Winter 2009 Issue 8

Southern to Excavate “Fortress of Elah” Winter 2009 Issue 8 ANCIENT BATTLEGROUND, Resting atop a hill overlooking the In Th is Issue: POSTMODERN CONFLICT Elah Valley lie the ruins of an ancient Page 1 city dating to the time of David. Last he story of the valiant shepherd boy Southern to Excavate summer excavations at the site of Khir- Twho challenges the ironclad giant “Fortress of Elah” with nothing but sling and stones is one bet Qeiyafa uncovered the remains of a massive double wall, a chambered gate, Pages 2-4 of the most memorable in the Bible. 1 “Fortress of Elah,” cont. Samuel 17 recounts that the setting for and two small buildings. Chief archaeol- Page 5 this encounter was the Valley of Elah, ogist Dr. Yossi Garfi nkel of the Hebrew Th e Task Before Us the ancient borderland of Philistia and University estimates that “200,000 tons Judah. Here, about three thousand years of stone were required for the construc- Page 6 ago, the armies of the Philistines and the tion of these fortifi cations.” Pottery Excavations Go High Israelites gathered to wage war to decide analysis and radiocarbon testing date Tech who would have supremacy in the re- these structures to the period archaeolo- Page 7 gion. Today the valley where David slew gists call Iron Age IIa, more specifi cally Institute of Archaeol- Goliath has once again become a battle- to “the very beginning of the Iron IIa ogy DVDs ground this time for a new controversy period,” roughly 1000–970 BC. Th is Page 8 was a single-period city, meaning it was involving biblical chronology and Israel’s Recent Sightings occupied only during this short time. United Monarchy. Page 9 Upcoming Events Institute of Archaeology Lynn H. Wood Archaelogical Museum 4960 Industrial Drive PO Box 370 Collegedale, TN 37315 Ph: 423.236.2030 [email protected] Dr. Yossi Garfi nkel examines the fortifi cations at Khirbet Qeiyafa archaeology.southern.edu Continued on page 2 “Fortress of Elah,” cont. Continued from page 1 Traditional biblical chronology places David and Solomon’s reign in this period, the tenth century BC. Archaeological discoveries of the last century at biblical Hazor, Megiddo, and Gezer revealed massive fortifi cations and chambered gates similar to the one found at Qeiyafa last summer. Archaeolo- gists at the time linked these fi nds to the fortifi cation projects of King Solomon (1 Kings 9:15), and the pottery confi rmed the dating of these structures to the tenth century BC. Casemate (double) wall of Khirbet Qeiyafa However, the traditional chro- around 1000 BC, but a hundred Finkelstein of Tel Aviv University, nology and the connection to years later, redating the once- “many of the famous episodes in David and Solomon have recently believed Solomonic buildings to the biblical story of David and been challenged by a new genera- the ninth century BC. Th is means Solomon are fi ctions, historically tion of archaeologists who contend there would be no monumental questionable, or highly exagger- that David and Solomon could not architecture associated with the ated.” Moreover, the archaeologi- have built these great structures. United Monarchy. cal record shows that Judah in the For them Iron Age IIa began not According to archaeologist Israel tenth century BC was nothing more than a “marginal and isolated chiefdom,” lacking an organized state capable of building elaborate fortifi cations. “From the archaeological information,” concludes Finkelstein, “we must come to a conclusion that undermines the historical credibility of this specifi c biblical narrative” (Finkelstein and Silberman, David and Solomon: In Search of the Bible’s Sacred Kings and the Roots of the Western Tradition [New York: Free Press, 2006]). Th e recent discoveries at Khir- bet Qeiyafa seriously undermine Finkelstein’s conclusions. Qeiyafa’s monumental city wall—2,200 feet Four-chambered gate with buildings to the left Continued on page 3 Institute News DIGSIGHT Winter 2009 2 “Fortress of Elah,” cont. Continued from page 2 One of the key arguments used long and 13 feet wide—speaks by scholars like Finkelstein for volumes about the kind of central- distrusting the Biblical text is the ized authority necessary to execute lack of evidence of literacy in Israel a building enterprise of this scale. until the late eighth century BC. Moreover, the four-chambered gate Th is leads them to believe that the built of ashlar stones is typical of account of David and Solomon’s royal gates of this period. Archaeol- court was not written during their ogists who have examined the pot- reigns, but much later, three or four tery unanimously agree that the site centuries later. should be dated to