Hazor

District: Northern

Altitude: 330m/1,080ft

Situation and characteristics

Tel Hazor rises commandingly above the road which runs north from Tiberias to Metulla, at the point where it emerges from the hills into the Hule plain. After the first excavations by John Garstang in 1928 the history of the tell was extensively investigated by Yigael Yadin in excavations carried out between 1955 and 1969.

History

Excavation has revealed 21 occupation levels, the latest of which (I) is dated to the Hellenistic period (third-second century B.C.), while the oldest (XXI) reaches back to the early Bronze Age (c. 2600 B.C.). This Canaanite city enjoyed a first period of prosperity in the 18th and 17th centuries B.C. (level XVII), when it is referred to in the archives of Mari on the Euphrates (Eastern Syria) along with Qatna, Babylon and other cities of similar size. These facts, together with the extensive area of the site and the number of buildings of the Canaanite period, are in accord with the Biblical statement (Joshua 11,10) that Hazor was the "head" of many pre-Israelite kingdoms. The last king, Jabin, mustered the forces of many kings in the territory between Dor on the Mediterranean coast and Mount Hermon in the north when the Israelites, led by Joshua, occupied the land in the 13th century B.C. But Joshua defeated the Canaanites "at the waters of Merom" (the present-day Hule region), conquered their cities and slew the defeated armies; the only city he burned down was Hazor (Joshua 11,13).

The first Israelite settlement on the territory of Hazor was established in the 12th century, but its real development began only in the 10th century, in the reign of Solomon (fortified gate, casemate walls), and still more actively in the reign of Ahab, whose capital was Samaria (ninth century B.C.). Level VIII in the citadel and the great store-room with its rows of pillars (formerly ascribed to Solomon) are testimonies to the magnificent architecture and economic importance of Hazor in the time of Ahab. The town was destroyed by the Assyrian ruler Tiglath-pileser III in 732 B.C., but continued to exist as a fortress, with no economic importance, into the second century B.C.