Tell Balata (Arabic:تل بلاطة) is an archaeological site in theWest Bank nearNablus,Palestine, that includes the remains of an ancientCanaanite andIsraelite (Samaritan)[1] city, identified since 1913 with the Biblical city ofShechem.[2] The built-up area ofBalata, aPalestinian village and suburb of Nablus, covers about one-third of thetell, and overlooks a vast plain to the east.[3][4] The Palestinian village ofSalim is located 4.5 kilometers (2.8 mi) to the east.[5]
The site is listed byUNESCO as part of the Inventory of Cultural and Natural Heritage Sites of Potential Outstanding Universal Value in theState of Palestine.[2] Experts estimate that the towers and buildings at the site date back 5,000 years to theChalcolithic andBronze Ages.[2]
Balata in the 1880s in thePEF Survey of Palestine. Nablus is stated as being the location of BiblicalShechem, in contrast to the modern identification with Tell Balata.
Tell is an oldSemitic word for an archaeologicalmound, long used by Arabic-speakingFellahin.[6]Balata is the name of the ancientArab village located on the tell, and of the adjacentPalestinian refugee camp ofBalata established in 1950.[7] The name was preserved by local residents and used to refer both to the village and the hill (and later on, the refugee camp).[8]
One theory holds thatbalata is a derivation of theAramaic wordBalut, meaningacorn; another theory holds that it is a derivation of theByzantine-Roman era, from theGreek wordplatanos, meaning "terebinth", a type of tree that grew around the spring ofBalata.[7][8] The local Samaritan community traditionally called the site 'The Holy Oak' or 'The Tree of Grace'.[9]
Traditionally, the site has been associated with the biblical Samaritan city ofShechem, said byJosephus to have been destroyed byJohn Hyrcanus I; this is based on circumstantial evidence such as its location and preliminary evidence of habitation during the late Bronze and earlyIron Ages. Tell Balata lies in a mountain pass between Mount Gerizim andMount Ebal, a location that fits well with the geographical description provided for Shechem in theBible.[10] No inscriptional evidence to support this conclusion has been foundin situ, and other sites have also been identified as the possible site of the biblical Shechem; for example, Y. Magen locates that city nearby onMount Gerizim, at a site covering an area of 30 hectares.[11]
The site was first excavated by a German team led by Ernst Sellin from 1913 to 1914. After the end of World War I, work by Sellin was resumed in 1926 and lasted until 1934 with the last few seasons led by G. Welter.[12][13][14][15]
A 2002 final published report on thestratigraphic and architectural evidence at Tell Balata indicates that there was a break in occupation between the end of the Late Bronze Age (c. 1150 BC) through to the early Iron Age II (c. 975 BC).[24] A small quadrangular altar discovered in Tell Balata, similar to ones found in other Iron Age sites such asTel Arad andTel Dan, may have been used for burningincense.[25]
One of the oldest coins discovered in Palestine was anelectrum Greek Macedonian coin, dated to circa 500 BC, found at Tell Balata.[26] There is evidence that the site was inhabited in theHellenistic period until the end of the 2nd century BC.[27] This Hellenistic era city was founded in the late 4th century BC and extended over an area of 6 hectares. The built structure shows evidence of considerable damage dated to the 190s BC, and attributed toAntiochus III's conquest of Israel. Habitation continued until the final destruction of the city at this site in the late 2nd century BC.
^Ernst Sellin, Die Ausgrabungen von Sichem. Kurze vorlaufige Mitteilung uber die Arbeit im Fruhjahr 1926, Zeitschrift des Deutschen Palästina-Vereins,vol 49, pp. 229–236, pls. 26–31, 1926
^Ernst Sellin, Die Ausgrabungen von Sichem. Kurze vorlaufige Mitteilung uber die Arbeit im Sommer 1926, ZDPV, vol 49, pp. 304–320, pls. 32–46, 1926
^Ernst Sellin, Die Ausgrabungen von Sichem. Kurze vorlaufige Mitteilung uber die Arbeit im Fruhjahr 1927, ZDPV, vol 50, pp. 205–211, pls. 11–18, 1927
^Ernst Sellin, Die Ausgrabungen von Sichem. Kurze vorlaufige Mitteilung uber die Arbeit im Sommer 1927, ZDPV, vol 50, pp. 265–274, pls. 22–30, 1927
^G. Ernest Wright, "The First Campaign at Tell Balâtah (Shechem)",Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research, no. 144, pp. 9-20, 1956
^G. Ernest Wright, "The Second Campaign at Tell Balâtah (Shechem)",Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research, no. 148, pp. 11–28, 1957
^Lawrence E. Toombs et al., "The Third Campaign at Balâtah (Shechem)",Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research, no. 161, pp. 11–54, 1961
^Lawrence E. Toombs et al., "The Fourth Campaign at Balâtah (Shechem)",Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research, no. 169, pp. 1–60, 1963
^Robert J. Bull et. el., "The Fifth Campaign at Balâtah (Shechem)",Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research, no. 180, pp. 7–41, 1965
^Robert J. Bull and Edward F. Campbell Jr., "The Sixth Campaign at Balâtah (Shechem)",Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research, no. 190, pp. 2–41, 1968
^Edward F. Campbell Jr. et al., "The Eighth Campaign at Balatah (Shechem)",Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research, no. 204, pp. 2–17, 40, 1971
^Edward F. Campbell,Shechem III: The Stratigraphy and Architecture of Shechem/Tell Balâtah. Vol. 1. Text. Vol. 2. The Illustrations, American Schools of Oriental Research, 2002,ISBN978-0-89757-062-6
Robert J. Bull, A Note on Theodotus' Description of Shechem, The Harvard Theological Review, vol. 60, no. 2, pp. 221–227, 1967
Edward F. Campbell Jr, Shechem II: Portrait of a Hill Country Vale: The Shechem Regional Survey, American Schools of Oriental Research, 1991,ISBN1-55540-639-4
Dan P Cole, Shechem 1: The Middle Bronze IIB Pottery, Eisenbrauns, 1984,ISBN0-89757-206-8
Dever, W., The MB IIC Stratification in the Northwest Gate Area At Shechem, Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research, no. 216, pp. 31–52, 1974
Taha, Hamdan, and Gerrit van der Kooij. "Tell Balata (Shechem): An Archaeological and Historical Reassessment." Biblical Narratives, Archaeology and Historicity: Essays In Honour of Thomas L. Thompson (2019):
Lawrence E. Toombs, The Stratification of Tell Balâtah (Shechem), Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research, no. 223, pp. 57–59, 1976
Ussishkin, D., Notes on the Fortifications of the Middle Bronze II Period at Jericho and Shechem, Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research, no. 276, pp. 29–53, 1989
Wright, G.E., Selected Seals from the Excavations at Balâtah (Shechem), Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research, no. 167, pp. 5–13, 1962
G. R. H. Wright, The Architectural Recording of the Shechem Excavation, The Biblical Archaeologist, vol. 23, no. 4, pp. 120–126, 1960
Taha, Hamdan; van der Kooij, Gerrit (29 September 2023). "Community Archaeology at Tell Balata, Palestine". In Bonnie, Rick; Lorenzon, Marta; Thomas, Suzie (eds.).Living Communities and Their Archaeologies in the Middle East. Helsinki University Press. pp. 121–151.doi:10.33134/hup-19-6.ISBN978-952-369-086-8.
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