Gezer Field IV 1998 Overview

James W. Hardin, Synchronic and Diachronic Studies of the Middle Bronze Age and Later Fortification Systems in Field IV at Tell Gezer

Field IV at Gezer (Tell el-Jezer) in West Central Israel, was excavated by the Hebrew Union College from 1969 through 1974 and produced some of the most impressive architectural features and richest in situ remains ever recovered from this formidable thirty-three acre mound. This proposal requests support to help produce final and comprehensive publication reports on these excavated materials.

Gezer's strategic location, substantial size, and significant remains attest to its importance throughout antiquity. Revealed in Field IV were 1.) the well-preserved remains of an massive “inner-wall” fortification system from the Middle Bronze age, with an outlying crushed limestone glacis, a massive tower/building, and a three entry-way monumental gate; 2.) an associated late MB III domestic/storage complex destroyed by fire and preserved under the collapsed debris of the "inner wall" yielding nearly two hundred pottery vessels and a variety of other cultural remains; and 3.) elements of a subsequent system of fortifications (the “outer-wall”), dated by the excavators to the Late Bronze II in its earliest phase, with rebuilds during the Iron II and the Maccabean periods. All of these remains were excavated with methods aimed at “full retrieval” of artifacts utilizing three-dimensional field recording techniques - providing a very complete and adequate basis for study of the material remains and analysis of the results.

These data present several specific opportunities for study: 1.) Data are at hand for a detailed synchronic analysis of the site's MB southern gate complex and of the overall development of Gezer's MB fortification system; 2.) Data are available for a detailed spatial and functional analysis of the materials from within the MB domestic/storage complex and for the study of displacement effects of the complex's major destruction event on architectural and material culture elements; and 3.) Data provide the opportunity for a detailed diachronic study of the history of fortification systems' development at Gezer and for analysis as to how these systems reflect the differing political, cultural, and economic environments at the site from the Middle Bronze age to the Maccabean era. Project efforts will result in the preparation of a comprehensive publication in the format of previous Gezer report volumes (specifically in the model of Gezer V) and will greatly enhance our knowledge by providing important primary data from Field IV to a wide audience. This will further illustrate the role that Gezer played through much of antiquity, but especially during the Middle Bronze age, as one of the Southern Levant's greater urban centers.