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Tel Hazorתל חצור

House of Pillars at Hazor

Shown within Israel

Location Tell el-Qedah, Israel

Region Upper Galilee

Coordinates 33°1′0″N 35°34′1″E

Type Settlement

History

Abandoned 732 BC

UNESCO World Heritage Site

Tel HazorFrom Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Tel Hazor (Hebrew: תל חצור), also Hatzor and Tell el-Qedah, is an archaeological tell at the site of ancientHazor, located in the Upper Galilee, north of the Sea ofGalilee, in the southern Hula Valley overlooking LakeMerom. In the Middle Bronze Age (around 1750 BCE)and the Israelite period (ninth century BCE), Hazor wasthe largest fortified city in the country and one of themost important in the Fertile Crescent. It maintainedcommercial ties with Babylon and Syria, and importedlarge quantities of tin for the bronze industry. In the Bookof Joshua, Hazor is described as “the head of all thosekingdoms” (Josh. 11:10).

The Hazor expedition headed by Yigal Yadin in the mid-1950s was the most important dig undertaken by Israel inits early years of statehood. Tel Hazor is the largestarchaeological site in northern Israel, featuring an uppertell of 30 acres and a lower city of more than 175 acres.[1]

In 2005, the remains of Hazor were designated a WorldHeritage Site by UNESCO as part of the Biblical Tels -Megiddo, Hazor, Beer Sheba.

Contents

1 History1.1 Canaanite Hazor1.2 Israelite Hazor

2 Excavations3 See also4 References5 Further reading6 External links

History

Canaanite Hazor

Coordinates: 33°1′0″N 35°34′1″E

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Official name: Biblical Tells – Megiddo, Hazor,Beer Sheba

Type Cultural

Criteria ii, iii, iv, vi

Designated 2005 (29th session)

Reference No. 1108(http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1108)

State Party Israel

Region Asia-Pacific

Archaeological remains at Hazor

Aerial photo of Tel Hazor

During the Egyptian Second Intermediate Period andearly New Kingdoms (together running between 18thcentury BC and 13th century BC), Canaan was anEgyptian vassal state; thus 14th century documents, fromthe El Amarna archive in Egypt, describe the king ofHazor (in Amarna letters called Hasura), Abdi-Tirshi, asswearing loyalty to the Egyptian pharaoh. However, EA148 specifically reports that Hasura's king had gone overto the Habiru, who were invading Canaan. In thesedocuments, Hazor is described as an important city inCanaan. Hazor is also mentioned in the Execration texts,that pre-date the Amarna letters, and in 18th century BCEdocuments found in Mari on the Euphrates River.

According to the Book of Joshua Hazor was the seat of Jabin, apowerful Canaanite king that led a Canaanite confederationagainst Joshua, but was defeated by Joshua, who burnt Hazor tothe ground.[2]According to the Book of Judges Hazor was theseat of Jabin, the king of Canaan, whose commander, Sisera, leda Canaanite army against Barak, but was ultimately defeated.[3]

Textual scholars believe that the prose account of Barak, whichdiffers from the poetic account in the Song of Deborah, is aconflation of accounts of two separate events, one concerningBarak and Sisera like the poetic account, the other concerningJabin's confederation and defeat.[4] In addition, the Book ofJudges and Book of Joshua may be parallel accounts referring tothe same events, rather than describing different time periods,[4][5] and thus they may refer to the sameJabin, a powerful king based in Hazor, whose Canaanite confederation was defeated by an Israelite army.[6]

Israel Finkelstein claims that the Israelites emerged as asubculture within Canaanite society and rejects the biblicalaccount of the Israelite conquest of Canaan.[7] In this view, theBook of Joshua conflates several independent battles betweendisparate groups over the centuries, and artificially attributesthem to a single leader, Joshua.[4] Nevertheless, onearchaeological stratum, dating from around 1200 BC, showssigns of catastrophic fire, and cuneiform tablets found at the siterefer to monarchs named Ibni Addi, where Ibni may be theetymological origin of Yavin (Jabin).[1](http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/History/Early%20History%20-%20Archaeology/Hatzor%20-%20The%20Head%20of%20all%20those%20Kingdoms)[7] The

city also show signs of having been a magnificent Canaanite city prior to its destruction, with great templesand opulent palaces,[7] split into an upper acropolis, and lower city; the town evidently had been a major

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Chambered gate from the Israelite period.

