גזר (Hebrew) | |
 View of Gezer | |
  Shown within Central Israel Show map of Central Israel Gezer (Israel) Show map of Israel | |
| Alternative name | Tel Gezer/Tell Jezar/Tell el-Jazari |
|---|---|
| Location | Central District, Israel |
| Region | Shephelah |
| Coordinates | 31°51′32.4″N34°55′8.4″E / 31.859000°N 34.919000°E /31.859000; 34.919000 |
| Grid position | 142/140PAL |
| Type | Ancient city |
| Site notes | |
| Condition | In ruins |
| Ownership | National Park |
| Management | INPA |
| Public access | yes |
| Website | Gezer National Park website |
Gezer (Hebrew:גזר) is anarchaeological site in the foothills of theJudaean Mountains at the border of theShephelah roughly midway betweenJerusalem andTel Aviv in centralIsrael. It is now anIsraeli national park. In theHebrew Bible, Gezer is associated withJoshua andSolomon. Gezer rises to an elevation of 229 metres (751 ft) above sea-level, and affords a commanding prospect of the plains to the west, north, and east.
Gezer became a major fortifiedCanaanite city-state in the first half of the 2nd millennium BCE. It was later destroyed by fire and rebuilt. It is first mentioned in severalancient Egyptian inscriptions. Its importance was due in part to the strategic position it held at the crossroads of theancient coastal trade route linking Egypt withSyria,Anatolia andMesopotamia, and the road to Jerusalem andJericho, both important trade routes. In Roman and Byzantine times, the site was sparsely populated. Later, In themodern era, Gezer was the site of thedepopulatedPalestinian Arab village ofAbu Shusha, the residents of which fled, and others weremassacred byGivati Brigade during the1948 Arab–Israeli War.[1]
18th Dynasty. Gezer is first mentioned as part of a list of cities taken byThutmose III on the walls of thePrecinct of Amun-Re, atKarnak.[2] TheAmarna letters mention kings of Gezer swearing loyalty to the Egyptian pharaoh.[3]
19th Dynasty. Gezer is mentioned in thevictory stele of Merneptah, dating from the end of the 13th century BCE, which states: "Plundered is theCanaan with every evil; carried off isAshkelon; seized upon is Gezer;Yanoam is made as that which does not exist;Israel is laid waste, his seed is not".[2][4]: 26
In biblical times, Gezer, which lay on the outskirts of Jewish land, was incorporated at a later time.[2] The biblical story of theIsraelite conquest of Canaan under their leader Joshua mentions a certain "king of Gezer" (Joshua 10:33) who had gone to help his countrymen inLachish, where he met his death.Gezer is listed in the Book of Joshua as one of the cities allotted to thetribe of Ephraim, as well as aLevitical city, one of ten allotted to the Levite children ofKehoth – theKohathites (Joshua, ch. 21).Eusebius (4th century CE), describing the biblical Gezer of his day, writes:
Gazer [sic]. The lot of Ephraim, set aside for Levites. And Joshua besieged it, killing its king(Josh. 10:33). Solomon also built here(1 Kings 9:15–16). It is now called Gazara, a village of Nikopolis (Emmaus), [which is a place located] 4milestones from it in the north. The tribe of Ephraim did not expel the foreigners from it(Judges 1:29).[5]
According to theHebrew Bible, the only source for this particular event, theSack of Gezer took place at the beginning of the 10th century BCE,[6] when the city was conquered and burned by an unnamed Egyptianpharaoh, identified by some withSiamun, during his military campaign inPhilistia. This anonymous Egyptian pharaoh then gave it to King Solomon as the dowry ofhis daughter. Solomon then rebuilt Gezer and fortified it.
