Did Joshua Destroy Canaanite Hatzor?Hatzor is the largest archaeological tel in Israel. The discovery of several cuneiform tablets at the 800-dunam (200-acre) site over the years points to the likelihood that Hatzor will produce the first ancient archive, other than the Dead Sea Scrolls, ever to be found in the country... Ben-Tor... hoped there might be two archives -- one in each of the two palaces identified on the acropolis atop the tel. The late Prof. Yigael Yadin had been the first to identify a palace during his landmark dig at Hatzor in the 1950s, dating it to the 18th century BC or Middle Bronze (MB) period. That fitted perfectly with the date of the royal archive in Mari, Syria, in which cuneiform messages relating to MB Hatzor were found - the first hint of a possible archive at Hatzor. However, when Ben-Tor began his excavations in 1990 he came upon a palace near Yadin's which he dated, by means of its ceramics, to a few hundred years later -- that is, to the last half of the second millennium or Late Bronze (LB) period. The generally accepted dating of the biblical destruction of Hatzor by Joshua roughly coincides with the date of this LB palace's destruction, the 14th or 13th centuries BCE. This summer, as he probed the area of the palaces, Ben-Tor began to have an uneasy feeling that Yadin, his former teacher, had made a wrong dating and that there was in fact only one palace -- his own LB structure... Even if he is a palace short, however, the one that Ben-Tor is left with is proving enormous... The basalt stones had been distorted by a terrible fire which likewise echoes the biblical description of Joshua's destruction. It was clear for anyone to see that the basalt stones had been fractured by a hot fire. Geologists report that the fire had to be over 1200 degrees to cause this kind of damage to basalt.
by Clarence H. Wagner, Jr.
September 1997
original, dead linkThe Burning Of HazorThe Egyptians could be responsible. Pharaoh Seti I, in an inscription describing his military campaign against Canaan ca. 1300 B.C., claimed to have destroyed Hazor. Another possibility is that Ramses II could have conquered the city, either on his way northward to Syria before the Battle of Kadesh in 1275 B.C. or on his return to Egypt afterward. Yet Ben-Tor believes that the intentional smashing of statues at Hazor, particularly those of the Egyptian kings, makes these possibilities unlikely. He also dismisses the likelihood of destruction at the hands of a rival Canaanite city-state because of the apparent absence of nearby cities powerful enough to attack Hazor. As for the Sea Peoples, Ben-Tor notes that not a single sherd of their distinctive decorated pottery has been found in the city, which is much further inland than the sites they are known to have conquered. That leaves the Israelites. The discovery of an archive at Hazor might pinpoint the date of the city's destruction, or provide information about the historical situation in Canaan in the years immediately preceding the Israelite settlement.
by Abraham Rabinovich and Neil Asher Silberman
I love Biblical Archaeology Review. Good article, too.
did you ever consider the very devil of a time later historians are going to have sifting out the claims of Obaama's birth and administration?
Cheers!
Bookmarked.
Great Article!
Thanks, Civ
Excellent article. The more Archaeologican science uncovers, the more it confirms what is written in the Bible.
Thanks, Civ
Excellent article. The more Archaeologican science uncovers, the more it confirms what is written in the Bible.