Lachish
Encyclopedia
Lachish was an ancient Near East
town located at the site of modern Tell ed-Duweir in the Shephelah
, a region between Mount Hebron
and the maritime plain of Philistia (Joshua
10:3, 5; 12:11). The town was first mentioned in the Amarna letters
as Lakisha-Lakiša (EA 287, 288, 328, 329, 335). According to the Bible, the Israelites captured and destroyed Lachish for joining the league against the Gibeonites (Joshua
10:31-33), but its territory was later assigned to the tribe of Judah
(15:39) and became a part of the Kingdom of Israel.
Occupation at the site of Lachish began in the Neolithic period,
reaching appreciable size during the Early Bronze Age. The next
significant development of the city came during the Middle Bronze II
period when the area began to come under strong Egyptian influence.
The next peak was the late Late Bronze Age, when Lachish is mentioned
in the Amarna Letters. This phase of the city was destroyed during the
general devastation of the region ca. 1150 BC sometimes ascribed
to the Sea Peoples
. Rebuilding began in the Early Iron Age
ca. 900 BC.
Under Rehoboam
, Lachish became the second most important city of the kingdom of Judah
. In 701 BC, during the revolt of king Hezekiah
against Assyria
, it was captured by Sennacherib
despite determined resistance (see Siege of Lachish
).
Some scholars believe that the fall of Lachish actually occurred
during a second campaign in the area by Sennacherib ca. 688 BC. Nonetheless the site now contains the only remains of an Assyrian siege ramp in the Near East. Sennacherib later devoted a whole room in his palace for artistic representations of the siege on stone orthostats now in the British Muesum. The orthostats depict battering ramps, sappers, and other fighters along with Lachish's architecture and its surrender, these along with the archaeology give a good understanding of siege warfare of the period.
The town later reverted to Judaean control, only to fall to Nebuchadnezzar in his campaign against Judah in 586 BC.
During Old Testament times Lachish served an important protective function in defending Jerusalem and the interior of Judea. The easiest way to get a large attacking army (such as an Assyrian army, see Isaiah
36:2, Isaiah
37:8 and Jeremiah
34:7) up to Jerusalem was to approach from the coast. Lachish was one of several city/forts guarding the canyons that lead up to Jerusalem and greater Judea. In order to lay siege to Jerusalem an invading army would first have to take Lachish, which guarded the mountain pass. During the reign of Hezekiah, King of Judah, the Assyrians, under King Sennacherib, attempted to take Jerusalem, and, in that campaign, succeeded in taking Lachish (see 2 Chronicles 32:9 and Isaiah 36:2). Modern excavation of the site has revealed that the Assyrians built a stone and dirt ramp up to the level of the Lachish city wall, thereby allowing the soldiers to charge up the ramp and storm the city. Excavations revealed approximately 1,500 skulls in one of the caves near the site, and hundreds of arrowheads on the ramp and at the top of the city wall, indicating the ferocity of the battle.
Biblical references to Lachish include Joshua
10:3, 5, 23, 31-35; Joshua
12:11; Joshua
15:39; 2 Kings
14:19; 2 Kings
18:14, 17; 2 Kings
19:8; 2 Chronicles
11:9; 2 Chronicles
25:27; 2 Chronicles
32:9; Nehemiah
11:30; Isaiah
36:2; Isaiah
37:8; Jeremiah
34:7; and Micah
1:13.
from a cuneiform tablet found there (EA 333). The tablet is a letter from an Egyptian
official named Paapu, reporting cases of treachery involving a local kinglet, Zimredda. However this hypothesis is no longer accepted.
More recent excavations have identified Tell ed-Duweir as Lachish beyond reasonable doubt.
1932 and 1938 by the Wellcome-Marston Archaeological Research Expedition.
The work was led initially by James Leslie Starkey
until he was
murdered by Arab bandits. The effort was completed by Olga Tufnell.