The Bible states:
This is the account of the forced labor that King Solomon conscripted to build the house of the Lord and his own house, the Millo and the wall of Jerusalem, Hazor, Megiddo, Gezer, Lower Beth-horon, Baalath, Tamar in the wilderness, within the land, as well as all of Solomon's storage cities, the cities for his chariots, the cities for his cavalry, and whatever Solomon desired to build... (Pharaoh king of Egypt had gone up and captured Gezer and burned it with fire, and had killed the Canaanites who lived in the city, and had given it as dowry to his daughter, Solomon's wife;
— (1 Kings 9:15–16)
The only mention in the Bible of a pharaoh who might be Siamun (ruled 986–967 BCE) is the text from 1 Kings quoted above, and we have no other historical sources that clearly identify what really happened. As shown below,Kenneth Kitchen believes that Siamun conquered Gezer and gave it to Solomon. Others such as Paul S. Ash and Mark W. Chavalas disagree, and in 2001 Chavalas states that "it is impossible to conclude which Egyptian monarch ruled concurrently with David and Solomon".[7] Professor Edward Lipinski argues that Gezer, then unfortified, was destroyed late in the 10th century (and thus not contemporary with Solomon) and that the most likely Pharaoh wasShoshenq I (ruled 943–922 BCE).[8] However, the archaeological evidence recovered at the site indicates that Gezer was previously destroyed in an earlier stratum, around the times of Siamun.[9]
Lindelle C. Webster's excavation team concluded recently that correlation of Stratum IX, in Tel Gezer, with Solomon's era and Siamun "[is] improbable [as the end] of Tandy Stratum 10A is estimated by [radiocarbon] within the 11th century BCE, contemporary with the21st Dynasty of Egypt but too early for Solomon by any estimate," and that correlation of Stratum 7 "withShishak/[Shoshenq I]'s [e]nd boundary, (927–885 BCE, 68.3% hpd), [included in] the biblical date for Shishak's campaign [d]oes not fit well with current [radiocarbon]-based estimates for [Shoshenq I]."[10] They estimate Shoshenq I's reign within the Stratum 8 destruction of Tel Gezer, which has been radiocarbon dated to the mid-10th century BCE (c. 969-940 BCE with 68.3% hpd, and 991-930 BCE with 95.4% hpd).[10]
One fragmentary but well-known surviving triumphal relief scene from the Temple ofAmun atTanis believed to be related to the sack of Gezer depicts an Egyptian pharaoh smiting his enemies with amace. According to the Egyptologist Kenneth Kitchen, this pharaoh is Siamun.[11] The pharaoh appears here "in typical pose brandishing a mace to strike down prisoners(?) now lost at the right except for two arms and hands, one of which grasps a remarkable double-bladed axe by its socket."[12] The writer observes that this double-bladed axe or 'halberd' has a flared crescent-shaped blade which is close in form to theAegean-influenced double axe but is quite distinct from the Canaanite double-headed axe, which has a different shape that resembles an X.[13] Thus, Kitchen concludes Siamun's foes were thePhilistines, who were descendants of the Aegean-basedSea Peoples and that Siamun was commemorating his recent victory over them at Gezer by depicting himself in a formal battle scene relief at the temple in Tanis. Alternatively, Paul S. Ash had put forward a detailed argument that Siamun's relief portrays a fictitious battle. He points out that in Egyptian reliefs Philistines are never shown holding an axe, and that there is no archaeological evidence for Philistines using axes. He also argues that there is nothing in the relief to connect it withPhilistia or theLevant.[14]
Gezer was located on the northern fringe of theShephelah region, approximately 30 km (19 mi) northwest of Jerusalem. It was strategically situated at the junction of theVia Maris, the international coastal highway, and the highway connecting it with Jerusalem through the valley of Ayalon, orAjalon. The nearest modern-Israeli settlement to the archaeological site isKarmei Yosef.
Verification of the identification of this site withbiblical Gezer comes from a dozen bilingual inscriptions in eitherHebrew orAramaic, and Greek, found engraved on rocks several hundred meters from thetell.[15] These inscriptions from the 1st century BCE read "boundary of Gezer" and "of Alkios" (probably the governor of Gezer at the time). The discovery of these boundary stones near the archaeological site makes it the first biblical city to be positively identified.
