One of the most significant cities in the Shephelah of Judah, Azekah has never been scientifically excavated. Victim to the spades of Robert Alexander Stewart Macalister and Frederick J. Bliss in 1898-99, Azekah’s secrets have remained hidden while major expeditions have studied the nearby cities of Gezer, Beth Shemesh, Gath, and Lachish. Now the Wissenschaftlich-Theologisches Seminar of Heidelberg University has joined with Tel Aviv University to lead an international consortium in a survey and excavation of the site and vicinity.

The excavation will be directed by Oded Lipschits and Yuval Gadot of Tel Aviv University along with Manfred Oeming of Heidelberg University. The first season runs from July 15 to August 24, 2012 and volunteers are encouraged to apply. Three courses are offered for credit for university students.

The importance of Azekah is clear from its mention in Assyrian and biblical texts.

• The Canaanites escaping from Joshua’s attack fled as far as Azekah (Josh 10:10-11).
• The Philistines and their giant Goliath were camped between Azekah and Socoh (1 Sam 17:1).
• Rehoboam fortified Azekah (2 Chr 11:9).
• An Assyrian king, possibly Sargon II, said of the city, “Azekah is a stronghold which is situated in the midst of the mountains, located on a mountain range like a pointed dagger, it was like an eagle’s nest and rivaled the highest mountains and was inaccessible even for the siege ramps and for approaching with battering rams it was too strong.”
• Azekah was one of the two last cities holding out against the Assyrian king Sennacherib (Jer 34:7; cf. Lachish Letter #4).
• Azekah was resettled after the Babylonian exile (Neh 11:30).

HT: G. M. Grena

Several weeks ago I mentioned briefly the preliminary report from the first four seasons of the Gezer excavations of Ortiz and Wolff (2006-2009). As it may be easy to skip reading a lengthy online report, I thought I would return to it and note the conclusions here, in easier-to-read bullet-point fashion:

“Major results from the first four excavation seasons include:

• the exposure of the Middle Bronze Age glacis;
• the discovery of a Late Bronze Age stratum, consisting of several wall fragments and a large pillar base that probably indicates the presence of a major public structure;
• the clarification of the Iron Age fortification systems;
• the distinguishing of three major architectural strata from Iron II;
• a large Israelite four-room house and three public buildings that were destroyed in the eighth century BCE, probably as a result of Tiglath Pileser III’s campaign in the region;
• and the excavation of three Hellenistic building complexes.”

Not mentioned in the conclusion, but potentially quite significant with regard to the date of the Solomonic gate and its associated level is the discovery of a stamp.

Several storage-jar stoppers/plugs were discovered in the deep contemporary construction backfill within one of the chambers created by this system. One of these stoppers bore an Egyptian stamp typical of the so-called ‘Early Iron Age Mass-Produced Seals’ (EIAMS) series, dated by some scholars from the twelfth/eleventh to the early tenth centuries BCE, and by others, to the mid-tenth century BCE, thus dating the glacis and retaining wall system to late Iron I or early Iron II.

Something major was clearly going on at Gezer in the Iron Age before the 9th century. As noted before, Sam Wolff has written that the team is a season or two away from floor levels associated with the (Solomonic) six-chambered gate.