Archæology and the BibleBarton, George A. (George Aaron)
Religion
Archæology and the Bible
Barton, George A. (George Aaron)
Bible -- Antiquities; Egypt -- Antiquities; Middle East -- Antiquities
At Lachish, Petrie found massive city walls, though he did not describe
them in detail.[136] At Taanach, Sellin found a strong city wall, but did
not attempt to trace it about the tell.[137] Schumacher devoted
considerable attention to the city walls of Megiddo, a part of which were
built of bricks.[138] At Tell es-Safi (Gath?) the outlines of the city
walls were traced, as they were at Tell el-Judeideh.[139] At Samaria a
part of the Roman wall of the time of Herod was found; lower down in the
mound remains of a Babylonian wall (see 2 Kings 17:24), beneath which the
excavators recognized the Hebrew wall.[140] City walls were found, too, at
Bethshemesh,[141] but of especial interest to the student of the Bible are
the walls of Jericho. Here, as at Megiddo, the walls were constructed in
part of brick. They had an average thickness of 13 feet. The Canaanitish
wall was traced around three sides of the mound. It was strengthened by
occasional towers.[142] On the east, next to the spring, they had entirely
disappeared. This must not be pressed into a confirmation of Josh. 6:20,
that the walls fell down flat, for the later Israelitish wall has
disappeared on that side of the mound also. Later, when in the days of
Ahab the Israelites rebuilt the city (1 Kings 16:34), they did not place
the wall on the old line, but enclosed a considerably larger space. This
wall was constructed partly of bricks, but mostly of stone.[143] The walls
of Jerusalem will be treated in Chapter XIII. At the northwest corner of
the Canaanitish wall was a tower enclosed by two brick walls; the outer
wall was a little more than 4 feet thick; the inner, about 10 feet.
=3. The Stone Work.=--The kind of stones used in city walls varied with
the circumstances and the degree of civilization. The walls of the stone
age were naturally made of small undressed stones. The Amorites began the
use of cut stone. Their blocks are often fairly smooth and regular. The
Amorite wall of Gezer was made of more regular stones than the wall of the
Egyptian period.[144] In the Israelitish and Jewish periods a stone with
an embossed edge was often used. It is found in the wall of Nehemiah,
excavated by Bliss,--a wall made of stones that some pre-exilic king had
used before,--and appears also in the structures of Herod the Great. In
the structures of Constantine and later Byzantine builders, this type of
stone is replaced by a stone with a perfectly smooth surface--much more
smooth than anything found in the early walls. This type of stone work
continued through the crusading period; (see Figs. 253, 254.) While these
types can be traced, their use was not altogether regular.[145]
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