Mile
The mile is an English unit of length of linear measure equal to 5,280 feet, or 1,760 yards, standardised as 1,609.344 metres by international agreement in 1959. With qualifiers, "mile" is used to describe or translate a wide range of units derived from or equivalent to the Roman mile, such as the nautical mile, the Italian mile, the Chinese mile; the Romans divided their mile into 5,000 roman feet but the greater importance of furlongs in pre-modern England meant that the statute mile was made equivalent to 8 furlongs or 5,280 feet in 1593. This form of the mile spread to the British-colonized nations some of which continue to employ the mile; the US Geological Survey now employs the metre for official purposes but legacy data from its 1927 geodetic datum has meant that a separate US survey mile continues to see some use. While most countries replaced the mile with the kilometre when switching to the International System of Units, the international mile continues to be used in some countries, such as Liberia, the United Kingdom, the United States, a number of countries with fewer than one million inhabitants, most of which are UK or US territories, or have close historical ties with the UK or US.
The mile was abbreviated m. in the past but is now sometimes written as mi to avoid confusion with the SI metre. However, derived units, such as miles per hour or miles per gallon, continue to be universally abbreviated as mph and mpg, respectively; the modern English word mile derives from Middle English myl and Old English mīl, cognate with all other Germanic terms for "miles". These derived from apocopated forms of the Latin mīlia or mīllia, the plural of mīle or mīlle "thousand" but used as a clipped form of mīlle passus or passuum, the Roman mile of one thousand paces; the present international mile is what is understood by the unqualified term "mile". When this distance needs to be distinguished from the nautical mile, the international mile may be described as a "land mile" or "statute mile". In British English, the "statute mile" may refer to the present international miles or to any other form of English mile since the 1593 Act of Parliament, which set it as a distance of 1,760 yards.
Under American law, the "statute mile" refers to the US survey mile. Foreign and historical units translated into English as miles employ a qualifier to describe the kind of mile being used but this may be omitted if it is obvious from the context, such as a discussion of the 2nd-century Antonine Itinerary describing its distances in terms of "miles" rather than "Roman miles"; the mile has been variously abbreviated—with and without a trailing period—as m, M, ml, mi. The American National Institute of Standards and Technology now uses and recommends mi in order to avoid confusion with the SI metre and millilitre. However, derived units such as miles per hour or miles per gallon continue to be abbreviated as mph and mpg rather than mi/h and mi/gal. In the United Kingdom road signs use m as the abbreviation for mile though height and width restrictions use m as the abbreviation for the metre, which may be displayed alongside feet and inches; the BBC style holds that "There is no acceptable abbreviation for'miles'" and so it should be spelt out when used in describing areas.
The Roman mile consisted of a thousand paces as measured by every other step—as in the total distance of the left foot hitting the ground 1,000 times. The ancient Romans, marching their armies through uncharted territory, would push a carved stick in the ground after each 1,000 paces. Well-fed and harshly driven Roman legionaries in good weather thus created longer miles; the distance was indirectly standardised by Agrippa's establishment of a standard Roman foot in 29 BC, the definition of a pace as 5 feet. An Imperial Roman mile thus denoted 5,000 Roman feet. Surveyors and specialized equipment such as the decempeda and dioptra spread its use. In modern times, Agrippa's Imperial Roman mile was empirically estimated to have been about 1,617 yards in length. In Hellenic areas of the Empire, the Roman mile was used beside the native Greek units as equivalent to 8 stadia of 600 Greek feet; the mílion continued to be used as a Byzantine unit and was used as the name of the zero mile marker for the Byzantine Empire, the Milion, located at the head of the Mese near Hagia Sophia.
