Outer Gate Plaza

Overview

Treading upon broad and relatively smooth paving stones at the southwest corner of the tell, late-9th and early-8th century BCE visitors to the city once passed through the site’s massive four-chambered gate complex. Originally, the gate was flanked by towers, each with an area roughly 6 m x 10 m in size and, judging from the amount of collapse since cleared away, probably stood at least two stories high. This monumental assemblage was found to have been built upon an earlier, 10th-century occupation level. Entrance to the present gate was gained by following the road leading up the tell along the eastern city wall and passing through a smaller auxiliary gate complex, roughly 8 m x 10 m in size. The outer gate and the sharp, 90-degree right-hand turn into the main gate contributed to the city’s defensibility; however, these measures proved to be of little avail in 734 BCE, when Tiglath-pileser III’s armies broke through the defenses and laid siege to the city.

Recent excavations in front of this mid-9th century BCE gate complex have revealed monumental architecture from the mid-to late-10th century. The chronology of these levels and their phases is confirmed with a high degree of certainty by the ceramic record. The earlier structures include the 10th-century city wall and the base of a large bastion that adjoins the 10th-century BCE city gate with a bamah ha-sha’ar (“high place at the gate”). Prior to these excavations, some integration was found between the Roman-period wall and supportive terracing at Level 2 and the 10th-century structures of Level 6 near the bastion, likely witnessing to Philip Herod’s expansion of the city in the first half of the first century CE, as recorded by Josephus.