Ekron

Ekron ( ancient Akkaron) is a city of the Philistines named in the Bible .

Excavations

Ekron is now equated with Tel Miqne in the area of Kibbutz Revadim in present-day Israel . Excavations have been taking place there since 1981.

history

Isolated finds show that the place was probably around 3000 BC. BC ( Chalcolithic ), although layers from this period have not yet been excavated. The city was probably founded in the 17th century BC. A total of eleven layers were distinguished. The place was temporarily surrounded by a wall and about 300 × 400 m in size, with an upper and a lower town being distinguished.

The Philistine city was founded around 1200. There were numerous Mycenaean or Cypriot imported ceramics ( SH IIIC). A royal dedicatory inscription was found in a temple complex, confirming the identification of the tell as an Ekron and providing the names of five kings, some of whom were already known from Assyrian sources. According to the inscription, this temple was dedicated to the goddess Ptgyh (or Ptyh ). Around 700 the city was conquered by the Assyrians . After that, the city flourished as a center of olive processing. In 604 or 603 BC The Babylonians conquered the city. There are sporadic remains of settlements from Roman and Islamic times.

Bible

According to the book of Joshua , Ekron is part of the Philistine five-city league , which consisted of the cities of Gat , Gaza , Ashdod , Ekron and Ashkelon . According to the ideal geography of the land of Israel, Ekron should belong to the tribal area of Judah ( Jos 15 EU ). In the so-called "negative property register" ( Ri 1 EU ) it is noted, however, that Judah could not conquer the territory of Ekron. After the defeat of the Israelites against the Philistines ( 1 Sam 4 EU ), the ark of the covenant is lost and is now also kept in Ekron. According to 2 Kings 1 EU , Ahaziah of Israel has Baal-Sebub ( Beelzebub ), the god of Ekron, questioned about his fate after an injury , whereupon he is sharply criticized by the prophet Elijah .

Finally, Ekron, together with the other Philistine cities, is mentioned in the oracles of the prophets Jeremiah ( Jer 25 EU ), Amos ( Am 1 EU ), Zefanja ( Zef 2 EU ) and Zechariah ( Sach 9 EU ) and their calamity is predicted.

Kings of Ekron

Padi at the time of Sennacherib
Achisch (Ikausu) (builder of the temple)

It is unclear whether the other ancestors of Achish Ya'ir, Ada and Ysd named in the Ekron inscription were also kings of Ekrons. The listing of several ancestors could also have served to legitimize a new dynasty beginning with Padi.

Individual evidence

↑ Photo, text and translation (English)
↑ Seymour Gitin, Trude Dothan, and Joseph Naveh: Ekron Identity Confirmed. In: Archeology 51 (1998)
↑ See Na'aman 2003, p. 82.

literature

Immanuel Benzinger : Accaron . In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Volume I, 1, Stuttgart 1893, Col. 1171.
The results of the excavations are published in the Tel Miqne-Ekron final field report series. Jerusalem 2006ff.
Nadav Na'aman: Ekron under the Assyrian and Egyptian Empires. In: Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research 332 (2003), pp. 81-91.

Web links

31.7775 34.851944Coordinates: 31 ° 46 ′ 39 ″ N , 34 ° 51 ′ 7 ″ E

[1] Photo, text and translation (English)

[2] Seymour Gitin, Trude Dothan, and Joseph Naveh: Ekron Identity Confirmed. In: Archeology 51 (1998)

[3] See Na'aman 2003, p. 82.