Today's archaeological site spans an area of 130dunams (32 acres), and contains 26 levels of settlement, from theChalcolithic to the earlyRoman periods (3500 BCE to 100 CE). Most of the remains date from the Middle and LateCanaanite and theIsraelite periods.[16]
The first settlement established at Tel Gezer dates to the end of the 4th millennium BCE during theChalcolithic period, when large caves cut into the rock were used as dwellings.[17]
At the beginning of theEarly Bronze Age (early 3rd millennium BCE), an unfortified settlement covered the tell. It was destroyed in the middle of the 3rd millennium BCE and subsequently abandoned for several centuries.[17][19]
In the Middle Bronze Age IIB (MBIIB, first half of the 2nd millennium BCE), Gezer became a major city, well fortified[6] and containing a large cultic site.[21] It may have grown due to MBIIA-sites likeAphek becoming weaker.[citation needed]
On the north side of the city, the fortifications consisted of at least two lines of defense surrounding the tell.[23] Some excavators have noted as many as three defensive walls built in different periods: an outer earthen rampart, a central wall and an inner wall.[24] In what remained of the outer rampart, it reached a height of about 5 metres, and was built of compacted alternating layers of chalk and earth covered with plaster.[25] The inner wall measured 4 metres in width and was made of large stone blocks, reinforced with towers.[23][24] The city gate stood near the southwest corner of the wall, was flanked by two towers which protected the wooden doors, a common design for its time.[26]The tell was surrounded by a massive stone wall and towers, protected by a five-meter-high (16 ft) earthen rampart covered with plaster. The wooden city gate, near the southwestern corner of the wall, was fortified by two towers.[26]
Cultic remains discovered in the northern part of the tell were a row of ten largestanding pillars, known asmassebot ormatsevot, singularmasseba/matseva, oriented north–south, the tallest of which was three meters high, with an altar-type structure in the middle, and a large, square, stone basin, probably used for culticlibations. The exact purpose of thesemegaliths is still debated, but they may have constituted a Canaanite "high place" from the Middle Bronze Age, ca. 1600 BCE, eachmasseba possibly representing a Canaanite city connected to Gezer by treaties enforced by rituals performed here. Both the number and size of the standing stones confer a unique character to this cultic site.[21] Suchmassebot are found elsewhere in the country, but those from Gezermassebot are the most impressive examples.[27][28][29]The area was almost completely cleared by Macalister. The remains were re-excavated in 1968.[30] A double cave beneath the high place was shown to be predating it and not connected to it.[citation needed]
In the Late Bronze Age (second half of the 2nd millennium BCE) a new city wall, 4 m (13 ft) thick, was erected outside the earlier one.[24] It is a very rare example of Late Bronze Age fortifications in the country, witness for the elevated political status of Gezer in southern Canaan during Egyptian rule.[citation needed]
| |||||||||||||
| ḳꜣḏjr or ḳꜣḏꜣꜣr[34][35] inhieroglyphs | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Era:New Kingdom (1550–1069 BC) | |||||||||||||
The Canaanite city was destroyed in a fire, presumably in the wake of a campaign by the Egyptian pharaohThutmose III (ruled 1479–1425 BCE). The oldest known historical reference to the city is to be found on an inscription of conquered sites at Thutmose's temple atKarnak.[34] Adestruction layer from this event was found in all excavated areas of the tell.[17]
TheTell Amarna letters, dating from the 14th century BCE, include ten letters from the kings of Gezer swearing loyalty to the Egyptian pharaoh.[36] The city-state of Gezer (namedGazru inBabylonian) was ruled by at least three leaders during the 20-year period covered by the Amarna letters.[6] Discoveries of several pottery vessels, a cache of cylinder seals and a large scarab with thecartouche of Egyptian pharaohAmenhotep III attest to the existence of a city at Gezer's location in the 14th century BCE—one that was apparently destroyed in the next century[37]—and suggest that the city was inhabited by Canaanites with strong ties to Egypt.[38]
In the 14th century BCE, a palace was constructed on the high western part of the tell, the city'sacropolis.[citation needed] Archaeologists also discovered remains of what might have been the Egyptian governor's residence from the same period in the northern part of the tell.[citation needed]
In the late reign ofRamesses II, climate became drier and colder causing turmoil in the Mediterranean from around 1250 BCE, eventually leading to theLate Bronze collapse. The death of Ramesses II caused cities in Canaan to rebel to become independent.Merneptah of Egypt, who succeeded Ramesses II, had to regain control and boasted about hiscapture of Gezer. A massive fiery destruction seems to support this in excavations done by Prof. Steven Ortiz.[39][40]
Toward the end of the Bronze Age, the city declined and its population diminished.[citation needed]
In 12th and 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. Macalister describes the Iron Age construction of an olive press with collecting vats.[41] Local and Philistine vessels attest to a mixed Canaanite/Philistine population.[citation needed]
The 10th century BCE seems to have been a period of notable urban development for the city until it became destroyed in the third quarter of that century, probably as a result ofShoshenq I's campaign in Canaan at that time.[42] ArchaeologistWilliam G. Dever estimates its population at around 2,500 during the 10th century BCE.[43]
| Siege of Gezer | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| |||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||
| Egypt | Philistines | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
| Siamun (?) | Unknown | ||||||
| Strength | |||||||
| Unknown | Unknown | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
| Unknown | Many killed | ||||||
By the 9th and 8th centuries BCE, the city is estimated by Dever to have had a population of around 3,000 people.[43]
On the southern slope about 200 meters east of the gate from the Middle Bronze Age IIB, there is what is now known as the "Solomon Gate". This area was excavated at the beginning of the 20th century by Macalister, who defined the remains discovered there as a "Maccabean citadel" from the 2nd century BCE, because on one of the stones a curse againstSimon was found engraved in Greek (Macalister 1912, vol. I: 209–23; 236–56).
