between late July or early August 1213 to May 2, 1203 BC, according to contemporary historical records....
boasted that he "seized Gezer". Amarna letters Gezer-(named Gazru, not Gaza

Gaza

Gaza is a Palestinian people city in the Gaza Strip, approximately southwest of Jerusalem, with a population of 410,000, making it the largest city under the control of the Palestinian National Authority....
, named Hazzatu) was ruled by 4 'mayors' during the 20 year Amarna letters period, 1350 BC. Archaeological excavation at Gezer has been going on since the early 1900s, and it has become one of the most excavated sites in Israel

Israel

Israel officially the State of Israel , is a country in the Middle East located on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea. It borders Lebanon in the north, Syria in the northeast, Jordan in the east, and Egypt on the southwest, and contains geographically diverse features within its relatively small area....
.

In the modern era, the site was discovered by Charles Simon Clermont-Ganneau

Charles Simon Clermont-Ganneau

Charles Simon Clermont-Ganneau , was a noted France Orientalist....
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 archælogical 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

William G. Dever

William G. Dever is an United States archaeologist, specialising in the History of the Levant in Biblical times, who was Professor of Near Eastern Archaeology and Anthropology at the University of Arizona in Tucson, Arizona, from 1975 to 2002....
, Yigael Yadin

Yigael Yadin

Yigael Yadin was an Israeli archeology, politician, and the second Ramatkal of the Israel Defense Forces....
, as well as the Andrews University

Andrews University

Andrews University is a Seventh-day Adventist Church university in Berrien Springs, Michigan. Founded in 1874 as Battle Creek College in Battle Creek, Michigan, Michigan, it was the first higher education facility started by Seventh-day Adventists, and today is the flagship university of the Seventh-day Adventist List of Seventh-day Ad...
.

Discoveries

One of the best-known findings is the Gezer calendar

Gezer calendar

The Gezer calendar is a tablet of soft limestone inscribed in a Paleo-Hebrew alphabet script. It is one of the oldest known examples of Hebrew language writing, dating to the 10th century BCE....
. 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.

Other interesting discoveries at the site related to Biblical archaeology

Biblical archaeology

For the movement associated with William F. Albright and known as Biblical archaeology, see Biblical archaeology school. For the interpretation of Biblical archaeology in relation to Biblical historicity, see The Bible and history....
:

10 monumental megalith
Megalith

A megalith is a large Rock which has been used to construct a structure or monument, either alone or together with other stones. Megalithic means structures made of such large stones, utilizing an interlocking system without the use of mortar or cement....
s possibly comprising a Canaan
Canaan

Canaan is an ancient term for a region encompassing modern-day Israel and Lebanon, the Palestinian Territories, plus adjoining coastal lands and parts of Jordan, Syria and northeastern Egypt....
ite "high place"
9 inscribed boundary stones, making it the first positively identified Biblical city
6-chambered gate similar to those found at Hazor
Hazor (archaeological site)

Tel Hazor is a tell above the site of ancient Hazor, whose archeological remains are the largest and richest known in modern Israel. Hazor was an ancient city located in the Upper Galilee, north of the Sea of Galilee, between Ramah and Kadesh, on the high ground overlooking Lake Merom....
and Megiddo
Megiddo (place)

Megiddo is a hill in modern Israel near the Kibbutz of Megiddo , known for its historical, geographical, and theological importance.In ancient times Megiddo was an important city state....

The excavations at Gezer from 1964-1974 were the first to grant academic/college credit to student excavators (now a common practice).

Excavations were renewed in June 2006 by a consortium of institutions under the direction of Steve Ortiz (Southwestern Baptist

Baptist

A Baptist is a member of a Christian denomination characterized by the rejection of infant baptism in favor of believer's baptism by Baptism#Immersion....
Theological Seminary) and Sam Wolff (Israel Antiquities Authority

Israel Antiquities Authority

The Israel Antiquities Authority [???? ???????] is an independent Israel governmental authority responsible for enforcing the 1978 Law of Antiquities by regulating excavation and conservation, and by promoting research....
). The Tel Gezer Excavation and Publication Project is a multi-disciplinary field project investigating the Iron Age

Iron Age

In archaeology, the Iron Age was the stage in the development of any people in which tools and weapons whose main ingredient was iron were prominent....
history of the ancient biblical city of Tel Gezer.

Gezer

Location

History

Discoveries

External links