The Roman mile spread throughout Europe, with its local variations giving rise to the different units below. Arising from the Roman mile is the "milestone". All roads radiated out from the Roman Forum throughout the Empire – 50,000 miles of stone-paved roads. At every mile was placed a shaped stone, on, carved a Roman numeral, indicating the number of miles from the center of Rome – the Forum. Hence, one always knew; the Italian mile was traditionally considered a direct continuation of the Roman mile, equal to 1000 paces, although its actual value over time or between regions could vary greatly. It was used in international contexts from the Middle Ages into the 17th century and is thus known as the "geographical mile", although the geographical mile is now a separate standard unit; the Arabic mile was not the common Arabic unit of length. The Arabic mile was, used by medieval geographers and scientists and constituted a kind of precursor to the nautical or geographical mile, it extended the Roman mile to fit an astronomical approximatio
Philistines
The Philistines were an ancient people known for their conflict with the Israelites described in the Bible. The primary source about the Philistines is the Hebrew Bible, but they are first attested in reliefs at the Temple of Ramses III at Medinet Habu, where they are called Peleset, accepted as cognate with Hebrew Peleshet; the first reference to Philistines in the Hebrew Bible is in the Table of Nations, where they are said to descend from Casluhim, son of Mizraim. However, the Philistines of Genesis who are friendly to Abraham are identified by rabbinic sources as distinct from the warlike people described in Deuteronomistic history. Deuteronomist sources describe the "Five Lords of the Philistines" as based in five city-states of the southwestern Levant: Gaza, Ashdod and Gath, from Wadi Gaza in the south to the Yarqon River in the north; this description portrays them at one period of time as among the Kingdom of Israel's most dangerous enemies. In contrast, the Septuagint uses the term allophuloi instead of "Philistines", which means "other nations".
Several theories are given about the origins of the Philistines. Some biblical passages connect the Philistines to other biblical groups such as Caphtorim and the Cherethites and Pelethites, which have both been identified with Crete which has led to the tradition of an Aegean origin, although this theory has been disputed. In 2016, a large Philistine cemetery was discovered, containing more than 150 dead buried in oval-shaped graves, indicating an Aegean origin, yet to be confirmed by genetic testing; the English word Philistine comes from Old French Philistin, from Classical Latin Philistinus, from Late Greek Philistinoi, from Hebrew Philištim, "people of Plešt", there are cognates in Akkadian Palastu and Egyptian Palusata. The Hebrew term Plištim occurs 286 times in the Masoretic Text of the Hebrew Bible, it appears in the Samaritan Pentateuch. In secondary literature, the Aramaic Visions of Amram further mentions "Philistia"; this is datable "prior to Antiochus IV and the Hasmonean revolt" to the term of High Priest of Israel Onias II.
In the Greek version of the Bible called Septuagint, the equivalent term Phylistiim occurs 12 times, again in the Pentateuch. Outside of pre-Maccabean Israelite religious literature, evidence for the name and the origins of the Philistines is less abundant and less consistent. In the remainder of the Hebrew Bible, ha-Plištim is attested at Qumran for 2 Samuel 5:17. In the Septuagint however 269 references instead use the term allophylos; the Philistines are the subject of speculation in biblical archaeology. Since 1846, scholars have connected the biblical Philistines with the Egyptian "Peleset" inscriptions, all five of which appear from c.1150 BCE to c.900 BCE just as archaeological references to "Kinaḫḫu" or "Ka-na-na" come to an end, since 1873 comparisons were drawn between them and to the Aegean "Pelasgians". Archaeological research to date has been unable to corroborate a mass settlement of Philistines during the Ramesses III era. A "Walistina" is mentioned in Luwian texts variantly spelled Palistina.
This implies both. *Falistina was a kingdom somewhere on the'Amuq plain, where the Amurru kingdom had held sway before it. Another theory, proposed by Jacobsohn, is that the name derives from the attested Illyrian locality Palaeste, whose inhabitants would have been called Palaestīnī according to normal grammatical practice. Allen Jones suggests; the Table of Nations in Genesis 10 states in Hebrew with regard to the descendants of Mizraim, the biblical progenitor of the Egyptians: "ve-et Patrusim ve-et Kasluhim asher yats'u mi-sham Plištim ve-et Kaftorim." It says that those whom Mizraim begat included "the Pathrusim and the Caphtorim." There is some debate among interpreters as to whether this verse was intended to signify that the Philistines themselves were the offspring of the Casluhim or the Caphtorim. While the Casluhim or the Caphtorim origin is followed by biblical scholars, other scholars such as Friedrich Schwally, Bernhard Stade, Cornelis Tiele argued for a Semitic origin; the Torah does not record the Philistines as one of the nations to be displaced from Canaan.