After the discovery of identical gates from the time of King Solomon inMegiddo andHazor, and following what is told in the Bible about the construction projects of this king in the three cities,Yigael Yadin proved in 1957 that in fact the Hasmonean citadel was no other than a gate from the days of Solomon.[47][48][49] In the excavations of the 1960s, the entire gate was revealed. It is identical in plan and size to the other two mentioned and is connected by acasemate wall.[50] On both sides of the passageway within the gate are four pairs of pillars and three pairs of cell-like chambers. In front of the entranceway stood two towers. At the gate, a construction of hewn-stone in the style typical of the days of Solomon is evident.[50] The Solomon Gate has since been reinterpreted by some as dating from several centuries later, by virtue of the fact that the gate was rebuilt,[51] although recentradiocarbon tests support an early date for the strata at the site.[10]
TheNeo-Assyrian kingTiglath-Pileser III put Gezer under siege between the years 734 and 732 BCE.[52] The city was probably captured by the Assyrians at the end of the campaign of Tiglath-Pileser III toCanaan.[53] At any rate, a fiery destruction so severe befell the city at this time, insofar that it reduced the upper two courses of stone in the inner casemate wall to powdery lime.[54] A reference to Gezer's destruction appears in acuneiform relief from the 8th-century BCE royal palace of Tiglath-Pileser III atNimrud.[54] The city inscribed on the relief is called 'Gazru'.[17]
StampedRhodianamphora handles, a Tyrian lead weight of the Tanit series, and adidrachm ofPtolemy VI foundin situ suggest a Hellenistic occupation from the end of the 3rd century BCE to 142 BCE.[55]
According to the book of1 Maccabees,Simon Thassi capturedGazara and expelled the population during theMaccabean Revolt. He then brought in new settlers of devout Jews and fortified it, making it part of theHasmonean kingdom.[56] Gezer became known as Gazara in the Hellenistic period and became an important city for the Hasmonean rulers.[57][58][59]
Notwithstanding Simon's capture of Gezer incirca 142 BCE,Josephus alludes to the fact that Gezer returned under Seleucid control in the days ofAntiochus VII Sidetes and during the high-priesthood of Simon's son,John Hyrcanus.[60]
Josephus, in both hisAntiquities (12.7.4.; 13.6.7.; 13.9.2.) and in theJewish War (1.2.2.), cites theBook of Maccabees as his primary source for these events and retains the Greek form of the nameGazara (Greek:Γάζαρά), meaning, Gezer.
Elsewhere, Josephus (Jewish War 1.170) wrote that a certain "Gadara" (Greek:Γαδάροις) was one of the fivesynedria, or regional administrative capitals of theHasmonean realm, established byAulus Gabinius,the Roman proconsul of Syria, in 57 BCE.[61] The name has been edited to "Gazara" in theLoeb edition (Jewish War 1.170). However, in this case, other researchers[who?] prefer one of two candidates fromTransjordan, Gadara inPerea, orGadara of theDecapolis (see more at Perea andGadara (disambiguation)).
