Palestine

Gezer Excavation.

It became clear at this stage that the ex cavation of these sites involved much more than normal strati fications illustrating local arts and activities. There were evident traces of direct foreign impact and immigration which it was necessary to distinguish, and the difficulty of discrimination was greater in the deeper levels where the source and character of these intrusions were alike unknown. The Palestine Exploration Fund determined in 1902 to attack the site of Gezer on a scale hitherto unprecedented, and Dr. Macalister devoted himself to the task of obtaining and recording the whole of the information which that great and historic mound contained. This undertaking marks a definite stage of progress in archaeological research in Palestine. The work was continued during four consecutive years and was again resumed for a further three years, and a new system of classification was introduced.

The origin of the site was traced to the settlement in "Neolithic" times of a race of men, small in stature, who dwelt in caves and cremated their dead, placing the remains in the caves with pro visions and foodstuffs. The culture of that age was characterized by hand-made pottery and flint implements. Domestic animals included the sheep, cow, pig and goat, and grindstones suggested that cereals were already cultivated. To the same period ap parently are to be attributed some rough drawings, which however in their artistic qualities are not comparable with those of the late palaeolithic age in Europe. Eleven scarabs and other objects indicated contact with Egypt as early as in the 12th dynasty, about 2000 B.C. At that time the site was surrounded by a stone wall ten to eleven feet in thickness, provided with long narrow towers and stout gateways, and constructed of large irregular undressed stones, the open joints being packed with small stones. Two towers of rude rubble were faced with sun-baked bricks, a style more recently observed at Shechem and not unknown in the Hittite area in the north of Syria. The burials of these days were made by inhumation in caves, accompanied, as in Egypt, by objects and provisions. At a later period, beginning with 1400 B.C., there was a larger outer wall, provided with no less than 30 towers both external and internal. The whole was constructed of fairly large stones roughly dressed, but covered with mud. A great castle, the walls of which were in some places 9f t. thick, was erected at this time and lasted with occasional restoration throughout the epochs of three subsequent cities down to loo B.C. In religion the worship of Astarte was prevalent ; more primitive cults are indicated by the "high places," analogous to that of Petra, and standing monoliths or mazzebahs, and there were traces of child burial and sacrifices. There is evidence of contact with

Egypt, in the age of Amenhetep III. and IV., when (in substan tiation of the records) those cities in the north of Palestine showed traces of the Hittite-Amorite invasion. A further dis covery of peculiar interest, as affecting foreign relations, was made in a group of masoned tombs, unlike any others of the site, which were found to contain ornaments and other objects of gold, silver, alabaster. These recalled the art of Cyprus in Sub-Myke naean times (L.M. III. b.) and may be attributed to Aegean in truders. As elsewhere a period of Jewish habitation was indicated by a number of inscribed jar handles, and the Assyrian occupation left its traces in two inscribed tablets dating from 651 to 648 B.C.

The development of the mound at Gezer may be regarded as generally typical of its area. The evidence of Aegean intrusion, corresponding so nearly in date to the coming of the Philistines (in the age of Rameses III.) were especially significant; and the suggestion was borne out by parallel discoveries made at Ain Shems (1911 and 1912). Here also a city wall was traced, though the excavation was hampered by the remains of the monastery of Byzantine date. East of the city, outside the wall, pieces of pottery were found, some of which resembled wares of the Aegean islands and even Knossos, dating approximately to the 14th century B.C., a Mediterranean infiltration now found to characterize the special culture of the late bronze age, particularly in the northern cities. Pottery of the "Philistine" stratum, that is, the early iron age, is comparable in general style and technique with specimens from Gezer and bears out the Aegean character of that intrusion. Higher in the accumulation of debris, pottery was recognized as dating probably from the period of the kings of Judah, to whom might be attributed the construction of the city wall. There were clear indications of a siege and of the destruction of the city, which after a further interval appears to have been burnt a second time and completely destroyed. In the central portion of the city were the remains of a "high place"; and near by a cave was found which had been used as a place of burial during the earliest period of occupation. In the neigh bouring tombs, which were cut in the rock, many objects of coloured pottery, scarabs, beads, seals, collars and bracelets indi cated contact with Egypt at various epochs, and a number of bronze objects added to the collection of material available for study.