In 1966 and 1968, in a dig which focused mainly on the "Solar Shrine",
Yohanan Aharoni
worked the site on behalf of Hebrew University
and Tel Aviv University
More recently, exacavavation, and later restoration, work was conducted
between 1973 and 1994 by a Tel Aviv University Institute of Arachaeology
and Israel Exploration Society
team led by David Ussishkin
.
recovered a number of ostraca
(18 in 1935, three more in 1938) from the latest occupational level immediately before the Chaldea
n siege. They then formed the only known corpus
of documents in classical Hebrew
.
from excavations at Lachish are the LMLK seal
s, which were stamped on the handles of a particular form of ancient storage jar. More of these artifacts were found at this site (over 400; Ussishkin, 2004, pp. 2151-9) than any other place in Israel
(Jerusalem remains in second place with more than 300). Most of them were collected from the surface during Starkey
's excavations, but others were found in Level 1 (Persian and Greek
era), Level 2 (period preceding Babylonia
n conquest by Nebuchadnezzar), and Level 3 (period preceding Assyria
n conquest by Sennacherib
). It is thanks to the work of David Ussishkin
's team that eight of these stamped jars were restored, thereby demonstrating lack of relevance between the jar volumes (which deviated as much as 5 gallon
s or 12 litre
s), and also proving their relation to the reign of Biblical king Hezekiah
.
The 1898 Reference by Bliss, contains numerous drawings, including examples of Phoenicia
n, etc. pottery, and items from pharaonic Egypt
, and other Mediterranean, and inland regions.
Ancient Near East
The ancient Near East was the home of early civilizations within a region roughly corresponding to the modern Middle East: Mesopotamia , ancient Egypt, ancient Iran The ancient Near East was the home of early civilizations within a region roughly corresponding to the modern Middle East: Mesopotamia...
town located at the site of modern Tell ed-Duweir in the Shephelah
Shephelah
The Shephelah is a designation usually applied to the region in south-central Israel of 10-15 km of low hills between the central Mount Hebron and the coastal plains of Philistia within the area of the Judea, at an altitude of 120-450 metres above sea level. The area is fertile, and a temperate...
, a region between Mount Hebron
Mount Hebron
Mount Hebron is a geographic region and geologic formation in the southern West Bank, with its western foothills extending into Israel. The area was in biblical times a center of the Israelite and Hasmonean kingdoms. The region lends its name to the Mount Hebron Regional Council....
and the maritime plain of Philistia (Joshua
Book of Joshua
The Book of Joshua is the sixth book in the Hebrew Bible and of the Old Testament. Its 24 chapters tell of the entry of the Israelites into Canaan, their conquest and division of the land under the leadership of Joshua, and of serving God in the land....
10:3, 5; 12:11). The town was first mentioned in the Amarna letters
Amarna letters
The Amarna letters are an archive of correspondence on clay tablets, mostly diplomatic, between the Egyptian administration and its representatives in Canaan and Amurru during the New Kingdom...
as Lakisha-Lakiša (EA 287, 288, 328, 329, 335). According to the Bible, the Israelites captured and destroyed Lachish for joining the league against the Gibeonites (Joshua
Book of Joshua
The Book of Joshua is the sixth book in the Hebrew Bible and of the Old Testament. Its 24 chapters tell of the entry of the Israelites into Canaan, their conquest and division of the land under the leadership of Joshua, and of serving God in the land....
10:31-33), but its territory was later assigned to the tribe of Judah
Tribe of Judah
According to the Hebrew Bible, the Tribe of Judah was one of the Tribes of Israel.Following the completion of the conquest of Canaan by the Israelite tribes after about 1200 BCE, Joshua allocated the land among the twelve tribes....
(15:39) and became a part of the Kingdom of Israel.
History
Occupation at the site of Lachish began in the Neolithic period,
reaching appreciable size during the Early Bronze Age. The next
significant development of the city came during the Middle Bronze II
period when the area began to come under strong Egyptian influence.
