THAT OLD GEZER At last, in 1871, an exploration group headed by C. Clermont-Ganneau decided on the exact spot where the ancient Canaanite-Israeli city called “Gezer” had to have been located. They selected one till among many – a “till” being acreage which had once been inhabited by humans. They did some digging that thirty-three acre plot of rocky land just northwest of Jerusalem,back a few miles from the Mediterranean Sea coast. The hill itself is a gentle slope from which one can look over the expanse of the famed Aijalon valley and the do a visual inspecting travelers on the road to Jerusalem to determine if they were friend or enemy. Gezer was placed back from the main highway. That added safety to their homes because not all of the users of the highway camed as friendly visitors. Some asked permission to pass; others demanded it and became highly disturbed if not permitted to do so. Gezer had one of the largest defensive towers of that time. Foundation examinations today show it was fifty feet square and there are no records to indicate how tall it might have been when the city was at its prime.
The founders of the city must have been subjected o a great deal of kidding and ”I told you so!” remarks but after two years of patient digging they found he marked rocks bearing the city's name in the foundations of the wall ringing the city. The main city gate was built in 1650 B.C. Of a mud brick and stone foundation, a heavy wooden door covered with bronze plating and it was placed within walls wall on either side which measured four meters wide with at least twenty five guard towers around it at strategic points. It all worked until Thutmose III invaded the place in 1477 B.C . and pretty much demolished the gates, the walls and the towers.
Another aspect of Gezer today is evident in its
fine water system. You don't, as a rule, expect to find such work done in that part of the world, but it is said to have rivaled that found at Megiddo, Hazor and at Gibeon. The main shaft is a circular opening measuring seven meter across and it goes down to the average water level. Then, there is a sloping, 45-meter tunnel. When was first located it was thought to have been work done in the Late Bronze Age at about 1500 to 1200 B.C. but further studies comparing it to installations at Megiddo and Hazor shift it to the Iron period about 1000 to 600 B.C.
An odd feature about the entire archaeological study at Gezer is that it is one of the few projects in which I find archeology workers – some, no doubt,known as “experts” being openly critical of work done by others in the profession. Alexander Stewart McAllister has been severely criticized by others for a “crime” they identify as “stratigraphy” or “non-control over the interrelations of o object and debris” Other scientists of the same group say: “The Gezer excavations suffered from the worst practices of the time...there was no control over stratigraphy...the interrelation of objects and debris was ignored.”
It seems have something to do with the actual final placement of a specific piece of debris o a salvageable object in the pile. Some insist it does make a difference such items are found. Macalliaster himself, in answer to his critics has said:”the exact spot in the mound where any ordinary object chanced to lie is not generally of great importance.”
His words are very carefully and wisely chosen. Such placement could prove to be critically important but as he says “generally” they are not. I find it true that some archaeologists tend to think “vertically”- up and down throughout the mound, while other think ”horizontally”- from side to side over the expanse of the mound.
Stop your bickering,boys. We need both of you.
A.L.M. March 30, 2005 [c672wds]
