A day or so before we began the actual excavating at the Tel Miqne-Ekron site in June 1984, the entire staff walked out to the highway that runs from Ashkelon to Jerusalem to place signs marking the dig. The signs were scarcely in place before we all realized the comedy of our effort. Our signs were small, a mere fifteen inches by six inches. There was no way they would be seen by travelers or even by colleagues looking for the excavations as they cruised past at highway speeds.

This situation reflected an earlier experience in 1980 when directors Sy Gitin and Trude Dothan were in the field studying maps, trying to figure out precisely where Tel Miqne-Ekron was. The archaeological "signs" were small, too, and they had almost missed them. The area where the tell was supposed to be was a logistical base for the farmers of a kibbutz. The mound they had found and were standing on, a mere seven meters above the plain planted with cotton, seemed too unimpressive to warrant consideration. But that mound was then and is now the site believed to be the biblical Ekron.¹

Tel Miqne-Ekron was originally surveyed in April 1924 by William Foxwell Albright, who is often referred to as the father of American biblical archaeology. In Arabic the site is called Khirbet (ruins of) el-Muqanna` and bears the name of the stream that flows immediately by it. Albright noted that the debris layer was not particularly deep and that he found no remains of a Bronze Age settlement. He did remark on the numerous sherds of Philistine pottery found that dated from the early Iron Age I (twelfth century B.C.). On the basis of these sherds he also came to believe that the site was abandoned after the Persian period, circa fourth century B.C. He found physical evidence for ruins of a fortification system and thought that with everything considered, including biblical and extrabiblical sources, this site had to be Eltekeh, a tribal town of Dan which later gained prominence as the location for a major battle between Assyria and Egypt that occurred shortly after the fall of the ten northern tribes of Israel. Albright had already identified another site, Qatra, as that of the biblical Ekron. The map on page 35 shows where Qatra is located and where Eltekeh is now believed to have been.

Albright's site identification remained in place for more than three decades. In 1953, however, some scholars began to question his conclusion that Qatra was Ekron. In 1957 Joseph Naveh conducted an extensive survey of Khirbet el-Muqanna` for Israel's Department of Antiquities (Naveh 1958). Naveh considered the identical evidence that Albright had considered, both the biblical and nonbiblical records, including the works of the early church father Eusebius. He also examined all the extant archaeological data. He concluded, contrary to Albright, that Muqanna` was Ekron.

In part, Naveh based his opinion on the following information: 1) the large quantity of Philistine pottery at Muqanna`; 2) the large size of the Muqanna` site, a size that corresponds with the information that Ekron, having been one of the chief Philistine cities, likely covered forty or more acres (compared with the thirteen acres of Jericho, the eighteen acres of Lachish, the thirteen acres of Megiddo, and the twelve acres of David's Jerusalem); 3) the relative insignificance of Eltekeh according to the extant historical data; and 4) the stories of the return of the ark of the covenant and of the Israelites' pursuit of the Philistines after David killed Goliath, both of which fit the Muqanna` location better than that of Eltekeh. Naveh's studied conclusions left Albright unconvinced, however.

Until 1981 and 1982, when some of the exploratory squares at Tel Miqne-Ekron were first excavated by the dig's directors in their joint effort with Brandeis University students, it had been thought that there was no Bronze Age settlement (pre-1200 B.C.) at this site. Dr. Trude Dothan, in her major work on the Philistines, stated the standard opinion: "Khirbet Muqanna` was founded by the Philistines and existed until the Persian period. Like Tell Qasile, it was an entirely new settlement, not one built over an earlier Canaanite city" (1982a, 88). Both of the exploratory sessions in 1981 and 1982 uncovered quantities of sherds from the earlier Bronze ages, but all of the sherds were found in fills and not in the clear remains of buildings. Even as late as August 1982, after the second exploratory session conducted earlier during that spring, Dr. Dothan still believed that, in spite of the Bronze Age sherds, which suggested a constant occupation at the site, the earliest architectural evidence dated to the twelfth century B.C. (T. Dothan and Gitin 1982).

Not until the archaeological work done during the summer session of 1984 was it discovered that the Tel Miqne-Ekron mound includes a Canaanite city razed by an invading people who had come by way of the sea. These invaders were the Philistines. That find was only one of the striking discoveries made that summer.

