Overview

Bibliography

Yarmuth is located on a large natural hill in the Shephelah, about 5 kilometers south of Beth Shemesh. The 16 hectare site consists of a small acropolis (1.6 hectares) and large lower city on a series of terraces. The site was recognized early and identified with the biblical Canaanite city of Yarmuth, but attention was given solely to the acropolis. A survey in the 1960s, however, suggested the presence of a large lower city. In 1970, a trial excavation by Ammon Ben-Tor began to reveal the significance of the lower city: monumental Early Bronze remains were found just beneath the surface. In 1980, extensive excavations were carried out by Pierre de Miroschedji for the Centre de Recherche Français de Jérusalem and the Institute of Archaeology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Through 16 seasons of excavation through 1996, Miroschedji uncovered a major Early Bronze city.

The excavations revealed that the large lower city was inhabited only during the Early Bronze period (one building on the surface was dated to the Byzantine period). After a period of abandonment, the acropolis was reinhabited in the Late Bronze period and continued to be inhabited into the Byzantine period. In the lower city, where most of the excavations took place, large fortifications with a bent-access gate were uncovered. Inside the gate, the largest Bronze Age palace in Palestine was discovered (in two phases, the earlier of which is no longer visible), attesting to a large polity at the end of the Early Bronze III period. Most of the rooms preserved in Palace B1, the later phase, are storerooms; the rooms at the northern and eastern corners of the palace have been destroyed. West of the palace, a monumental broad room building, whose walls were covered with a white plaster (the so-called "White Building"), has been interpreted as a temple. A number of residential buildings surround the temple and palace.

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

	Early Bronze IIIC Period
	Early Bronze IIIB Period
	Early Bronze II–IIIA Period
	Early Bronze II Period