The Last Stand of the Philistines: Archaeologists Find Clue to the Fall of Gath

Haaretz ^ | 29 May 21 | Ariel David

[Cronos]

When the Aramean king laid siege to biblical Gath 2,800 years ago, the defenders resorted to desperate measures

...the Gittites manufactured the arrowhead from bone when the city was besieged by Hazael’s forces, around 830 B.C.E., because they were short of raw materials to make metal weapons.

...Testament to Hazael’s military power are impressive siege works, including a massive trench and several towers, archaeologists have found surrounding Gath and dated to the time of the Aramean onslaught.

Under Hazael, the northern Levantine kingdom of Aram, with its capital in Damascus, briefly expanded into a mini-empire that controlled a good chunk of the Middle East. Among other areas Hazael is known, both from the Bible and archaeological evidence, to have conquered large parts of the northern Kingdom of Israel. According to the Bible, he then “fought against Gath, and took it: and Hazael set his face to go up to Jerusalem.”

“And Jehoash king of Judah took all the hallowed things that Jehoshaphat, and Jehoram, and Ahaziah, his fathers, kings of Judah, had dedicated, and his own hallowed things, and all the gold that was found in the treasures of the house of the LORD, and in the king’s house, and sent it to Hazael king of Syria: and he went away from Jerusalem.”(2 Kings 12:18)

Gath was not as lucky, and a layer of destruction dated to the time of the Aramean invasion has been found to cover almost the entire site, signaling that the last-ditch resistance of the Gittites was futile.

Whether or not you believe the biblical story that Gath was the birthplace of Goliath, the giant defeated by David, it definitely was one of the most powerful Philistine cities for centuries, and a focus point of the sometimes peaceful and sometimes hostile coexistence with the neighboring Judahites.

[MuttTheHoople]

I first read it as the Last Stand of the Phillipines. I was thinking it was a story about the Battle of Corregidor.

[avital2]

excavations in Tel Aviv (Tel Qasile), Ekron, Ashkelon and Ashdod Museum tell of this civilization that we know so well from the Bible. fascinating to know what the dig at Gath will add.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks Cronos. Weekly digest ping topic as well.

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[blam]

The Battle Of Corregidor

[SunkenCiv]

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