Tel Gezer Water System

Tel Gezer Water System

New findings re-date the Tel Gezer Water System.

Daniel HermanMar 20, 2023, 12:51 AM

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In 2010 Dr. S. Ortiz of the New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and Dr. T. Tsuk, chief archaeologist of Israel’s Nature Parks Authority returned to the site in the hopes of retrieving an indication of the time of the water system. Recently Dr. Tsuk announced reaching and clearing the bottom of the tunnel (which does not carry any more water), which turned to bear plenty of pottery shards all clearly dating to the 14th-13th century BC. 

This means the water system of Gezer (and perhaps others) is clearly from Canaanite times, and has to be explained within the political context of the Late Bronze age. This period is known from the El-Amarna letters to be a period that Egypt was supposedly controlling all Canaanite cities. Was this an Egyptian sponsored project? Or was it a local project to protect the city from some external threat? Or Philistines? Or Israelites? These preliminary assumptions will have to be further studied.

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