This discovery also provides an excellent example of what the reader must remember when working with archaeological data. Each new season of excavation may mean that the conclusions of the previous seasons might need to be revised. It is now apparent that the archaeological record of Ekron to date begins with the fifteenth/fourteenth century B.C. and concludes with the seventh century B.C. This time period closely parallels the time period of the biblical references made to the Philistines.

What drew the original inhabitants to settle the area at Tel Miqne-Ekron? Water. In this generally arid land a convenient water source becomes a comfortable invitation to stay, and the ancient Canaanites did find a perennial stream flowing here. Today this stream is called the Nahal (stream) Timnah; it still flows into the Nahal Sorek, as it has for centuries (see map, p. 35).

A second feature the ancient people looked for in their building sites was high ground. The high ground in this area was generally unsuited to farming but was surrounded by good farming land. Building their settlements on the high ground offered these people a convenient overview of their fields and, more importantly, a defensive advantage in the event of possible attack from passing marauders. Invariably these high-ground settlements made defensive measures more viable and therefore were sites eagerly sought out by the original inhabitants of the area.

A third feature that attracted settlers to Ekron was its location at the junctions of ancient highways. Because it was located along the Via Maris, a major north-south highway connecting Egypt with Mesopotamia, and along the east-west highways connecting Ashdod to Gezer and connecting to Beth-shemesh along the Nahal Sorek, Ekron grew quickly in importance. A city located so strategically along the ancient interchange of highways could not long remain obscure.

Though the Tel Miqne-Ekron mound today rises no more than seven meters above the plain, from it the important Old Testament site of Gezer, a short distance to the northeast, can be seen clearly. Tell es-Safi, very likely the site of Philistine Gath, is visible to the south. The coastal plain, with the Mediterranean Sea just out of sight, stretches as a flat expanse to the west, and the foothills, or Shephelah, rise dramatically to the east. Ekron, then, is located on the eastern edge of the coastal plain which in antiquity separated Philistia from Judah. Archaeologists have determined that the mound was some four meters higher prior to the sixth century B.C. During the past twenty-five centuries not only has soil eroded off the top of the mound, but alluvial soil coming down the Nahal Timnah has been deposited throughout the surrounding area.

Current excavations indicate that the original Canaanite inhabitants were already at the site in the fifteenth/fourteenth century B.C., when the Israelites were still in Egypt. During the Late Bronze II period (1400-1200 B.C.), this original settlement and perhaps a second one may have been unwalled. Excavation rooms have yielded vessels and installations indicating both domestic and industrial activity. A burial site containing artifacts dating to this early period was uncovered at the edge of the mound. Interestingly, many of the artifacts uncovered have their origins in other lands: the Aegean, Cyprus, Anatolia (Turkey), and Egypt. These finds corroborate the international flavor that even the biblical Joseph stories dating from the same period give glimpses of.

One criterion marking the transition from the Late Bronze Age to the Iron Age has always been the cessation of imports from the Aegean and Cyprus into Canaan. The international mixture of artifacts found in the Late Bronze layer of earth at Tel Miqne is not present in the next layer, signaling the end of the Late Bronze Age there.

It was during the following Iron I period (1200-1000 B.C.), however, with the arrival of the Philistines, that Ekron became a settlement of note, a place name on ancient maps, and a reference in ancient historical texts. This was the period of Joshua, the judges, and those peoples caught up in the conflicts reported in the 1 Samuel stories.

This was also the period when a wall was constructed directly around the original Canaanite settlement. This wall, nearly eleven feet thick, completely surrounded the fifty-acre site. By comparison, the Jebusite city of Jerusalem, which was contemporary to the city of Ekron and was later captured by King David, walled in approximately twelve acres circa 1200 B.C. A second significant archaeological discovery dating to this period was the pottery found at Ekron; it proved to be a new type called Mycenaean IIIC:1b.

The wave of destruction that swept through Greece at the end of the thirteenth century B.C. ended the import into Cyprus and Canaan of the grand Greek pottery referred to as Mycenaean IIIB. This pottery is so beautiful that Amihai Mazar mentions that pieces of it were "probably traded as objects of art and precious tableware" during the Late Bronze Age (1990, 263). The new type of pottery, IIIC:1b, is similar in style and construction to the old imported Mycenaean IIIB pottery, thus reflecting the same traditions and skills. But it differs most importantly in that it was made locally, a fact determined by submitting sherds to neutron activation analysis. This analysis provides a chemical "fingerprint" of the sherds' composition, and this "fingerprint" can be compared with the chemical "fingerprint" of sherds' from other sites (Gunneweg et al. 1986, 15). The pottery is referred to broadly as Mycenaean IIIC, and the 1b refers specifically to the subdivision of it found on Cyprus and the Philistine coast. Most archaeologists on Cyprus do associate this IIIC:1b pottery with Achaean (Greek) refugees fleeing to Cyprus from the destruction of the Mycenaean centers in Greece.