Canaanite city. He theorized that the destruction of Hazor was the result of civil strife, attacks by the SeaPeoples, and/or a result of the general collapse of civilization across the whole eastern Mediterranean in theLate Bronze Age.[7]

Amnon Ben-Tor of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem believes that recently unearthed evidence of violentdestruction by burning verifies the Biblical account.[8] In 2012, a team led Ben-Tor and Sharon Zuckermandiscovered a scorched palace from the 13th century BCE in whose storerooms they found 3,400 year oldewers holding burned crops; however, Sharon Zuckerman did not agree with Ben-Tor's theory, and claimedthat the burning was the result of the city's numerous factions opposing each other with excessive force.[9]

Israelite Hazor

The archaeological remains suggest that after its destruction, thecity of Hazor was rebuilt as a minor village within "the territoryof Naphtali" (Joshua 19:36).[10] According to the Books ofKings, the town, along with Megiddo, and Gezer, wassubstantially fortified and expanded by Solomon.[11] LikeMegiddo and Gezer, the remains at Hazor show that during theEarly Iron Age the town gained a highly distinctive sixchambered gate, as well as a characteristic style to itsadministration buildings; archaeologists determined that theseconstructions at Hazor were built by the same leadership asthose at Megiddo and Gezer.[7] By reference to the Books ofKings, some archaeologists conclude that these remains verifythe Biblical account—that they were constructed in the tenth century by King Solomon;[12] others date thesestructures to the early 9th century BC, during the reign of the Omrides.[7]

Yigael Yadin, one of the earliest archaeologists to work on the site, saw certain features as clearly beingOmride; Megiddo, Gezer, and Hazor, all feature deep rock cut pits, from the base of which were rock cuttunnels leading to a well that reached the water table, as water-supply systems, which Yadin attributed to therule of Ahab;[7] Yadin also attributed to Ahab a citadel, measuring 25 x 21 m, with two-meter thick walls,which was erected in the western part of Hazor. However, Yadin's dating was based on the assumption thatthe layer connected with the gates and administration buildings were built by Solomon.[7]

Archaeological remains indicate that towards the later half of the 9th century BC, when the king of Israelwas Jehu, Hazor fell into the control of Aram Damascus.[7] Some archaeologists suspect that subsequent tothis conquest Hazor was rebuilt by Aram, probably as an Aramaean city.[7] When the Assyrians laterdefeated the Aramaeans, Hazor seemingly returned to Israelite control; Assyrian records indicate that Joash,king of Israel at the time, had paid tribute to Assyria and Israel had become an Assyrian vassal.[7]

Subsequently, the town, along with the remainder of the kingdom of Israel, entered a period of greatprosperity, particularly during the rule of Jeroboam II. Some archaeologists attribute the later large scaleconstructions at Hazor, Megiddo, and Gezer, including the rock cut water supply systems, to this era.

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Israel's attempted rebellion against Assyrian domination resulted in an invasion by the forces of theAssyrian ruler, Tiglath-Pileser III; the evidence on the ground suggests that hasty attempts were made toreinforce the defenses of Hazor.[7] Despite the defences, in 732 BC Hazor was captured, its populationdeported,[7][13] and the city was burnt to the ground.[7][14]

Excavations

The site of Hazor is around 200 acres (0.81 km2) in area, with an upper city making up about 1/8 of that.The upper mound has a height of about 40 meters. Initial soundings were carried out by John Garstang in1926.[15]

Major excavations were conducted for 4 seasons from 1955-1958 by a Hebrew University team led byYigael Yadin.[16][17][18] Yadin returned to Hazor for a final season of excavation in 1968.[19] Theexcavations were supported by James A. de Rothschild, and were published in a dedicated five volume setof books by the Israel Exploration Society.

Excavation at the site by Hebrew University, joined by the Complutense University of Madrid, resumed in1990 under Amnon Ben-Tor.

Findings from the dig are housed in a museum at Kibbutz Ayelet HaShahar. In 2008, some artifacts in themuseum were damaged in an earthquake.[20]

In 2010, a clay tablet was discovered dating from the 18th or 17th centuries BCE inscribed with laws in thestyle of Hammurabi's Code. The document includes laws pertaining to body parts and damages, similar tolaws such as "an eye for an eye" that appear in the Book of Exodus. The document is written in Akkadiancuneiform, the diplomatic language of the period.[21]

See also

Archaeology of IsraelCities of the ancient Near EastNational parks and nature reserves of Israel

References1. ^ Scorched wheat may provide answers on the destruction of Canaanite Tel Hazor

(http://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/news/scorched-wheat-may-provide-answers-on-the-destruction-of-canaanite-tel-hazor/)

2. ^ Joshua 11:1-5, 11:10-133. ^ Judges 4

4. ^ a b c Peake's commentary on the Bible5. ^ Jewish Encyclopedia, Book of Joshua, Book of Judges

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6. ^ Jewish Encyclopedia, Jabin

7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Israel Finkelstein, The Bible Unearthed8. ^ http://unixware.mscc.huji.ac.il/~hatsor/hazor.html9. ^ A 3,400 year old mystery: Who burned the palace of Canaanite Hatzor,

(http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/a-3-400-year-old-mystery-who-burned-the-palace-of-canaanite-hatzor-1.453095) Haaretz

10. ^ Negev,Avraham/Gibson,Shimon, Archaeological Encyclopedia of the Holy Land, New York/London 2001,p.220, ISBN 0-8264-1316-1 (English)

11. ^ 1 Kings 9:1512. ^ William G. Dever, What Did the Biblical Writers Know, and when Did They Know It?

