LF: Hidden secret of Gezer: A pre-Solomonic city beneath the ruins

Title: Hidden secret of Gezer: A pre-Solomonic city beneath the ruins
Source: [None]
URL Source: http://www.haaretz.com/archaeology/.premium-1.554228
Published: Dec 15, 2013
Author: Ran Shapira
Post Date: 2013-12-15 21:17:09 by A K A Stone
Keywords: None
Views: 39471
Comments: 66

A summer dig unexpectedly reveals remains of an unknown city beneath the known Canaanite one.

The walls in the ancient city beneath Gezer are as much as a meter thick. Photo by Samuel Wolff

Several pottery vessels, a cache of cylinder seals, and a large scarab with the cartouche of King Amenhotep III attest to the existence of a previously unknown Canaanite city in the land of Israel, archaeologists say. Where was it hiding? Underneath another Canaanite city – the famous ruins of Gezer.

The scarab and other artifacts were found this summer at a level dating from the Late Bronze Age (14th century BCE) in ancient Gezer, a major Canaanite city located along the strategic coastal highway between Egypt and Mesopotamia.

The first signs that there was an unknown city lurking there were found by Dr. Steven Ortiz of the Tandy Institute for Archaeology at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, and Dr. Samuel Wolff of the Israel Antiquities Authority, who have directed the excavations at Gezer for six seasons. They believe the hidden city was destroyed during the Egyptian 18th Dynasty's rule over the southern Levant, and the new Gezer was built on top of it.

Amenhotep III, by the way, was the father of the heretic King Akhenaten and also grandfather to Tutankhamun, whose fabulous tomb was discovered in 1922 by Howard Carter and Lord Carnarvon.

Enter Reshef, the Canaanite war god

In the late Bronze Age, circa 1,400 BCE, Gezer, then the capital city in the region, was burned to the ground. Possibly it was another victim of the incessant internecine warfare between the Canaanite cities at the time, as described so evocatively in the well-known Tell el-Amarna correspondence.

It was while digging into the remains of this known devastation that the momentous discoveries were made.

The inhabitants of the proto-Gezer of 1,400 BCE were clearly Canaanites, said Ortiz. But artifacts found at the site indicate strong ties with Egypt.

For instance, there is the small cylinder seal found at the site, just 2.5cm in height, bearing a rare image of the Canaanite god Reshef subduing his enemies. Identification of the ruins with the biblical city of Gezer rely among other things on inscriptions found there: 'Boundary of Gezer' Identification of the ruins with the biblical city of Gezer rely among other things on inscriptions found there: 'Boundary of Gezer'Wikimedia Commons

Reshef, a central god in the Canaanite pantheon, was – inter alia – in charge of diseases, plagues and conflagrations. In the seal he is portrayed shooting an arrow from a big bow towards about ten rivals depicted in states of submission and fall.

Worship of Reshef was common in the New Kingdom of Egypt period, says Ornan – and the cylinder seal from Gezer shows clear Egyptian influence. The miniature depiction of the god is done in the style of the awe-inspiring Egyptian embossments that show triumphs of the pharaohs.

“The question is whether the Late Bronze Age Gezerites were supporters, or subjects, of the Egyptian 18th Dynasty," says says Prof. Tallay Ornan of the Institute of Archaeology at the Hebrew University. "We know that during the 14th century BCE, the king of Gezer was responsible for various conflicts within the region. The Late Bronze Age destruction either represents an Egyptian campaign to subdue Gezer, or local Canaanites attacking an Egyptian stronghold at Gezer."

That's not a support system, that's a city

Gezer lies between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. The archaeological team, some 80 staff and students from the U.S., Israel, the Palestinian Authority, Russia, Korea, and Hong Kong were removing a wall dating from later - the 10th century BCE, known as the Iron IIA period – and discerned a yet earlier city wall.

They had vaguely known the wall was there, but had thought it was a subterranean support system for the later Iron Age wall, Ortiz explains. “It became evident that our original interpretation was wrong," he says. The lower wall had been built as much as 200 years earlier; the 10th century CE wall had been built on top of it after the city's destruction by fire.

This earlier wall was one meter thick, and had several rooms attached to it. These rooms were filled with rubble nearly a meter in height, from catastrophic destruction. These earlier remains included shards from Canaanite storage jars, Philistine pottery and other items. A fragment of a Philistine figurine was also found.

Since Gezer was Canaanite, says Ortiz, the Philistine pottery either represents trade relations or a group of Philistines living among the Canaanites.

A city as dowry

As for the Egyptian influence, according to the biblical account, Gezer was conquered by an Egyptian pharaoh and was later given to Solomon as a wedding gift when the Israelite king married the pharaoh’s daughter.

Solomon is also recorded in the biblical account as having built walls around Gezer, as he did at Jerusalem, Hazor, and Megiddo, all sites currently under excavation. Excavations at Gezer have been regarded as a key to understanding and resolving the debate among biblical scholars and archaeologists regarding the appropriate chronology of events and ruling Israelite and Judahite kings.

