Gezer

An important Biblical tell site of Palestine near Jerusalem, occupied from the Chalcolithic (5th millennium BC) to the Byzantine period. The first fortified town belonged to the Middle Bronze Age (early 2nd millennium BC); an important discovery of this phase was a 'High Place' (ceremonial meeting place) consisting of a row of 10 tall monoliths. To the Iron Age belong the remains of a gateway built by Solomon. Succeeding levels show a decline, with destruction attributed to Assyrians and later, Babylonians. The city became important again in the Hellenistic period. The most noteworthy finds were a potsherd with one of the earliest uses of the alphabet (18th-17th c BC) and the Gezer calendar (11th-10th centuries BC), the oldest known inscription in Early Hebrew writing. The city was particularly prosperous during 2nd millennium BC and is mentioned in Egyptian texts from 15th century onwards.

An important Palestinian site northwest of Jerusalem. The results of excavations early this century have been clarified by new work in the 1960s and 1970s. The site was occupied from the Chalcolithic (5th millennium bc) to the Hellenistic period and perhaps as late as Byzantine times. The first fortified town belonged to the Middle Bronze Age (early 2nd millennium bc); an important discovery of this phase was a ‘High Place’ — a ceremonial meeting place for the renewal of treaties — consisting of a row of ten tall monoliths. Gezer was destroyed early in the 15th century bc, perhaps by Thotmes III, but there were later important phases of occupation in the Late Bronze Age and in the Philistine period. In the Solomonic period the site had a splendid gateway like those at Megiddo and Hazor. Succeeding levels show a decline, with destruction attributed to Assyrians and, later, Babylonians. The city became important again in the Hellenistic period.