(http://books.google.com.au/books?id=6-VxwC5rQtwC&pg=PA43&lpg=PA43) 2002 p.4313. ^ 2 Kings 15:2914. ^ However, the correlation between the destruction of Stratum V with Tiglath-Pileser III's campaign has been

challenged; cf. P. James, "The Alleged 'Anchor Point' of 732 BC for the Destruction of Hazor V"(http://www.centuries.co.uk/hazor.pdf), AntOr 6 (2008).

15. ^ John Garstang, History in the Bible, American Journal of Economics and Sociology, vol. 3, no. 3, Essays inMemory of Franz Oppenheimer 1864-1943, pp. 371-385, 1944

16. ^ Yigal Yadin, Excavations at Hazor, The Biblical Archaeologist, vol. 19, no. 1 , pp. 2-11, 195617. ^ Yigal Yadin, The Third Season of Excavation at Hazor 1957, The Biblical Archaeologist, vol. 21, no. 2, pp. 30-

47, 195818. ^ Yigal Yadin, The Fourth Season of Excavations at Hazor, The Biblical Archaeologist, vol. 22, no. 1, pp. 2-20,

195919. ^ Yigal Yadin, The Fifth Season of Excavations at Hazor 1968-1969, The Biblical Archaeologist, vol. 32, no. 3,

pp. 50-71, 196820. ^ http://www.haaretz.co.il/hasite/images/printed/P020308/a.a.0203.430.1.9.jpg21. ^ 'Hammurabi-like' cuneiform discovered at Tel Hazor, (http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/hammurabi-

like-cuneiform-discovered-at-tel-hazor-1.304266) Haaretz

Further reading

Yadin Yigael and Et Al. Yadin, Hazor I : An Account of the First Season of Excavations, 1955,Magnes Press, 1958Yadin Yigael, Hazor II: An Account of the Second Season of Excavations, 1956 [James A. DeRothschild Expedition at Hazor], Oxford University Press, 1961, ISBN 0-19-647165-6Yadin Yigael, Hazor III - IV. An Account of the Third and Fourth Seasons of Excavations, 1957-1958. The James A. De Rothschild Expedition at Hazor, Biblical Archaeology Society, 1989, ISBN965-221-008-0A. Ben Tor and Robert Bonfil, Hazor: v. 5: The James A De Rothschild Expedition at Hazor (Ancientsynagogues studies), Israel Exploration Society, 1997, ISBN 965-221-003-XYadin Yigael, Hazor (Schweich Lectures on Biblical Archaeology), British Academy, 1972, ISBN 0-

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Wikimedia Commons hasmedia related to Hatzor.

19-725925-1Yadin Yigael, Hazor: Rediscovery of a Great Citadel of the Bible, Littlehampton, 1975, ISBN 0-297-76845-XSchulamit Geva, Hazor, Israel (British Archaeological Reports (BAR)), BAR, 1989, ISBN 0-86054-689-6S. Zuckerman, Where is the Archive of Hazor Buried?, Biblical Archaeology Review, vol. 32, pp. 28–37, 2006S. Zuckerman, "'...Slaying oxen and Killing Sheep, Eating Flesh and Drinking Wine...': Feasting inLate Bronze Age Hazor," Palestine Exploration Quarterly, 139,3 (2007), 186-204.

External links

The Hazor Excavations Project (http://hazor.huji.ac.il) -Hebrew University of Jerusalem"Yadin photographs & footage of the excavations"(http://www.yadinproductions.com/yadin_archeology.html)The Hazor Excavation Reports (http://hazor.huji.ac.il/hazorbooks.htm) - Hebrew University ofJerusalemUNESCO World Heritage site for Hazor (http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1108)Shelby White - Leon Levy grant to publish current digs(http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~semitic/wl/digsites/NLevant/Tel-Hazor_09/index.htm)

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Categories: World Heritage Sites in Israel History of Israel Archaeological sites in IsraelNational parks of Israel Amarna letters locations Canaanite citiesFormer populated places in Southwest Asia Buildings and structures in Northern District (Israel)Bronze Age palaces in Israel

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