Tell Zeitah

Tell Zeitah (or Tel Zayit) is a roughly convert|0.8|acre|m2|sing=on tell located in the Shephelah, or lowlands, of Israel. Excavations on the tell, sponsored by Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, began in 1999 and have continued for several seasons, revealing evidence of human settlement on the tell throughout the Late Bronze Age, and Iron Age I and II. It is sometimes identified as the Biblical city of Libnah (Joshua 10; 2 Kings 19:8; et passim) or Ziklag (1 Samuel 27-30).

During the first two years of excavation, it was revealed that the city had been destroyed by fire as the result of a military assault on two separate occasions, the first around 1200 BC, the other during the ninth century BC. Ron E. Tappy, the excavation's project director, has suggested that the military leader who destroyed the site during the ninth century may have been, among other candidates, Hazael of Aram. The Aramean's siege tactics are known from the Zakkur stele [Which records that his son, called Ben-Hadad, employed spectacular siege warfare against his enemies] , and the Hebrew Bible records that Hazael devastated cities in the Shephelah during the ninth century, including Philistine Gath. The similar siege and destruction of Tell es-Safi in the ninth century, a nearby site usually identified as Gath, has been cited by archaeologists there as possible evidence of Hazael's campaign. [Maeir, A., and Ehrlich, C. "Excavating Philistine Gath--Have We Found Goliath's Hometown?" in "Biblical Archaeology Review" 27(6): 22-31. 2001; Maeir, A. 2004. The Historical Background and Dating of Amos VI 2: An Archaeological Perspective from Tell es-Safi/Gath. Vetus Testamentum 54(3):319–34.]

During the 2005 season, archaeologists discovered the Zayit Stone among the ruins of a fire dating to the tenth century BC. The stone includes an inscription identified by some scholars as an abecedary, among the oldest ever discovered. [cite journal | author=Tappy, Ron E., P. Kyle McCarter, Marilyn J. Lundberg, Bruce Zuckerman | year=2006 | title=An Abecedary of the Mid-Tenth Century B.C.E. from the Judaean Shephelah | journal= [http://www.asor.org/pubs/basor/basor.html BASOR] | volume=344 | issue=November | pages=5–46]

Notes

External links

* [http://www.zeitah.net/overview2.html Tel Zayit excavations]