At Ashdod and Ekron, the two chief Philistine sites where stratigraphic excavation has occurred, this new pottery was found directly above the Late Bronze layer. The pottery is identical in style and decor to that excavated on Cyprus, but it was locally made; therefore, at both sites it is called Mycenaean IIIC:1b. It will be developed in chapter 3 that the "Achaean" refugees on Cyprus were the ancestors of the "Philistines" in what came to be called Philistia in Canaan (A. Mazar 1990, 307-8).

The numerous Mycenaean IIIC:1b fragments from the small bowls and kraters (larger bowls) are typically painted with geometric patterns and bands in shades of dark brown to red. Some are decorated with bird or fish motifs as well. The excavated areas at Ekron include an industrial area, where kilns and furnaces that may have been used to make this pottery have also been found.

The new fortifications at Tel Miqne-Ekron, the cessation of Mycenaean IIIB pottery imports, the new style in pottery, the kilns, and other new architectural features all point to the arrival of the Sea Peoples, of whom the Philistines were a part, during the first third of the twelfth century B.C. At some point still in the first half of the twelfth century an unmistakable new form of pottery appeared, the classic Philistine pottery.

I remember the transition being revealed during excavation as a gradual but clear change from Mycenaean IIIC:1b to the later Philistine pottery. As we uncovered different levels and dug in different areas, we were able to predict precisely when we would be finding the different styles and at what depth. The classic Philistine pottery is called "bichrome" (two-color) ware. This attractive pottery, again locally made and definitely related to its predecessor, is distinctive with its white slip (background) and its red and black decorations in the forms of birds, fish, or metopes containing geometric shapes. Most of the forms of the vessels are Mycenaean in origin, as are the designs on the vessels. There is some evidence of borrowing from the Cypriots, Egyptians, and Canaanites, and it is with this pottery that Trude Dothan believes we can associate the first historical mention of the Philistines in the twelfth-century Egyptian records of Pharaoh Ramesses III.²

Ekron peaked as a political and geographical center during the eleventh century B.C. This was the century during which David grew from of his obscure youthful activities to become Israel's second and most important king. The ruins of Ekron reveal a well-planned settlement of buildings from this period, and perhaps even a governor's residence or temple complex. This is also the layer where a great deal of evidence of the cultic practices at Ekron surfaces. Rooms and implements most likely used in divining the will of the gods were recovered. Some of these artifacts may be traced back into the twelfth century, but clearly most date to the eleventh century. The quality of the distinctive Philistine artifacts deteriorated toward the end of that century, which is to say that, based on the evidence of the artifacts, the Philistines seem by that time to have adopted a great deal of Egyptian and Phoenician influence in their ceramics. Unlike the colorful pottery of the earlier years, many of the specimens found from the late eleventh century B.C. have a red slip.

Sometime around 1000 B.C. the city was attacked. The directors of the excavation, using biblical and Egyptian records, have concluded that the attack was committed by either David or the Egyptians. For a couple of summers in the mid-1980s, the archaeologists on site talked about the tenth through eighth centuries B.C. as "missing," due to a lack of material remains dating to this period. Presently, it is believed that after the attack by either David or the Egyptians, Ekron was largely abandoned.

The fifty-acre site likely had been reduced to little more than ten inhabited acres; the large, fortified urban center apparently had become a small, unfortified settlement. Occupation evidence during this time can be found only on the acropolis of the tell. For the next 270 years, to about 700 B.C. there appears to have been little change. It was during this time, circa 850 B.C. when Ekron covered only ten acres, that King Ahab's son Ahaziah challenged the prophet Elijah by attempting to consult Baal-zebub, the god of Ekron, about a personal injury (2 Kings 1).

An interesting development occurred during the summer dig of 1984 in the acropolis section of the tell. Directors Trude Dothan and Sy Gitin, encouraged aggressively by staff geoarchaeologist Arlene Rosen, wanted to examine the ground directly below and to the side of the mound to determine what the eroded soil from the past contained. A backhoe was brought in and positioned in the cotton field below and about thirty meters east of the current probes. It wasn't long before the backhoe struck a huge section of finely cut ashlar masonry. The walls of the trench made by the backhoe were trimmed, and Dothan and Gitin began their work determining to which period this unexpectedly discovered wall several meters below the tell belonged.