The next peak was the late Late Bronze Age, when Lachish is mentioned
in the Amarna Letters. This phase of the city was destroyed during the
general devastation of the region ca. 1150 BC sometimes ascribed
to the Sea Peoples
Sea Peoples
The Sea Peoples were a confederacy of seafaring raiders of the second millennium BC who sailed into the eastern Mediterranean, caused political unrest, and attempted to enter or control Egyptian territory during the late 19th dynasty and especially during year 8 of Ramesses III of the 20th Dynasty...
. Rebuilding began in the Early Iron Age
ca. 900 BC.
Under Rehoboam
Rehoboam
Rehoboam was initially king of the United Monarchy of Israel but after the ten northern tribes of Israel rebelled in 932/931 BC to form the independent Kingdom of Israel he was king of the Kingdom of Judah, or southern kingdom. He was a son of Solomon and a grandson of David...
, Lachish became the second most important city of the kingdom of Judah
Kingdom of Judah
The Kingdom of Judah was a Jewish state established in the Southern Levant during the Iron Age. It is often referred to as the "Southern Kingdom" to distinguish it from the northern Kingdom of Israel....
. In 701 BC, during the revolt of king Hezekiah
Hezekiah
Hezekiah was the son of Ahaz and the 14th king of Judah. Edwin Thiele has concluded that his reign was between c. 715 and 686 BC. He is also one of the most prominent kings of Judah mentioned in the Hebrew Bible....
against Assyria
Assyria
Assyria was a Semitic Akkadian kingdom, extant as a nation state from the mid–23rd century BC to 608 BC centred on the Upper Tigris river, in northern Mesopotamia , that came to rule regional empires a number of times through history. It was named for its original capital, the ancient city of Assur...
, it was captured by Sennacherib
Sennacherib
Sennacherib |Sîn]] has replaced brothers for me"; Aramaic: ) was the son of Sargon II, whom he succeeded on the throne of Assyria .-Rise to power:...
despite determined resistance (see Siege of Lachish
Siege of Lachish
The siege of Lachish is the name given to the Assyrian siege and conquest of the Judean town of Lachish in 701 B.C. The siege is documented in several sources including the Hebrew Bible as well as in Assyrian documents and in a well-preserved series of reliefs which once decorated the Assyrian king...
).
Some scholars believe that the fall of Lachish actually occurred
during a second campaign in the area by Sennacherib ca. 688 BC. Nonetheless the site now contains the only remains of an Assyrian siege ramp in the Near East. Sennacherib later devoted a whole room in his palace for artistic representations of the siege on stone orthostats now in the British Muesum. The orthostats depict battering ramps, sappers, and other fighters along with Lachish's architecture and its surrender, these along with the archaeology give a good understanding of siege warfare of the period.
The town later reverted to Judaean control, only to fall to Nebuchadnezzar in his campaign against Judah in 586 BC.
During Old Testament times Lachish served an important protective function in defending Jerusalem and the interior of Judea. The easiest way to get a large attacking army (such as an Assyrian army, see Isaiah
Book of Isaiah
The Book of Isaiah is the first of the Latter Prophets in the Hebrew Bible, preceding the books of Ezekiel, Jeremiah and the Book of the Twelve...
36:2, Isaiah
Book of Isaiah
The Book of Isaiah is the first of the Latter Prophets in the Hebrew Bible, preceding the books of Ezekiel, Jeremiah and the Book of the Twelve...
37:8 and Jeremiah
Book of Jeremiah
The Book of Jeremiah is the second of the Latter Prophets in the Hebrew Bible, following the book of Isaiah and preceding Ezekiel and the Book of the Twelve....