Gezer was sparsely populated during Roman times and later times, as other regional population centers took its place.[3] Archaeological finds attesting to the Hellenistic and early Roman periods include twobath houses discoveredin situ, as well as a number of ritual baths (mikveh) and rock tombs.[62][a] The site continued to be occupied after the destruction of theSecond Temple, but was gradually abandoned during the late Roman-early Byzantine period.[62]
In 1177, the plains around Gezer were the site of theBattle of Montgisard, in which theCrusaders underBaldwin IV defeated the forces ofSaladin. There was a Crusader Lordship of Montgisard and apparently a castle stood there, a short distance fromRamleh.[64]
R.A. Stewart Macalister who excavated the ruin in the years 1902–1905 and 1907–1909 has noted that around the year 1869 the mound and other parts of the lands of the village of Abû Shûsheh were acquired by Messrs. Bergheim, who had been bankers in Jerusalem. Their acquisition of these lands would prove "a fortunate circumstance" for the excavator, as the site was later put at the disposal of the Palestine Exploration Fund.[65]
A large Canaanite (Bronze Age) water system comprising a tunnel going down to a spring, similar to those found inJerusalem,Tel Hazor andTel Megiddo, was first excavated by Macalister and was re-excavated as part of the 2006–2017 campaigns of the Tel Gezer Excavation and Publication Project.[66]
In 2010 a team from theNew Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary ("NOBTS"), in partnership with the Israeli Parks Authority and the Israeli Antiquities Authority, launched an effort to clear a massive water tunnel, discovered first by Macalister over a hundred years earlier.[67] 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.[68][69]
In 2011 professor Dennis Cole, archaeologistDan Warner and engineerJim Parker from NOBTS, and Tsvika Tsuk from the Israeli Parks Authority, led another team in an attempt to finish the effort.[67] In just two years the teams removed approximately 299 tons of debris from the ancient water system.[67]
In 2012, the team uncovered a large sealed cavern about nine meters beyond the water pool and "Macalister's Causeway."
In 2013, the team began an effort to preserve the ancient Canaanite mudbrick gate and complex near the water system.
In the Water System: "Most of the first two weeks of the dig were spent searching for the bottom step and cleaning Macalister's causeway. Tons of debris and rocks were removed in the process. When the bottom step was located and the causeway area clear, the team excavated three probes in the pool area. Each of the pool probes reached a depth of more than six feet before the end of the season and the bottom of the pool was discovered in only one probe (Eastern probe)—the one just below the bottom step of the water shaft."
The debris removal and excavation continued until the summer of 2017.[70]
One of the best-known finds is the "Gezer calendar". This is a plaque containing a text appearing to be either a schoolboy's memory exercises, or a text designated for organising 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.
Thirteen boundary stones have been identified near the tell, distanced between less than 200 metres to almost 2 km from it, probably dating from the Late Hellenistic period (late 2nd[71] – 1st century BCE), the most recent having been found by archaeologists from SWBTS in 2012.[72] See alsoLocation.
