BIBLE HISTORY DAILY

New Gate Discovered at Tel Lachish

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This post was originally published on Luke Chandler’s blog Bible, Archaeology, Travel with Luke Chandler. Luke excavated with the Fourth Expedition to Lachish, a multi-disciplinary field project led by Yosef Garfinkel, Michael Hasel and Martin Klingbeil investigating the Iron Age history of the ancient Biblical city of Tel Lachish. Scroll down for more resources on Lachish in Bible History Daily.

Originally published on July 14, 2014.

The gate at Lachish associated with the Iron IIB and C periods. Entrances from earlier periods of habitation have eluded discovery until the new expedition in 2014. Photo by Catherine Bishop.

Prof. Yosef Garfinkel states that current excavations at Tel Lachish have discovered a new, earlier entrance to the city on the northeast side of the tell. This is the opposite side of the mound from the known Iron Age gate.

People who have visited Tel Lachish will recognize the Iron Age gate in the photo below. It lies on the southwest side of the tell and was discovered in the 1930s by Starkey and Tufnell. This gate and its approach ramp relate to the city levels destroyed by Sennacherib of Assyria in 701 B.C. and Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon in 587/6 B.C.

Garfinkel believes the northeast section of the tell would have been a natural entrance point to the city in earlier times. The 2014 excavations exposed and clarified ancient fortifications in this area. Garfinkel gives the newly-discovered entrances a preliminary dating to the early Iron and Middle Bronze ages. (Biblically, this is the period ranging from the early kingdom years back to the Patriarchs.) The 2014 season at Lachish was cut short by the Israel-Hamas conflict, so these new entrances will be excavated in the 2015 season.

A newly-excavated mud brick wall along the northeastern side of Tel Lachish. Some individual mud bricks can be seen below the sandbags. Notice the blackened destruction layer at the bottom of the photo. A similar layer of ash was found in numerous excavation squares in 2014, indicating a widespread burning of the city. Photo by Luke Chandler.

Gates are important discoveries for several reasons. They are key fortification points and can provide useful data on the defenses and layout of related city levels. City gates were also centers for trade, exchange, tax collection, worship/cultic practice, legal matters and record keeping. Traces of these activities may be unearthed through excavation and illuminate much about ancient cultures. One prime example is the famous collection of Lachish Letters found in the southwestern gate of Tel Lachish back in the 1930s.

Photos of the new northeast entrance(s) may become available later this year. This blog will monitor and provide updates as they become available.

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Luke Chandler is a minister with the North Terrace Church of Christ in Temple Terrace, Florida, and holds an M.A. in Ancient and Classical History. Luke leads group tours to the Bible Lands and Europe. He spent five seasons with the Khirbet Qeiyafa excavation in Israel and is leading a group to join the Fourth Lachish Expedition in the summer of 2014. Luke may be contacted by email at LukeChandler[at]verizon.net.

Read more about Lachish in Bible History Daily:

Lachish: Open Access to BAR Articles on Lachish Archaeology

Khirbet Qeiyafa and Tel Lachish Excavations Explore Early Kingdom of Judah

Lachish 2014 Field Report: Ancient Jewelry, a Scarab and More