34:7) up to Jerusalem was to approach from the coast. Lachish was one of several city/forts guarding the canyons that lead up to Jerusalem and greater Judea. In order to lay siege to Jerusalem an invading army would first have to take Lachish, which guarded the mountain pass. During the reign of Hezekiah, King of Judah, the Assyrians, under King Sennacherib, attempted to take Jerusalem, and, in that campaign, succeeded in taking Lachish (see 2 Chronicles 32:9 and Isaiah 36:2). Modern excavation of the site has revealed that the Assyrians built a stone and dirt ramp up to the level of the Lachish city wall, thereby allowing the soldiers to charge up the ramp and storm the city. Excavations revealed approximately 1,500 skulls in one of the caves near the site, and hundreds of arrowheads on the ramp and at the top of the city wall, indicating the ferocity of the battle.
Biblical references to Lachish include Joshua
Book of Joshua
The Book of Joshua is the sixth book in the Hebrew Bible and of the Old Testament. Its 24 chapters tell of the entry of the Israelites into Canaan, their conquest and division of the land under the leadership of Joshua, and of serving God in the land....
10:3, 5, 23, 31-35; Joshua
Book of Joshua
The Book of Joshua is the sixth book in the Hebrew Bible and of the Old Testament. Its 24 chapters tell of the entry of the Israelites into Canaan, their conquest and division of the land under the leadership of Joshua, and of serving God in the land....
12:11; Joshua
Book of Joshua
The Book of Joshua is the sixth book in the Hebrew Bible and of the Old Testament. Its 24 chapters tell of the entry of the Israelites into Canaan, their conquest and division of the land under the leadership of Joshua, and of serving God in the land....
15:39; 2 Kings
Books of Kings
The Book of Kings presents a narrative history of ancient Israel and Judah from the death of David to the release of his successor Jehoiachin from imprisonment in Babylon, a period of some 400 years...
14:19; 2 Kings
Books of Kings
The Book of Kings presents a narrative history of ancient Israel and Judah from the death of David to the release of his successor Jehoiachin from imprisonment in Babylon, a period of some 400 years...
18:14, 17; 2 Kings
Books of Kings
The Book of Kings presents a narrative history of ancient Israel and Judah from the death of David to the release of his successor Jehoiachin from imprisonment in Babylon, a period of some 400 years...
19:8; 2 Chronicles
Chronicles
Chronicles may refer to:* Books of Chronicles, in the Bible* Chronicle: Medieval historical histories, like those in :Category:Chronicles* Holinshed's Chronicles, the collected works of Raphael Holinshed...
11:9; 2 Chronicles
Chronicles
Chronicles may refer to:* Books of Chronicles, in the Bible* Chronicle: Medieval historical histories, like those in :Category:Chronicles* Holinshed's Chronicles, the collected works of Raphael Holinshed...
25:27; 2 Chronicles
Chronicles
Chronicles may refer to:* Books of Chronicles, in the Bible* Chronicle: Medieval historical histories, like those in :Category:Chronicles* Holinshed's Chronicles, the collected works of Raphael Holinshed...
32:9; Nehemiah
Book of Nehemiah
The Book of Nehemiah is a book of the Hebrew Bible. Told largely in the form of a first-person memoir, it concerns the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem by Nehemiah, a Jew who is a high official at the Persian court, and the dedication of the city and its people to God's laws...
11:30; Isaiah
Book of Isaiah
The Book of Isaiah is the first of the Latter Prophets in the Hebrew Bible, preceding the books of Ezekiel, Jeremiah and the Book of the Twelve...
36:2; Isaiah
Book of Isaiah
The Book of Isaiah is the first of the Latter Prophets in the Hebrew Bible, preceding the books of Ezekiel, Jeremiah and the Book of the Twelve...
37:8; Jeremiah
Book of Jeremiah
The Book of Jeremiah is the second of the Latter Prophets in the Hebrew Bible, following the book of Isaiah and preceding Ezekiel and the Book of the Twelve....
