SUMMARY: Excavations at the Philistine site of Gath show the surprising result of a massive city beneath the previously studied level. Is this the city where the giant, Goliath came from?
And David rose and fled that day from Saul and went to Achish the king of Gath. – 1 Samuel 21:10 (ESV)
Previously Unknown Philistine City Changes Scholars’ Understanding of History
Archaeologists excavating at the ancient Philistine city of Gath this summer have been surprised by an unexpected discovery. As they dug down to older layers beneath the city they had thought was the primary phase of development at Gath, they began to find the remains of a much larger city just below the levels they had previously studied.
“I’ve been digging here for 23 years, and this place still manages to surprise me,” said Aren Maeir, Director of excavations at Gath, in an article in Haaretz. “All along we had this older, giant city that was hiding just a meter under the city we were digging.”
The new finds show that the city of Gath peaked in power much earlier than researchers had believed. This is consistent with evidence found in other locations that connect to the early history of Israel recorded in the Bible. Patterns of Evidence has found that many scholars have grown skeptical of the biblical account because they aren’t looking far enough back in time to recognize the matching evidence.
Gath in History
The ruins of Gath lie inland from the coastal city of Ashkelon about 10-15 miles. Last week we did a story on the discovery of a new site proposed by the excavators to be Ziklag. Today, the story is about Gath, which was a Philistine center next door to the proposed Ziklag site. Gath was also where the giant who David battled – Goliath, came from, and where David (when he was fleeing from Saul) stayed briefly with his 600 men before moving on to Ziklag.
And there came out from the camp of the Philistines a champion named Goliath of Gath, whose height was six cubits and a span. – 1 Samuel 17:4
And David lived with Achish at Gath, he and his men, every man with his household … – 1 Samuel 27:3 (ESV)
The site of Gath is known today as Tel es-Safi. A tel is a mound created by subsequent layers of city that have built over the top of previous cities over the centuries. Cutting down through the layers of the tel exposes older and deeper levels as you go (the oldest coming at the bottom). According to the Haaretz article, finds at Gath range from the 5th millennium BC to a small Arab village destroyed in Israel’s 1948 War of Independence. See a previous update for news of the oldest donkey bit in Israel found at Gath.
As documented at the Tel es-safi website, Gath has been excavated for decades. The city previously thought to be the pinnacle of Gath’s development has been dated to the period known as Iron IIA, normally thought to have begun around 1,000 BC. The more recent city is believed to have existed from the 10th century (900s) BC to the late 9th century (around 830) BC. The 830 BC date is determined by a fiery destruction layer thought to have occurred during the conquest of the city by the Aramean king Hazael, which is mentioned in 2 Kings 12:17.
It is interesting to note that while scholars emphasize the Hazael event as the major destruction marker in the archaeological history of the site, the Bible actually records an ongoing series of conflicts at Gath. There were no less than five such conflicts recorded for Gath over the centuries that included King David and afterward. Hazael’s event was only number four of the five, during the reign of Judah’s 8th king, and no mention of damage is given in the Bible. The fifth event was during the reign of Judah’s 10th king (Uzziah), and the Bible mentions that he broke down the wall of Gath.
Does this indicate that scholars have their layers and dates wrong? A list of the biblical references for these events can be seen in last week’s post on Ziklag. The Bible has the most documentation about Gath in the era of Saul and David when Israel is being attacked by huge Philistine armies. This would be in the 11th century BC on the Bible’s timeline.
In any event, the Iron II level, that was well known by the excavators, featured an estimated population of 5-10,000 over the space of 125 acres. Temples, houses, and massive oil presses were found there.
“This was the largest Philistine city and probably one of the largest in the Iron Age Levant,” Maeir, who is a professor of archaeology at Bar-Ilan University, says. “Larger cities were only found outside the Levant, such as in Egypt and Mesopotamia.”
An Older City of Mammoth Proportions
As the team reached the deeper and older layer of the Iron I period this summer, they began to sense that something big was happening.