In Genesis 15:18-21 the Philistines are absent from the ten nations Abraham's descendants will displace as well as being absent from the list of nations Moses tells the people they will conquer. God directed the Israelites away from the Philistines upon their Exodus from Egypt according to Exodus 13:17. In Genesis 21:22-27, Abraham agrees to a covenant of kindness with Abimelech, the Philistine king, his descendants. Abraham's son Isaac deals with the Philistine king by concluding a treaty with them in chapter 26. Unlike most other ethnic groups in the Bible, the Philistines are always referred to without the definite article in the Torah. Rabbinic sources state that the Philistines of Genesis were different people from the Philistines of the Deuteronomistic history; this differentiation was held by the authors of the Septuagint, who translated its base text as allophuloi instead of "philistines" throughout the Books of Judges
Shoshenq I
Hedjkheperre Setepenre Shoshenq I, —also known as Sheshonk or Sheshonq I —was a pharaoh of ancient Egypt and the founder of the Twenty-second Dynasty of Egypt. Of Meshwesh ancestry, Shoshenq I was the son of Nimlot A, Great Chief of the Ma, his wife Tentshepeh A, a daughter of a Great Chief of the Ma herself, he is presumed to be the Shishak mentioned in the Hebrew Bible, his exploits are carved on the Bubastite Portal at Karnak. The conventional dates for his reign as established by Kenneth Kitchen are 945–924 BC but his time-line has been revised downwards by a few years to 943–922 BC, since he may well have lived for up to two to three years after his successful campaign in Canaan, conventionally dated to 925 BC; as Edward Wente of the University of Chicago noted on page 276 of his JNES 35 Book Review of Kitchen's study of the Third Intermediate Period, there is "no certainty" that Shoshenq's 925 BC campaign terminated just prior to this king's death a year in 924 BC. The English Egyptologist, Morris Bierbrier dated Shoshenq I's accession "between 945–940 BC" in his seminal 1975 book concerning the genealogies of Egyptian officials who served during the late New Kingdom and Third Intermediate Period.
Bierbrier based his opinion on Biblical evidence collated by W. Albright in a BASOR 130 paper; this development would account for the unfinished state of decorations of Shoshenq's building projects at the Great Temple of Karnak where only scenes of the king's Palestinian military campaign are carved. Building materials would first have had to be extracted and architectural planning performed for his great monumental projects here; such activities took up to a year to complete before work was begun. This would imply that Shoshenq I lived for a period in excess of one year after his 925 BC campaign. On the other hand, if the Karnak inscription was concurrent with Shoshenq's campaign into Canaan, the fact that it was left unfinished would suggest this campaign occurred in the last year of Shoshenq's reign; this possibility would permit his 945 BC accession date to be lowered to 943 BC. The most recent and comprehensive study of Ancient Egyptian chronology affirms the theory that Shoshenq I came to power in 943 BC rather than 945 BC as is conventionally assumed based on epigraphic evidence from the Great Dakhla stela, which dates to Year 5 of his reign.
The editors of the 2006 book Ancient Egyptian Chronology write: The chronology of early Dyn. 22 depends on dead reckoning. The sum of the highest attested regnal dates for Osorkon II, Takelot I, Osorkon I, Shoshenq I, added to 841 BC as year 1 of Shoshenq III, yields 938 BC at the latest for year 1 of Shoshenq I... The large Dakhla stela provides a lunar date in the form of a wrš feast in year 5 of Shoshenq, yielding 943 BC as his year 1; the Year 5 wrš feast is recorded to have been celebrated at Dakhla oasis on IV Peret day 25 and Krauss' exploration of the astronomical data leads him to conclude that the only'fit' within the period of 950 to 930 BC places the accession of Shoshenq I between December 944 and November 943 BC—or 943 BC for the most part. However, Dr. Anthony Leahy has suggested that "the identification of the wrš-festival of Seth as lunar is hypothetical, its occurrence on the first day of a lunar month an assumption. Neither has been proven incontrovertibly." Thus far, only Dr. Kenneth Kitchen is on record as sharing the same academic view.