34:7; and Micah
Book of Micah
The Book of Micah is one of fifteen prophetic books in the Hebrew bible/Old Testament, and the sixth of the twelve minor prophets. It records the sayings of Mikayahu, meaning "Who is like Yahweh?", an 8th century prophet from the village of Moresheth in Judah...
1:13.
Identification of Tell ed-Duweir as Lachish
During the 19th and early 20th centuries, Lachish was identified with Tell el-HesiTell el-Hesi
Tell el-Hesi is a 25-acre archaeological site in Israel. It was the first major site excavated in Palestine, first by Flinders Petrie in 1890 and later by Frederick Jones Bliss in 1891 and 1892, both sponsored by the Palestine Exploration Fund...
from a cuneiform tablet found there (EA 333). The tablet is a letter from an Egyptian
Ancient Egypt
Ancient Egypt was an ancient civilization of Northeastern Africa, concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in what is now the modern country of Egypt. Egyptian civilization coalesced around 3150 BC with the political unification of Upper and Lower Egypt under the first pharaoh...
official named Paapu, reporting cases of treachery involving a local kinglet, Zimredda. However this hypothesis is no longer accepted.
More recent excavations have identified Tell ed-Duweir as Lachish beyond reasonable doubt.
Archaeology
The site of Tell ed-Duweir was first excavated in 4 seasons between1932 and 1938 by the Wellcome-Marston Archaeological Research Expedition.
The work was led initially by James Leslie Starkey
James Leslie Starkey
James Leslie Starkey was a noted British archaeologist of the ancient Near East and Palestine in the period before the Second World War...
until he was
murdered by Arab bandits. The effort was completed by Olga Tufnell.
In 1966 and 1968, in a dig which focused mainly on the "Solar Shrine",
Yohanan Aharoni
Yohanan Aharoni
Yohanan Aharoni , was an Israeli archaeologist and historical geographer, chairman of the Department of Near East Studies and chairman of the Institute of Archeology at Tel-Aviv University.-Life:...
worked the site on behalf of Hebrew University
and Tel Aviv University
Tel Aviv University
Tel Aviv University is a public university located in Ramat Aviv, Tel Aviv, Israel. With nearly 30,000 students, TAU is Israel's largest university.-History:...
More recently, exacavavation, and later restoration, work was conducted
between 1973 and 1994 by a Tel Aviv University Institute of Arachaeology
and Israel Exploration Society
Israel Exploration Society
The Israel Exploration Society was founded in 1914 as the Society for the Reclamation of Antiquities, then renamed the Jewish Palestine Exploration Society...
team led by David Ussishkin
David Ussishkin
David Ussishkin is an Israeli archaeologist. Now retired as Professor of Archaeology at Tel Aviv University, Ussishkin has directed and co-directed important excavations at a variety of sites, including Lachish, Jezreel and Megiddo....
.
Classical Hebrew ostraca
Excavation campaigns by James Leslie StarkeyJames Leslie Starkey
James Leslie Starkey was a noted British archaeologist of the ancient Near East and Palestine in the period before the Second World War...
recovered a number of ostraca
Ostracon
An ostracon is a piece of pottery , usually broken off from a vase or other earthenware vessel. In archaeology, ostraca may contain scratched-in words or other forms of writing which may give clues as to the time when the piece was in use...
(18 in 1935, three more in 1938) from the latest occupational level immediately before the Chaldea
Chaldea
Chaldea or Chaldaea , from Greek , Chaldaia; Akkadian ; Hebrew כשדים, Kaśdim; Aramaic: ܟܐܠܕܘ, Kaldo) was a marshy land located in modern-day southern Iraq which came to briefly rule Babylon...
n siege. They then formed the only known corpus
Text corpus
In linguistics, a corpus or text corpus is a large and structured set of texts...
of documents in classical Hebrew
Hebrew language
Hebrew is a Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Culturally, is it considered by Jews and other religious groups as the language of the Jewish people, though other Jewish languages had originated among diaspora Jews, and the Hebrew language is also used by non-Jewish groups, such...