David’s time. In a small building adjacent to Th e carbon-dating results corrobo- the western gate at Qeiyafa, excava- rate their assessment. In Garfi nkel’s tors found a piece of pottery with own words, “the new excavations writing on it. Th is type of potsherd clearly indicate that already in the inscription is called an ostracon. time of King David, urban cities Th e 6- by 6-inch ostracon contains were constructed in Judah.” fi ve lines of text, each about ten let- Dr. Garfi nkel with ostracon ters in length, one of the longest in- have been tentatively identifi ed. If EVIDENCE IN WRITING scriptions ever found in this part of Garfi nkel is correct, this would be ut if all this was not enough the Near East. Th e inscription was the oldest Hebrew inscription ever to turn the “low chronology” written in proto-Canaanite script, B found. It predates the next oldest on its head, Garfi nkel and his team and Garfi nkel believes the language inscription (the Gezer Calendar) by have found even more evidence is Hebrew. Hebrew words for “don’t about one hundred years. that challenges the critical view. do,” “judge,” “king,” and “slave” Th e ostracon, together with the absence of any Philistine pottery, points toward the identifi cation of Khirbet Qeiyafa as a Judahite site. But more importantly, the discov- ery of such an early inscription challenges the assumption that the Israelites of David and Solomon’s time did not use writing for re- cordkeeping. If some inhabitants of a small border town like Qeiyafa could write, it is not unreasonable to assume there were royal scribes who recorded historical events. Th us, the Bible’s historical accounts need not have been concocted by writers centuries after the fact. Closeup of the ostracon’s inscription (notice the “A” looking character) Continued on page 4 Institute News DIGSIGHT Winter 2009 3 “Fortress of Elah,” cont. Continued from page 3 these cities were inhabited only during David’s reign, as is the case with Qeiyafa. “Very important to us is TALE OF A TWO- the association of Sha’arayim with King David twice GATE CITY in the biblical tradition,” explain Garfi nkel and Ganor. n November “Th is observation is consistent with the archaeological I2008, Garfi nkel and radiometric data.” and his co-director, Saar Ganor, SOUTHERN JOINS THE QEIYAFA TEAM returned to the he Institute of Archaeology at Southern has been Qeiyafa for one Tinvited to excavate Khirbet Qeiyafa as a partner. week to excavate Southern’s team will be excavating the central fortifi ca- the eastern part tions of the site (Area A) and subsequently publishing of the city. Here the results of their work, in consultation with Garfi n- a second gate was kel and Ganor. Th is summer, in 2009, a small team found. Th is gate of staff will be surveying and conducting preliminary was made up of probes. Dr. Michael G. Hasel, new associate director two monumental of the Khirbet Qeiyafa Archaeological Project, will stones, weighing present the results at the American Schools of Oriental as much as ten Research professional meetings in New Orleans this tons each, much more than was needed to support the coming November. A full-fl edged excavation season is structure. Th is gate is the largest found at a biblical site planned for 2010. If you are interested in participating and “was clearly intended as a statement of power and (as a volunteer or a fi nancial sponsor) in the explora- authority.” tion of one of the most important cities in the debate More impressive still is the fact that Khirbet Qeiya- over the tenth century and United Monarchy, please fa is the only city in ancient Israel with two gates. Even contact Michael Hasel at <[email protected]@southern.edu>. much larger cities had only one gate. Th is fact has led Garfi nkel and Ganor to identify Qeiyafa with biblical Sha’arayim. Sha’arayim (literally, “two gates,” in Hebrew) is mentioned three times in the Bible: (1) in the city list of the tribe of Judah (Josh 15:36); (2) in the narrative of David and Goliath (1 Sam 17:52); and (3) in the city list of the tribe of Simeon (1 Chr 4:31). In the fi rst reference, Sha’arayim is men- Area A tioned right after Azekah and Socoh, two (Fortifi ed Citadel) towns also mentioned in the David and Goliath narrative that were in close proxim- ity to the Valley of Elah. In the last reference, the Chronicler specifi es that “these were their towns until the reign of David” (1 Ch 4:32). Th is is perhaps an indication that some of Institute News DIGSIGHT Winter 2009 4 The Task Before Us n 1990 I dug in Israel for the fi rst time at the site of Gezer, under the direction Iof William G.

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