Shoshenq I is identified with the Egyptian king Shishak, referred to in the Hebrew Bible at 1 Kings 11:40, 14:25 and 2 Chronicles 12:2-9. According to these passages, Jeroboam fled from Solomon and stayed with Shishaq until Solomon died, Shishaq invaded Judah the area of Benjamin, during the fifth year of the reign of Rehoboam, taking with him most of the treasures of the temple built by Solomon. Shoshenq I is attributed with the raid on Judah: this is corroborated with a stele discovered at Tel Megiddo, his successor, Osorkon I, lavished 373 tons of gold and silver on Egyptian temples during the first four years of his reign. Shishak/Sousakim was related to Jeroboam: The wife of Jeroboam is a character in the Hebrew Bible, she is unnamed in the Masoretic Text, but according to the Septuagint, she was an Egyptian princess called Ano: And Sousakim gave to Jeroboam Ano the eldest sister of Thekemina his wife, to him as wife. Shoshenq I was the son of Nimlot A and Tentsepeh A, his paternal grandparents were the Chief of the Ma Shoshenq A and his wife Mehytenweskhet A.
Prior to his reign, Shoshenq I had been the Commander-in-Chief of the Egyptian Army, chief advisor to his predecessor Psusennes II, as well as the father-in-law of Psusennes' daughter Maatkare. He held his father's title of Great Chief of the Ma or Meshwesh, an Egyptian word for Ancient Libyans, his ancestors had settled in Egypt during the late New Kingdom at Herakleopolis Magna, though Manetho claims Shoshenq himself came from Bubastis, a claim for which no supporting physical evidence has yet been discovered. His uncle Osorkon the Elder had served on the throne for at least six years in the preceding 21st Dynasty; as king, Shoshenq chose his eldest son, Osorkon I, as his successor and consolidated his authority over Egypt through marriage alliances and appointments. He assigned his second son, Iuput A, the prominent position of High Priest of Amun at Thebes as well as the title of Governor of Upper Egypt and Commander of the Army to consolidate his authority ov
Jonathan (1 Samuel)
Jonathan is a heroic figure in 1 Samuel in the Hebrew Bible. A prince of the United Kingdom of Israel, he was the eldest son of King Saul as well as a close friend of David, who succeeded Saul as king. Like his father, he was a man of great strength and swiftness, he excelled in archery and slinging. Jonathan first appears in the biblical narrative as the victor of Geba, a Philistine stronghold, while in the following chapter he carries out a lone and secret attack on another Philistine garrison, demonstrating his "prowess and courage as a warrior." However, he eats honey without knowing that his father had said, "Cursed be any man who eats food before evening comes". Saul relents when the soldiers protest; the story of David and Jonathan is introduced in chapter 18, where it says that "Jonathan became one in spirit with David, he loved him as himself". Jonathan helps David escape from Saul, asks him to show kindness to his family. Saul suspects. Saul insults Jonathan calling him the "...son of a perverse and rebellious woman!" in 1 Samuel 20:30.
While this is an "idiom of insult directed at Jonathan", some scholars see in this verse support for the theory that Ahinoam, the wife of Saul was the wife of David. Jon Levenson and Baruch Halpern suggest that the phrase "to the shame of your mother's nakedness" suggests "David's theft of Saul's wife". Saul goes so far as to attempt to kill Jonathan by throwing a javelin at him during a fit of paranoid rage; the last meeting between Jonathan and David would take place in a forest of Ziph at Horesh, during Saul's pursuit of David. There, the two would make a covenant before the Lord before going their separate ways. Jonathan died at the battle of Mount Gilboa along with his father and brothers, his bones were buried first at Jabesh-gilead, but were removed with those of his father and moved to Zelah. Jonathan was the father of Mephibosheth, to. Jonathan has been portrayed as a "model of loyalty to truth and friendship", in the words of T. H. Jones. A homoerotic, chaste or otherwise, interpretation of the story of David and Jonathan has been adopted by some writers.
