Overview

Bibliography

Ashkelon is one of the largest sites in Israel. Located along the Mediterranean coast, 16 kilometers north of Gaza, Ashkelon is marked by a large earthwork arc encompassing 60 hectares. The site was settled for over six thousand years—from the Chalcolithic period to the Mameluke period.

Ashkelon was first explored (looted, rather) in 1815 by Lady Hester Stanhope, who dug up significant parts of the site looking for buried treasure. John Garstang and W. J. Phythian-Adams conducted the first scientific excavation of Ashkelon in 1921–1922. In a couple of trenches they uncovered Bronze and Iron Age layers of habitation, but misunderstood much of what they uncovered. No major excavation was conducted again until 1985, when Lawrence Stager of Harvard University launched the Leon Levy Expedition. Excavations at Ashkelon continue until the present, under the direction of Daniel Master.

The Leon Levy Expedition uncovered many significant remains and aspects of life at Ashkelon from the Middle Bronze through the Byzantine periods. Unfortunately, the full range of excavations are no longer visible, having been removed in the process. Some of these results may yet be reconstructed for the national park. Until then, the Middle Bronze IIA gate—the earliest extant arched/barrel vault gate in the world—Is well worth the visit. A portion of the Crusader rampart and a Byzantine church are also visible witnesses to Ashkelon's past.

The archaeological strata uncovered at the site, as illustrated in the site plan, date to the following periods:

	Crusader Period
	Byzantine Period
	Middle Bronze IIB Period
	Middle Bronze IIA Period