Gezer is also famous for its massive ancient water-tunnel system, which is also currently under excavation. Last summer Dr. Tsvika Tsuk, chief archaeologist at the Israel Nature and Parks Authority, said the water system at Gezer was the largest Canaanite water system found in the country. It includes a large entrance carved in bedrock. From there, a 50-meter tunnel runs at a 39-degree slope. The tunnel is 7 meters tall and 4 meters wide.

Tsuk and his colleagues, Jim Parker, Daniel Warner, and Dennis Cole of the Old Testament and Archaeology at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, believe the water system was built in the Middle Bronze Age IIB (1750-1550 BCE). But it fell out of use around 1,300 BCE, based on pottery found at the end of last season’s work.

Are you out of your freakin' mind? Your posted article does nothing concerning any moral or intellectual improvement for anyone ... with exception of yourself. What the article PERFORMS as on the other thread that I have ensured you are aware that has been discussed between you and myself for the past couple of days; there are no facts about the Jewish exodus from Egypt anywhere on the planet. Certainly, if such a fact existed there would have been some data content about 1400 BCE. The article supports my contention that Egypt and all societies at that time had no knowledge of Moses. Why? The dude did not exist, except in the Bible.

The Bible was created by Jews after their exile in Babylon, circa 500 BCE. The Jews learned to write ideas by the Babylonians and when they departed Babylon for "Israel" created the Bible. The old testament (Tanakh) is just a pile of faebles, most of which can not be confirmed anywhere on the planet.

Take it easy, Buck. Archeologists have made some amazing finds in Biblical Holy Lands. Many millions of people have complete faith in the Scriptures, both Old and New Testaments.

If you don't believe, so be it. If you are fortunate, God will have mercy on you and bring you to the faith that will keep you from going to that well-heated place in the afterlife.

And in case the meaning of the word "faith" confuses you, for your convenience I provide a definition below, with the relevant parts in boldface.

- strong belief in God or in the doctrines of a religion, based on spiritual apprehension rather than proof.

Faith is an act, or a readiness to act, based on the confidence one has in the object of their belief. The confidence is based on the evidence presented.

Proof is subjective. Example. You may have proof meguro is an actual person. I do not, the meguro handle could be an automated program responding to key words. However, I have evidence that meguro may be a real person given an automated program may not be able to interact on every subject. I also have no proof you are who you say you are.

You define faith as a leap into the dark. Meaning there is no evidence to examine. The entire purpose for God revealing Himself and ensuring His written Word survived human history is to provide us with that evidence.

Here is a Biblical example of "Faith is an act, or a readiness to act, based on the confidence one has in the object of their belief.":

10 Then the brethren immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea. When they arrived, they went into the synagogue of the Jews. 11 These were more fair-minded than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness, and searched the Scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so. 12 Therefore many of them believed, and also not a few of the Greeks, prominent women as well as men.

So now you're taking on an established English dictionary? That's pretty funny. LOL!

You may have proof meguro is an actual person. I do not, the meguro handle could be an automated program responding to key words. However, I have evidence that meguro may be a real person given an automated program may not be able to interact on every subject. I also have no proof you are who you say you are.

The entire purpose for God revealing Himself and ensuring His written Word survived human history is to provide us with that evidence.

So where's you evidence of what this god looks like? Where's your evidence that you can speak to him and get a response? Where's your evidence that even if this god existed at one point, that it still exists?

The evidence you have is some written word (Scriptures) that you claim was written by this god. So while the evidence of this "written word" may be objective, the "evidence" of who actually wrote is purely subjective. And plenty of other religions make the same claim as Christianity. For example, in Islam, it's the Koran that provides the "written word of god." So both you and Muslims would make the same claim, namely that you have "objective evidence" that your deity exists. You can't both be right, can you?

How many established witnesses do you have that you write what you write and it is actually you. When you reach 500 at one time then we can talk.

I have posted the references to you more than 10 times over the past couple of years. Reference 1 Corinthians chapter 15 for the eyewitness account of people who saw Jesus AFTER He rose from the dead. Jesus Christ performed miracles in front of thousands at a time and in two cases fed those thousands from a few pieces of bread and fish.

If you track the history of early Christians the Scriptures have never been out of sight. Some tend to believe hundreds of years passed before someone decided what really were the scriptures. The early church fathers some of them discipled by the apostles all wrote about and quoted the scriptures to include both the NT and OT.

The Muslims can only claim one witness to the writing of their Qur'an. That would be Mohammad. No one else witnessed the revelations and the results of the revelations. The same OT Torah that the Muslims believe are inspired clearly states for something to be established there needs to be two or more witnesses. If you would care to read the Gospels, Jesus confirms this.

Jesus Christ confirmed He was the Messiah, the Son of God and Truly God and truly man. Therefore, this is what Yeshua HaMashiach (Jesus Christ) God has to say about other religions and their claims, and which no other religion can claim nor tries to claim:

6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.

I don't follow your religion. Never have, never will. You tell me Islam is full of shit, Muslims will tell me Christianity is full of shit. I think you're both full of shit.

Worship your deity all you like. Couldn't care less, so long as you don't dictate to me. Then we have a problem, otherwise it's all good.

The only dictating going on is the gay mafia censoring of free speech. Like honest Phil of Duck Dynasty.