André Gide's play Saul portrays Jonathan as "a beautiful, effeminate creature, in a state of hysterical rapture over David’s physical strength." In a similar vein the Bible is quoted: "I am distressed for thee, my brother Jonathan: pleasant hast thou been unto me: thy love to me was wonderful, passing the love of women". Adam Green, King Saul, The True History of the First Messiah – includes a critical literary reassessment of the character and personality of Jonathan and his relationships with Saul and David
Bethoron
Bethoron was an ancient biblical town strategically located on the Gibeon-Aijalon road, guarding the "ascent of Beth-Horon". Upper Bethoron appears in Joshua 16:5 and Lower Bethoron in Joshua 16:3 and 1 Chronicles 7:24. and I Maccabees 3:16. The Hebrew name Bethoron is derived from the name of an Egypto-Canaanite deity, mentioned in Ugaritic literature. According to 1 Chronicles 7:24, Lower Bethoron was built by She'era, daughter of Beriah, son of Ephraim. Eusebius' Onomasticon mentions the'twin villages' and St. Jerome describes them as'little hamlets.' From Egyptian sources it appears that Bethoron was one of the places conquered by Shishak of Egypt from Rehoboam. The borderline between Benjamin and Ephraim passed alongside the two Bethorons who belonged to the latter Israelite tribe and therefore on, to the Northern Kingdom of Israel, while the tribe of Benjamin adhered to the Kingdom of Judah. Solomon "built Beth-horon the upper, Beth-horon the nether, fortified cities, with walls and bars".
One or both of the towns was a Levitical city. When Joshua utterly defeated the kings of the Amorites "he killed a large number of them at Gibeon, chased them by the way of the'Ascent of Beth-horon.' When the Philistines opposed King Saul at Michmash they sent a company of their men to hold "the way of Beth-horon." This climbs to Beit Ur al Tahta. It ascends along the ridge, with valleys lying to north and south, reaches Beit Ur al-Fauqa. Traces of the ancient Roman paving are visible. Since the days of Joshua the region has been the scene of many battles; the Syrian general Seron was defeated here by Judas Maccabeus in the Battle of Beth Horon. Six years Nicanor, retreating from Jerusalem, was defeated and slain.. The Jews fortified it against Holofernes. In the Battle of Beth Horon in the year 66 CE, the first decisive Jewish victory in the First Jewish-Roman War the Roman general Cestius Gallus was driven in headlong flight before the Jews. Eusebius mentions the two Bethorons in their Biblical contexts, noting Joshua's victory and the fortification by King Solomon.
The two Palestinian Arab Muslim villages of Beit Ur al-Fauqa and Beit Ur al-Tahta preserve the Hebrew-Canaanite name, have been identified as the sites of Upper and Lower Bethoron. In 1915, the Palestine Exploration Fund wrote that changes in the main road to Jerusalem had left the Bethoron route "forsaken" and "almost forgotten"; the Israeli settlement of Beit Horon was founded in 1977 on a site adjacent to the two towns. Highway 443 follows part of the ancient road. Archaeological finds indicate. Potsherds from the Late Bronze Age onward were discovered at Lower Beit Ur, whereas those in Upper Beit Ur date only from the Iron Age onward. Israeli Antiquities Authority report on the discovery of a burial cave in Beit'Ur al-Tahta
Saul
Saul, according to the Hebrew Bible, was the first king of the Kingdom of Israel and Judah. His reign, traditionally placed in the late 11th century BCE, marked a transition from a tribal society to statehood. Saul's life and reign are described in the Hebrew Bible, he reigned from Gibeah. He fell on his sword to avoid capture in the battle against the Philistines at Mount Gilboa, during which three of his sons were killed; the succession to his throne was contested by Ish-bosheth, his only surviving son, his son-in-law David, who prevailed. According to the Hebrew text of the Bible Saul was thirty years old when he came to the throne and reigned for two years, but scholars agree that the text is faulty and that a reign of twenty or twenty-two years is more probable; the biblical accounts of Saul's life are found in the Books of Samuel: According to the Tanakh, Saul was the son of Kish, of the family of the Matrites, a member of the tribe of Benjamin, one of the twelve Tribes of Israel. It appears.
