Tel Hazor

Hazor (or Hazor and Hazor ) a Bronze Age Canaanite city was north of the Sea of Galilee on a tell in Upper Galilee. She later became an Israelite city and today it is a ruin, Tell Hazor and Tell al - Qedach or Tell Waqqas near Zefat. It was around 1800 BC, the largest city in Canaan. In 2005, the remains of Hazor were declared by UNESCO a World Heritage Site, as part of the Biblical Tells - Megiddo, Hazor, Beer Sheba.

History

The first settlement of the mound part, on which lay the upper town, goes back to the beginning of the 3rd millennium BC. The lower town was built about 1800 BC. During the Bronze Age Hazor encompassed an area that was ten times as large as that at the time insignificant Jerusalem. The city is likely to have its heyday had at least 20,000 inhabitants. She drove trade and its rulers had a far-reaching correspondence, such as clay tablets from Mari and Hazor show. Egyptian execration texts, Amarna letters (EA 148, 227, 228, 364) and war reports mention Hazor several times. In the Late Bronze Age Hazor was about eight times larger than Megiddo or Lachish, the largest Canaanite city with an area of ​​74 hectares.

In the 13th century BC, the upper and lower city were destroyed. Who was responsible for this destruction is controversial. Thereafter, the Upper Town was only settled on the hill. Ben- Hadad of Damascus is said to have conquered Hazor, and then Omri built again with a smaller footprint. To 733/732 BC Hazor is by the Assyrians under Tiglath- Pileser III. finally destroyed.

Hazor the Bible

In the Bible, Hazor 18 times, mainly mentioned in the Book of Joshua and the Book of Judges. According to the report in the book of Joshua King Jabin of Canaan led a coalition against Joshua in the battle and was defeated. As a result, Joshua burnt the city of Hazor down completely. The book of Judges tells of a conflict between King Jabin and the tribes under the leadership of Judge Deborah. Mention is made of Hazor in the books of Kings (1 Kings 9:15 and 2 Kings 15:29), and in the prophets Nehemiah (Nehemiah 11:33) and Jeremiah ( 49.28 ).

Excavations

The first test excavations were conducted by the British archaeologist John Garstang in 1928. Targeted excavations were 69 Yigael Yadin of 14 sections (A -H, K, N, P and BA) carried out in the years 1955-1958 and 1968 / in the upper and lower city digs. He primarily explored the structure of the city. The hill could be identified relatively early as a settlement site, the function of the walled - later identified as a city - area was clarified only in the course of the excavations. Since the 1990s further excavations under the supervision of Amnon Ben -Tor can be performed.

In summer 2012, a Sphinx fragment was excavated, which is the Egyptian ruler Menkaura dedicated by inscription (2500 years BC ). It comes from the Old Kingdom in Egypt. How the Sphinx came to Canaan, to date remains unclear. It is one of the few monumental Egyptian statues that were found in the eastern Mediterranean.