There are only a few "lost" biblical cities that have been positively identified through inscriptions discovered by means of archaeological work (surveys or digs).[72] Gezer is the first among them, thanks toClermont-Ganneau's discovery of three such inscribed stones in 1874 and of a fourth in 1881.[72]
Ten of the thirteen inscriptions are bilingual,[73] including the first three ones, containing two distinct parts, one inGreek and one either Hebrew or Aramaic,[73] and written in what is known assquare Hebrew characters.[72] Clermont-Ganneau's reading of the Hebrew/Aramaic part as "the boundary of Gezer" was later confirmed.[72] The inscriptions' Greek part contains personal names, either (H)alkios, Alexas, or Archelaos, for instance Clermont-Ganneau's four stones were all bearing the inscription "of Alkios".[72] Sometimes the two parts are upside-down, or "tête-bêche", in relation to each other,[72] on the last discovered one the lines being separated by a line and the Hebrew/Aramaic inscriptionתחמ גזר > "Teḥum Gezer" ("the boundary of Gezer")[71] facing the tell.[72] With the discovery of the last nine inscriptions it became evident that their distribution does not support Clermont-Ganneau's initial interpretation, of them marking Gezer'sSabbath limit, but rather that they probably mark the boundaries between private estates, or between city land and these estates.[72] Analysis of the lettering have led to the conclusion that they were all contemporaneous, with opinions based onpalaeography and history slightly diverging in regard to their date – either Hasmonean orHerodian.[72] The earlier date and the Hebrew script can be connected to what is known from theFirst Book of Maccabees aboutSimon replacing the gentile inhabitants with Jewish ones (1 Macc. 13:47–48) The later date can be supported by a scenario in which Herod, after acquiring the lands of the vanquished Hasmoneans, gave them to (H)alkios, Archelaos and Alexas, all three names mentioned by Josephus for members of a powerful land-owning family from Herod's court.[72]
David M. Jacobson wrote that the inscriptions are in Hebrew and that this suggests a need for a closer look at their date.[72]
Other scholars are not convinced that the language of the inscriptions is Hebrew and not Aramaic, leaving both options as possible as is the case in theCorpus Inscriptionum Iudaeae/Palaestinae.[73]
In July 2017, archaeologists discovered skeletal remains of a family of three, one of the adults and a child wearing earrings, believed to have been killed during an Egyptian invasion in the 13th century BCE.[74][66] A 13th-century BCEamulet, variousscarabs andcylinder seals were also found on the site. The amulet bears the cartouches—or official royal monikers—of the Egyptian pharaohs Thutmose III andRamses II.[37]
Archaeological excavation at Gezer has been going on since the early 20th century, and it has become one of the most excavated sites in Israel. The site was identified with ancient Gezer byCharles Simon Clermont-Ganneau in 1871.R. A. Stewart Macalister excavated the site between 1902 and 1909 on behalf of thePalestine Exploration Fund.[75] Twentyone quarterly dig reports were published in the Palestine Exploration Quarterly.[76] Macalister recovered several artifacts and discovered several constructions and defenses. He also established Gezer's habitation strata, though due to poor stratigraphical methods, these were later found to be mostly incorrect (as well as many of his theories). In 1914 and 1921 Raymond-Charles Weill dug there, focusing mainly on the Bronze and Iron Age Tombs. Results were not published due the Weill's assistant Paule Zerlwer-Silberberg dying in a camp in occupied France and the excavation data was lost at that time.[77][78] Surprisingly, the master thesis of that assistant, about the dig, was recently discovered and was published in 2012.[79]Alan Rowe briefly visited the site in 1934. Between 1964 and 1974 G.E. Wright,William Dever andJoe Seger worked at Gezer on behalf of the Nelson Glueck School of Archaeology in the Hebrew Union College andHarvard University.[80][81][82][83][84][85][86] Dever worked there again in 1984 and 1990, with theAndrews University.[87]
Excavations were renewed in June 2006 by a consortium of institutions under the direction of Steve Ortiz of theSouthwestern Baptist Theological Seminary (SWBTS) and Sam Wolff of theIsrael Antiquities Authority (IAA). The Tel Gezer Excavation and Publication Project is a multi-disciplinary field project investigating theIron Age history of Gezer. The effort completed in 2017.[88][89][90]
The first season of the Gezer excavations concluded successfully and revealed some interesting details. Among other things is a discovery of a thick destruction layer may be dated to the destruction at the hands of the Egyptians, which some associate with the biblical episode from1 Kings 9:16: "Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, had attacked and captured Gezer, killing the Canaanite population and burning it down. He gave the city to his daughter as a wedding gift when she married Solomon."
In 2013, two separate archaeological survey-excavations were conducted at Tel Gezer, one by Tsvika Tsuk, Yohanan Hagai, and Daniel Warner, on behalf of the IAA,[91] and the other led by a team of archaeologists from the SWBTS and Andrews University's Institute of Archaeology.[92]
![Figurine discovered at Gezer.[93]](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=https%3a%2f%2fen.wikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fFile%3aTeraphimandtongueofgold1.png)
Fortifications of the Middle Bronze Age IIB and of the Late Bronze Age are visible on the southern slope of the mound. The gate is typical of the Middle Bronze Age IIB and similar ones have been discovered in many sites in the Land of Israel and in Syria. It consists of two large brick towers and between them there is a direct passage to the interior of the city, between three pairs of matching pillars.
Media related toGezer at Wikimedia Commons
