Ancient City Discovered Beneath Biblical-Era Ruins in Israel

livescience.com ^ | November 16, 2013 10:43am ET | Tia Ghose,

[BenLurkin]

The ancient city of Gezer has been an important site since the Bronze Age, because it sat along the Way of the Sea, or the Via Maris, an ancient trade route that connected Egypt, Syria, Anatolia and Mesopotamia.

The city was ruled over many centuries by Canaanites, Egyptians and Assyrians, and Biblical accounts from roughly the 10th century describe an Egyptian pharaoh giving the city to King Solomon as a wedding gift after marrying his daughter.

....

The site has been excavated for a century, and most of the excavations so far date to the the 10th through eighth centuries B.C.

...

But earlier this summer, Ortiz and his colleague Samuel Wolff of the Israel Antiquities Authority noticed traces of an even more ancient city from centuries before King Solomon's time. Among the layers was a section that dated to about the 14th century B.C., containing a scarab, or beetle, amulet from King Amenhotep III, the grandfather of King Tut. They also found shards of Philistine pottery.

[SunkenCiv]

I’ve got some double cousins, but no double first cousins, all good so far. :’) I wouldn’t mind being pharaoh, btw. ;’)

[blam]

"I’ve got some double cousins, but no double first cousins, all good so far. :’)"

Two sisters married two brothers = off-spring on each side are double first cousins.

[SunkenCiv]

I’ve got some of those back a few generations — two brothers married two sisters of another family, and a child of a third brother married one of the two sisters’ sibling’s child. At that time there weren’t that many people around to get married to. ;’)