Biblical City of Beit Shemesh
Tel (mound) Beit Shemesh
covers about 7 acres of a low hill, near the modern town of Beit
Shemesh, some 20 km. west of Jerusalem.
It overlooks the Sorek Valley, which widens here into a fertile
valley.
The name Beit Shemesh (House
of the Sun) is suggestive of the deity that was worshipped by the
Canaanite inhabitants of the ancient city. Identification of the
mound with biblical Beit Shemesh is based on its geographical
description in the Bible, on the Onomasticon of Eusebius (4th century
CE) and on the name of the Arab village Ein Shams, which preserves
the ancient name.
The Bible mentions Beit Shemesh in the description of the northern border of
the Tribe of Judah (Joshua 15:10-11)
and as a Levitical city in the territory of Judah. (Joshua
21:16) Beit Shemesh is also mentioned in connection with the
return of the Ark of the Covenant by the Philistines, who had
captured it in the battle of Eben-Ezer. The ark was placed on a
cattle-drawn cart in the Philistine town of Ekron and sent via Nahal
Sorek to Beit Shemesh:
Then the cows headed
straight for the road to Beit Shemesh and went along the highway,
lowing as they went, and did not turn aside to the right or the
left. And the lords of the Philistines went after them to the
border of Beit Shemesh. -- (I
Samuel 6:12-13)
At the beginning of the 8th
century BCE, Beit Shemesh became strategically important, as it
controlled the western approaches of the Kingdom of Judah, and the
road to its capital, Jerusalem. It was here that the battle between
Amaziyah, King of Judah and Jehoash, King of Israel, took place. (II
Kings 14:11-13) Shortly thereafter, Beit Shemesh passed into
Philistine control, but was restored to the Kingdom of Judah under
Hezekiah. The town was destroyed by Sennacherib in 701 BCE.
Talmudic sources describe
Beit Shemesh as a small village; in the Byzantine period a large, fortified monastery was built on the southeastern
part of the tel.
Excavations conducted at
Beit Shemesh at the beginning of the 20th century and during the
1930s exposed large parts of the tel, down to bedrock. Remains of
several successive cities from the Bronze and Iron ages were
uncovered. But these early excavations, in part tunnels dug along the
city walls, did not produce clear results. The aim of the new
excavations, begun in 1990, is to shed more light on the history of
ancient Beit Shemesh.
The present excavations
focus on the northern and southern sides of the tel, which remained
largely untouched. In the very first season, the remains of several
impressive Iron Age buildings were uncovered, indicating the
importance of the city. In the coming years, the expedition plans to
expose the remains of the Canaanite city that preceded the Israelite
one.
The Period of the Judges (12th-11th centuries BCE)
Remains of a large
structure, probably a public building, were uncovered on the slope of
the tel. Its walls, built of large fieldstones, indicate that it had
a second story. There was also a large stone-paved courtyard
surrounded by many rooms. To the east of this building were many
simple buildings with ceilings supported by wooden pillars on stone
bases. Large grindstones and clay ovens attest to the daily
activities of their inhabitants. This city was destroyed (the event
is unknown) and its houses were buried under a thick layer of ash and
bricks.
The pottery used by the
inhabitants of Beit Shemesh during this period is in the Canaanite
and Philistine tradition. But the bones of the animals they consumed
attest to a diet typical of the Israelites who inhabited the hill
country. Such finds indicate the cultural influences on the
inhabitants of this border town; it is difficult, however, to
ascertain their specific ethnic identity - Canaanite, Philistine or
Israelite.
The Period of the United
Kingdom and of the Kingdom of Judah (10th-7th centuries BCE)
In the 10th century BCE,
probably during the reign of King
Solomon, Beit Shemesh was rebuilt, and served as a regional
administrative center of the Kingdom. The remains show evidence of
considerable planning and financial investment in the buildings. The
city was surrounded by massive fortifications and its water supply
guaranteed by a subterranean reservoir. At the center of the densely
built-up residential area was a large, well-constructed building (250
sq. m.) with several elongated halls, probably a public warehouse.
An elaborate system of
fortifications, from the 10th century BCE, was discovered on the
northeastern side of the tel. The main element is a tower with two
very broad, perpendicular walls built of particularly large stones,
each 1.5 m. long. A covered, hidden passage (postern) at the city
wall, west of the tower, served as an escape route from the city. A
casemate wall extending from the eastern side of the fortification is
assumed to have surrounded the entire city. The massive tower was
built of large stones, and projected outward. This wall, exposed
during the previous excavations, was erroneously dated to the Bronze
Age (2nd millennium BCE); it is now clear that it formed an integral
part of the fortifications of the Israelite city.
During the 9th-early 8th
century BCE, a gatehouse was built in the city wall where the
Israelite fortification complex had stood. This gatehouse provided
direct access to the perennial water sources in the Sorek Valley and
to the road running through that valley. The gatehouse had two pairs
of open chambers facing each other with a passageway between them;
beneath the passageway, a water channel was built. The lower portion
of the gatehouse was constructed of large stones, the superstructure
of bricks. Inside the city gate was a plaza, which probably served as
the center of the city's public life.
In the southern part of the
site a large area used for commercial activity and for storage of
goods was revealed. The buildings contained fragments of numerous
pottery storage vessels destroyed in a conflagration at the beginning
of the 8th century BCE.
During the 8th century BCE,
the inhabitants of Beit Shemesh engaged in oil production, both for
their own use and for export. Remains of oil presses containing large
stone basins in which the olives were crushed, deep stone containers
for the baskets with crushed olives, and heavy stone weights that
were hung on wooden beams for pressing the oil from the olives, were
found in the buildings.
The Water System
Beneath the plaza inside the
city gate, the excavators found a large subterranean reservoir - a
unique find - not encountered so far in any of the water systems of
the biblical period.
The rock-cut reservoir is
cruciform in shape (with four arms), coated with thick hydraulic
plaster. The length of each of its arms is 9 m. and their width 2-4
m.; it is 6 m. high and has a capacity of 800 cu.m. From the top
opening of the reservoir near the city gate, one may descend via a
broad staircase, finely constructed of large stones, which makes two
turns around a built pier. At the bottom is a narrow opening covered
by three large and very carefully cut cigar-shaped stones. Through
this opening one enters the northwestern arm of the reservoir, which
was filled with rainwater collected from the plaza above (and flowed
down the plastered staircase and a channel running alongside it). The
channel under the city gate also emptied into the reservoir.
Beit Shemesh was destroyed
by the Assyrian king Sennacherib in his campaign against Judah in 701
BCE, and abandoned. But in the 7th century BCE some Judean families
returned, refurbished the reservoir and lived for a while in its
vicinity. Many pottery vessels, broken while drawing water, remained
imbedded in the thick layer of silt accumulated at the bottom of the
reservoir. On a bench hewn in the rock inside the entrance to the
reservoir, two jars and a cooking pot were found, obviously left
there by the last inhabitants of Beit Shemesh.
This attempt by Judean
families to settle in Beit Shemesh once more was resented by their
Philistine neighbors and/or the ruling Assyrians. To ensure the
abandonment of this border city, they deliberately blocked the
entrance to the reservoir with 150 tons of earth and debris.
Sources: Israeli Foreign Ministry |