The central city gate of Gath, home to the Biblical giant Goliath, has been found. This Philistine city was the largest in the region in the 10 e century BC. The Philistines and the Israelites were constantly at odds with each other and Gath is mentioned frequently in the Old Testament.
The city gate itself is mentioned in the Old Testament when David flees from King Saul and ends up in Gath. David poses as a madman and scratches the gate. Only one sentence in the Bible is devoted to the destruction of the city around 830 BC by King Hazael of Aram. “Then Hazael king of Aram went up and fought against Gath and took it.” But it hasn't been as easy as it says here.
Fortification proves important position of Gath
Archaeologists from Bar-Ilan University in Israel have been researching Gath, today known as Tell es-Safi, for 20 years. Professor Aren Maeir is leading the investigations and writes in an email to Kennislink about the importance of the discovery of the gate and city walls. “This find underscores Gath's role as a central and powerful city in the 10 e and 9 e century BC. The scale of this wall and the huge gate prove this.”
Many remarkable finds have surfaced at Gath in the past twenty years, including the oldest Philistine inscriptions. This includes the name Goliath, but in Indo-European versions. Maeir:"This proves that Gath was an international city and that the inhabitants also came from Indo-European areas, such as present-day Greece and Turkey." The recently discovered city gate also sheds new light on the location of earlier finds, such as the nearby temple and metal workshop. “In ancient cities, locations such as the temple and the metal workshop often formed a unity with the city gate,” says Maeir.
Oldest siege in history
The demise of the city can be attributed to the already mentioned king Hazael. To take the walled city, this king surrounded Gath around 830. “We have found remains of a siege system and with it strong evidence that Hazael siege Gath. This makes this the oldest siege in the world, as far as we know," said Maeir. Around the ancient city of Gath, the archaeologists had found, among other things, a trench of more than 2.5 kilometers. The conclusion is that King Hazael has invested the city for a long time, since it takes months to dig a long trench.
And now the remains of the besieged walls have been found. With this heavily fortified city, Hazael also had little choice but to lie around it with his men. In the end, the king took the city and completely destroyed it, according to the finds. This would not be the end:new people came to the area again and until 1948 the location was almost continuously inhabited. In that year the Israeli state became a fact and the Arab inhabitants of Tell es-Safi left.