Saul married daughter of Ahimaaz, with whom he sired four sons and two daughters. Saul had a concubine named Rizpah, daughter of Aiah, who bore him two sons and Mephibosheth.. Saul died at the Battle of Mount Gilboa, was buried in Zelah, in the region of Benjamin. Three of Saul's sons – Jonathan and Malchishua – died with him at Mount Gilboa. Ish-bosheth became king of Israel, at the age of forty. At David's request Abner had Michal returned to David. Ish-bosheth reigned for two years, but after the death of Abner, was killed by two of his own captains. Armoni and Mephibosheth were given by David along with the five sons of Merab to the Gibeonites, who killed them. Michal was childless; the only male descendant of Saul to survive was Mephibosheth, Jonathan's lame son, five years old at the time of his father's and grandfather's deaths. In time, he came under the protection of David. Mephibosheth had a young son, who had four sons and descendants named until the ninth generation; the First Book of Samuel gives three accounts of Saul's rise to the throne in three successive chapters: Saul is sent with a servant to look for his father's strayed donkeys.
Leaving his home at Gibeah, they arrive at the district of Zuph, at which point Saul suggests abandoning their search. Saul's servant tells him that they happen to be near the town of Ramah, where a famous seer is located, suggests that they should consult him first; the seer offers hospitality to Saul and anoints him in private. A popular movement having arisen to establish a centralized monarchy like other nations, Samuel assembles the people at Mizpah in Benjamin to appoint a king, fulfilling his previous promise to do so. Samuel organises the people by clan. Using the Urim and Thummim, he selects the tribe of Benjamin, from within the tribe selecting the clan of Matri, from them selecting Saul. After having been chosen as monarch, Saul returns to his home in Gibeah, along with a number of followers. However, some of the people are unhappy with the selection of Saul; the Ammonites, led by Nahash, lay siege to Jabesh-Gilead. Under the terms of surrender, the occupants of the city are to be forced into slavery and have their right eyes removed.
Instead they send word of this to the other tribes of Israel, the tribes west of the Jordan assemble an army under Saul. Saul leads the army to victory over the Ammonites, the people congregate at Gilgal where they acclaim Saul as king and he is crowned. Saul's first act is to forbid retribution against those who had contested his kingship. André Lemaire finds the third account the most reliable tradition; the Pulpit Commentary distinguishes between a public selection process. Having been anointed by Samuel, Saul is told of signs indicating that he has been divinely appointed; the last of these is that Saul will be met by an ecstatic group of prophets leaving a high place and playing the lyre and flutes. Saul encounters the ecstatic joins them. Saul sends men to pursue David, but when they meet a group of ecstatic prophets playing music, they become possessed by a prophetic state and join in. Saul sends more men. Saul himself goes, joins the prophets.. After relieving the siege of Jabesh-Gilead, Saul conducts military campaigns against the Moabites, Edomites, Aram Rehob and the kings of Zobah, the Philistines, the Amalekites.
A biblical summary states that "wherever he turned, he was victorious". In his continuing battles with Philistines, Saul instructs his armies, by a rash oath, to fast. Methodist commentator Joseph Benson suggests that "Saul’s intention in putting this oath was undoubtedly to save time, lest the Philistines should gain ground of them in their flight, but the event showed. Jonathan's party were not aware of the oath and ate honey, resulting in Jonathan realising that he had broken
Gezer
Gezer, or Tel Gezer known as Abu Shusheh, is an archaeological site in the foothills of the Judaean Mountains at the border of the Shfela region midway between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. It is now an Israeli national park. In the Hebrew Bible, Gezer is associated with Solomon, it became a major fortified Canaanite city-state in the first half of the 2nd millennium BCE. It was destroyed by fire and rebuilt; the Amarna letters mention kings of Gezer swearing loyalty to the Egyptian Pharaoh. Its importance was due in part to the strategic position it held at the crossroads of the ancient coastal trade route linking Egypt with Syria and Mesopotamia, the road to Jerusalem and Jericho, both important trade routes. Gezer is listed in the Book of Joshua as a Levitical city, one of ten allotted to the Levite children of Kehoth - the Kohathites. Discoveries related to biblical archaeology include: a probable Canaanite high place with ten monumental megaliths. Gezer was located on the northern fringe of the Shephelah region thirty kilometres northwest of Jerusalem.
