Biblical Archeology – The City of Lachish

Posted by Sigal Zohar on February 14, 2008 under Archaeology | Be the First to Comment

The city of Lachish, located in the maritime lowlands of Judea, is first mentioned in the Bible during Joshua’s conquest. After the Gibeonites deceptively made a covenant with Joshua, many of the Canaanite kings were alarmed that they might be conquered with Gibeonite assistance, and therefore set out to fight the Gibeonites. Joshua took over all of these rebellious cities, and Lachish, being one of them, was later part of the territory assigned to the tribe of Judah.

Lachish, located on an important cross-roads between the coast and Hebron, became a major city in the Judean kingdom during the reign of Rehoboam, and was conquered by the Assyrians in the time of Hezekiah (in 701 BCE), when it became the Assyrian local headquarters. Due to the fact that the Assyrians failed to conquer Jerusalem, it was Lachish that was depicted as the main Judean city overcome during the Assyrian invasion and carved reliefs describing its destruction were placed in the central room of Sennacherib’s new palace in Nineveh.

The archaeological findings from Lachish are extensive and include a temple, inscriptions and more from the Canaanite period, and an impressive fortress which should probably be dated to the Israelite period. Many ostraca, stamps and weights containing Hebrew writing that probably should be dated to a period after the destruction by the Assyrians when the city was re-inhabited teach us of the every-day life there.

Most famous among the archaeological finds are the “Lachish Letters.” In these letters, which were written on re-cycled pieces of broken earthenware pottery (known as “ostraca”) we find an extensive correspondence between an outpost in the vicinity of Lachish and the Lachish military headquarters. The letters were all written within a few days, and deal with a book (meaning, a letter) which was read by someone unauthorized to do so or possibly was misread and misunderstood. These letters also mention a military delegation sent to Egypt and other information. Based on archaeological data, the letters are apparently from the eve of the Babylonian destruction, and therefore can be connected to the Babylonian conquest of Judea and the siege over the few remaining cities – Jerusalem, Lachish and Azeka.
Interested in learning Biblical Hebrew? Sign up for a trial lesson at www.classicalhebrew.com

Tags: archeological findings, Assyrian, Babylonian destruction, biblical archeology, biblical history, City of Lachish, Gibeonites, Joshua, Judah, Lachish Letters

[smartads]

The Dead Sea Scrolls

Posted by Naama Baumgarten on January 17, 2008 under Archaeology | Be the First to Comment

In 1947, by the north-western tip of the Dead Sea, a few Bedouins accidentally stumbled upon what would turn out to be one of the most important archaeological discoveries of the century: the Dead Sea Scrolls. Following this initial discovery of parts of seven scrolls, archaeologists uncovered a huge library, comprised of thousands of scroll fragments in different states of preservation, found in eleven different caves in the vicinity of the ruins called Qumran.

The community preserving the scrolls led a segregate lifestyle at the Qumran site from the second century B.C.E., a time at which they retreated to this desert asylum as a result of ideological disputes with mainstream Judaism based in the Jerusalem Temple, up to their destruction by Roman troops in 68 C.E. The Qumran community (considered by most scholars to be a sect called the Essenes, mentioned by Josephus, Philo and Pliny the Elder) observed strict interpretations of various laws, especially those concerning purity, and also held different views than mainstream Judaism as to the calendar that should be observed and the importance of the luminaries in setting this calendar, keeping a 364-day year, an accurate sun year according to their calculations.

The large library, kept in clay jars and preserved thanks to the dry desert air, includes many biblical scrolls, exposing to us different biblical versions current at the time as well as linguistic and spelling developments, scribal practices, and interpretations of the sacred texts. They also include many sectarian writings, revealing to us the beliefs and practices of the inhabitants of the village and some of the inner-politics of Second Temple Judaism. Some scholars suggested that the roots of early Christianity could be found at Qumran, due to the centrality of purity and baptism, however the abundance of differences causes others to doubt this hypothesis.

Interested in learning biblical Hebrew? Go to www.ClassicalHebrew.com