At first it was postulated to be a Late Bronze fortification belonging to the Canaanites who had inhabited the site prior to the Philistines. A difficulty with this theory may be that no other Palestinian sites dating to this period, circa 1200 B.C., have been found with Late Bronze fortification walls. The excavation summary report prepared that fall stated tentatively that this was a Middle Bronze wall of the first half of the second millennium B.C. (T. Dothan and Gitin 1985, 68).

Digging sessions of 1985 and 1986 saw this area extensively excavated. But during the 1986 session the archaeologists encountered a major physical difficulty. The wadi, Nahal Timnah, just yards away from the tell (see map, p. 35), was affecting the digging. The deeper the archaeologists dug, the wetter the soil became, and finally they encountered mainly water. Bilge pumps were started up, but the water seeped in as fast as it could be pumped out. The ashlar masonry threatened to slide down into the trenches, endangering the workers. Digging had to be halted before the base of the wall was reached.

Nonetheless, as indicated in the photo on page 172, a seven-meter-tall mudbrick tower faced with large blocks of ashlar masonry was uncovered. In addition, there was sufficient evidence to suggest that the tower and the wall dated to the "missing" tenth century B.C. The settlement of Ekron had evidently continued in this upper acropolis corner of the mound. Apparently, the water table of 1986 was significantly higher than the water table of the tenth century B.C. Subsequent excavating during the following summers has brought to light the perimeters of this tenth-century B.C., ten-acre city and the discovery that in antiquity this site was at least four meters higher than it is at present.

Whether Ekron was destroyed by King David or by the Egyptians, it afterward remained a settlement covering considerably less than its previous fifty acres. Nothing there changed much physically or archaeologically through most of the eighth century B.C., to the time when Israel fell victim to the Assyrian invasions.

The Old Testament records predictions by the prophets of the impending fall of Israel to the Assyrians and the travail that was to be suffered by Judah, as well as repeated reminders that the Philistines too would become subject to Assyria. Surprisingly, the artifacts found in the tell dating to the end of the eighth century B.C. indicate that being subject to the Assyrians meant growth and prosperity for the inhabitants of Ekron. The city grew beyond its former size of fifty acres and again was found to have a huge surrounding defensive wall. Remains of this wall have been discovered in several parts of the tell.

The end of the eighth century through the seventh century B.C. was the period during which Ekron developed its reputation as a producer of olive oil. Twentieth-century engineers have estimated, based on the number of installations uncovered, that Ekron's olive oil production could have been upwards of one thousand tons, or 290,000 gallons in a season. This would equal 20 percent of Israel's olive oil production for export today (Gitin 1990, 39).

The seventh-century B.C. city that lies just a few inches beneath the excavator's spade is the Ekron cited in the Assyrian texts, in Kings and Chronicles, and in the writings of Amos, Jeremiah, and Zephaniah. The combined evidence of the contemporary literature and especially the Assyrian texts, the more than one hundred olive oil installations already uncovered at the site, and the hundreds of textile loom weights found demonstrates incontestably that Ekron prospered under the rule of the Assyrian empire. These Assyrians remained in control of Philistia until approximately 630 B.C.

Interestingly, thirteen four-horned altars have also been uncovered at the site thus far. Typologically, it has been hypothesized that these altars were made by Israelite craftsmen. We shall see that the discovery of these altars is a physical reminder of the prophesies of Jeremiah and Zephaniah predicting the fate of Philistia and Judah.

Historical writings contemporary to Amos and other latter prophets give evidence that Egypt was partially in control of this area until the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar swept through -- perhaps involved in destroying Ekron himself. Zechariah's last words against Philistia, specifically mentioning Ekron in 9:5-7, appear to be the final written reference to the city found in the biblical texts. What follows in the literature is a conspicuous silence which may very well reflect what excavation of the site has made obvious: the city was for the most part abandoned at the end of the seventh century B.C. and remained largely uninhabited. Except for oblique references in the literature of Roman and Byzantine times, Ekron and the Philistines disappeared twenty-five hundred years ago. They have gone the way of the Jebusites of Jerusalem, as predicted in the writings of Zephaniah and Zechariah. To where, only God knows.