.
LMLK seals
Another major contribution to Biblical archaeologyBiblical archaeology
For the movement associated with William F. Albright and also known as biblical archaeology, see Biblical archaeology school. For the interpretation of biblical archaeology in relation to biblical historicity, see The Bible and history....
from excavations at Lachish are the LMLK seal
LMLK seal
LMLK seals were stamped on the handles of large storage jars mostly in and around Jerusalem during the reign of King Hezekiah based on several complete jars found in situ buried under a destruction layer caused by Sennacherib at Lachish...
s, which were stamped on the handles of a particular form of ancient storage jar. More of these artifacts were found at this site (over 400; Ussishkin, 2004, pp. 2151-9) than any other place in Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
(Jerusalem remains in second place with more than 300). Most of them were collected from the surface during Starkey
James Leslie Starkey
James Leslie Starkey was a noted British archaeologist of the ancient Near East and Palestine in the period before the Second World War...
's excavations, but others were found in Level 1 (Persian and Greek
Hellenistic Greece
In the context of Ancient Greek art, architecture, and culture, Hellenistic Greece corresponds to the period between the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC and the annexation of the classical Greek heartlands by Rome in 146 BC...
era), Level 2 (period preceding Babylonia
Babylonia
Babylonia was an ancient cultural region in central-southern Mesopotamia , with Babylon as its capital. Babylonia emerged as a major power when Hammurabi Babylonia was an ancient cultural region in central-southern Mesopotamia (present-day Iraq), with Babylon as its capital. Babylonia emerged as...
n conquest by Nebuchadnezzar), and Level 3 (period preceding Assyria
Assyria
Assyria was a Semitic Akkadian kingdom, extant as a nation state from the mid–23rd century BC to 608 BC centred on the Upper Tigris river, in northern Mesopotamia , that came to rule regional empires a number of times through history. It was named for its original capital, the ancient city of Assur...
n conquest by Sennacherib
Sennacherib
Sennacherib |Sîn]] has replaced brothers for me"; Aramaic: ) was the son of Sargon II, whom he succeeded on the throne of Assyria .-Rise to power:...
). It is thanks to the work of David Ussishkin
David Ussishkin
David Ussishkin is an Israeli archaeologist. Now retired as Professor of Archaeology at Tel Aviv University, Ussishkin has directed and co-directed important excavations at a variety of sites, including Lachish, Jezreel and Megiddo....
's team that eight of these stamped jars were restored, thereby demonstrating lack of relevance between the jar volumes (which deviated as much as 5 gallon
Gallon
The gallon is a measure of volume. Historically it has had many different definitions, but there are three definitions in current use: the imperial gallon which is used in the United Kingdom and semi-officially within Canada, the United States liquid gallon and the lesser used United States dry...
s or 12 litre
Litre
pic|200px|right|thumb|One litre is equivalent to this cubeEach side is 10 cm1 litre water = 1 kilogram water The litre is a metric system unit of volume equal to 1 cubic decimetre , to 1,000 cubic centimetres , and to 1/1,000 cubic metre...
s), and also proving their relation to the reign of Biblical king Hezekiah
Hezekiah
Hezekiah was the son of Ahaz and the 14th king of Judah. Edwin Thiele has concluded that his reign was between c. 715 and 686 BC. He is also one of the most prominent kings of Judah mentioned in the Hebrew Bible....
.
The 1898 Reference by Bliss, contains numerous drawings, including examples of Phoenicia
Phoenicia
Phoenicia , was an ancient civilization in Canaan which covered most of the western, coastal part of the Fertile Crescent. Several major Phoenician cities were built on the coastline of the Mediterranean. It was an enterprising maritime trading culture that spread across the Mediterranean from 1550...
n, etc. pottery, and items from pharaonic Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
, and other Mediterranean, and inland regions.