While beginning excavation at the 11th century site, “We got the feeling that perhaps this earlier phase is larger and dramatically more impressive than the city that was destroyed by Hazael.” Maeir said in an article in the Times of Israel.
They soon were unearthing unusually massive fortifications that they date to the 11th century BC.
“The fortifications were very large, built with extremely large stones,” Maeir stated. They had huge boulders and very thick walls constructed with well-built, burnt brick, which is much stronger than the sun-dried variety and rarely used in pre-Roman times.
The walls of the fortifications in the lower city are about 13 feet wide, almost twice as large as in the later period. The length of the individual stones were also markedly greater: 1-2 meters (3.2-6.5 feet) in length compared to a half meter in the Iron II city.
“Up until now we thought that the city from the Iron IIA, the one that was destroyed by Hazael, was the largest and most important period in Gath,” Maeir told Haaretz. “This year we got a different story… It’s as if the site of Gath in the early Iron Age dwarfed the later city.”
Other sites in the region from this earlier period are also revealing to researchers unexpected size and complexity, such Khirbet Qeiyafa in the valley of David and Goliath.
The Origins of the David and Goliath Story?
Maier is actually somewhat moderate on the scale of beliefs about biblical history. Maximalists hold that every event recorded in the Bible happened as recorded, while Minimalists doubt the historical accuracy of the Bible. Most mainstream scholars tend fairly heavily toward the minimalist side of the spectrum when it comes to the early history of Israel.
The reason for this inclination is the apparent lack of evidence for these stories and the common belief that the early history in the Bible was not written down until many centuries after the events. While the Bible claims that Moses wrote its first books (in the 1,400s BC) and authors such as David were writing before the year 1,000 BC, the majority view among scholars is that the books of the Old Testament were first written between about 630 BC (during the reign of King Josiah) and 250 BC. For evidence supporting the Bible’s view of authorship, see the film, Patterns of Evidence: The Moses Controversy.
For minimalists, the Bible is a collection of myths manufactured for theological and political motives. In this view, the biblical accounts may contain some faded traditions that have a few germs of true history, but they can’t be trusted.
Maier believes there was a real David, but also thinks the huge walls of Iron I Gath may have inspired the biblical story of Goliath and other giants. “Many of the biblical texts must be understood as allegory,” notes Maeir. Perhaps the authors of the Bible saw the remains of the outsized 11th century building on the ground, speculated Maeir, and thought to themselves, “Enormous stones? Who could move such things? Only giants could move it.”
“Maybe there’s a family of large people we haven’t found, but it’s more likely to say that a mythical story developed over time based on the size of the architecture,” Maier concluded.
Professor Maier is an accomplished archeologist, but I find it ironic that he is basing his skepticism of the David vs. Goliath account on not finding the particular remains of a few large individuals, while standing on the remains of an entire huge city that has escaped recognition after 23 years of excavation at the site. The evidence at his site continues to fit the Bible, but he has trouble moving beyond the mainstream paradigm.
City of Gath and the Bible’s Account
So far, only small sections of the impressive Iron Age I city have been unearthed and plans are to expand this area in the upcoming seasons. The question could be asked, ‘What lies beneath this layer?’
“You excavate a site for so long that you think you understand it,” said Maeir. “But every turn of the trowel can bring a new and unexpected find.”
Scholars had believed Gath was most powerful in 9th century BC. They have needed to shift their view for this peak to a time centuries earlier. This matches the fact that the Bible puts the most active and powerful era for Gath in earlier periods. Once again, looking earlier than expected led to evidence more in line with the Bible. Perhaps the reason for scholars’ surprise is that they are not treating the Bible as an accurate source of historical information. – Keep Thinking!
TOP PHOTO: The Water Gate into the lower city of Gath, from the Iron I period. (Credit: Prof. Aren Maeir, The Tell es-Safi Archaeological Project)