It was strategically situated at the junction of the Via Maris, the international coastal highway, the highway connecting it with Jerusalem through the valley of Ayalon, or Ajalon. Verification of the identification of this site with biblical Gezer comes from bilingual inscriptions in either Hebrew or Aramaic, Greek, found engraved on rocks several hundred meters from the tell; these inscriptions from the 1st century BCE read "boundary of Gezer" and "of Alkios". Inhabitants of the first settlement at Gezer, toward the end of the 4th millennium BCE, lived in large rock-cut caves. In the Early Bronze Age, an unfortified settlement covered the tell, it was abandoned for several hundred years. In the Middle Bronze Age, Gezer became a major city, well fortified and containing a large cultic site; the Canaanite city was destroyed in a fire in the wake of a campaign by the Egyptian pharaoh Thutmose III. The oldest known historical reference to the city is to be found on an inscription of conquered sites at Thutmose's temple at Karnak.
The Tell Amarna letters, dating from the 14th century BCE, include ten letters from the kings of Gezer swearing loyalty to the Egyptian pharaoh. The city-state of Gezer was ruled by four leaders during the 20-year period covered by the Amarna letters. Discoveries of several pottery vessels, a cache of cylinder seals and a large scarab with the cartouche of Egyptian pharaoh Amenhotep III attest to the existence of a city at Gezer's location in the 14th century BCE - one, destroyed in that century - and suggest that the city was inhabited by Canaanites with strong ties to Egypt. FortificationsThe tell was surrounded by a massive stone wall and towers, protected by a five meter high earthen rampart covered with plaster; the wooden city gate, near the southwestern corner of the wall, was fortified by two towers. Cultic site with massebotCultic remains discovered at the site were a row of ten large standing stones, known as massebot, oriented north-south, the tallest of, 3 meters high, with an altar-type structure in the middle, a large, stone basin.
The exact purpose of these megaliths is still debated, but they may have constituted a Canaanite "high place" from the Middle Bronze Age, ca. 1600 B. C. E. In the Late Bronze Age a new fortification wall, four meters thick, was erected. In the 14th century BCE, a palace was constructed on the high western part of the tell. Toward the end of the Bronze Age, the city declined and its population diminished. Gezer is mentioned in the victory stele of Merneptah, dating from the end of the 13th century BCE. In 12th-11th centuries BCE, a large building with many rooms and courtyards was situated on the acropolis. Grinding stones and grains of wheat found among the sherds indicate. Local and Philistine vessels attest to a mixed Canaanite/Philistine population; the Neo-Assyrian king Tiglath-Pileser III put Gezer under siege between the years 734 and 732 BC. The city was captured by the Assyrians at the end of the campaign of Tiglath-Pileser III to Canaan. A reference to Gezer may have appeared in a cuneiform relief from the 8th-century BCE royal palace of Tiglath-Pileser III at Nimrud.
The siege may have been the one depicted on a stone relief at the royal palace in Nimrud, where the city was called'Gazru'. During the Hellenistic period, Gezer was fortified by Maccabees and was ruled by the independent Jewish Hasmonean dynasty. Gezer was sparsely populated during Roman times and times, as other regional population centers took its place. In 1177, the plains around Gezer were the site of the Battle of Montgisard, in which the Crusaders under Baldwin IV defeated the forces of Saladin. There was a Crusader Lordship of Montgisard and a castle stood there, a short distance from Ramleh. According to the Hebrew Bible, the only source for the event, the Sack of Gezer took place at the beginning of the 10th century BC
