Mizpah
Mizpah ( Heb. מצפה, Watchtower ) is the name of an ancient city, probably near Tell-en-Nasbeh 12 km northwest of Jerusalem not far from Ramallah .
Biblical testimonies
Mizpah is first mentioned in the book of Joshua . According to chapter 15 it belongs to the territory of the tribe of Judah, according to chapter 18 to Benjamin. Mizpah plays a larger role in the biblical historical picture of pre-state Israel. So the Israelites gather there ( Judges 20f. EU ) to decide measures against the tribe of Benjamin. After 1 Sam 7, mizpah is a meeting place and starting point of a successful fight against the Philistines. Finally, Saul is anointed king in Mizpah ( 1 Sam 10.17 EU ).
King Asa of Judah is said to have left the city in the 1st half of the 9th century BC. Chr. As a border fortress against Israel mounted have ( 1 Kings 15:22 EU ). Mizpah gained political importance when the Babylonians appointed governor Gedaliah after the conquest of Judas by Nebuchadnezzar II in 587 BC. BC moved its seat to Mizpah, probably because the Mizpah, which was strongly fortified under Asa, offered a good substitute for the destroyed Jerusalem . It became the center of those who stayed at home. After a short time Gedaliah was murdered by members of the royal dynasty ( Jer 40 EU ) and ( 2 Kings 25 EU ). As archaeological research has shown, Mizpah was not destroyed and was well populated even during the exile. Also under the Persians it formed a center of the Yehud province ( Neh 3,15 EU ), while Jerusalem and the surrounding area were almost completely depopulated.
archeology
Under the direction of WF Badè, around 3/8 of the excavations took place in five campaigns (1926, 1927, 1930, 1932 and 1935). Since large parts of the tell were affected by severe erosion, many of the excavation results are of limited significance.
The oldest traces of settlement date from the late Chalcolithic around 3000 BC. Chr. Ceramics and some finds from graves such. B. Pearl necklaces can be assigned to the Early Bronze Age . From the end of the Early Bronze Age to the beginning of the Iron Age I, Tell was apparently uninhabited. However, no clear explanation has yet been found for the population gap.
In the Iron Age I the Tell was settled again, as can be deduced from finds of Philistine ceramics. During this time, some caves - as cisterns or silos - were apparently dug. Remains of a wine press are also dated to this time. In the Iron Age II, the city was spared from destruction and a relatively stable city plan, as it is also known from other Israelite settlements, developed: an outer wall with buildings attached to it, a street and an inner ring of buildings. A city wall 660 meters long (completely excavated) with eleven towers and a gate complex, two towers outside the walls, storage bunkers and graves also date from the Iron Age II. Small finds include labeled ostracas , weights, and roller and stamp seals . One of them bears the inscription "to Ja'asanjahu (belonging to), servant of the king" and is often associated with a person of the same name from 2 Kings 25.23 EU . Make-up pens, fibulas, pins, earrings, anklets etc. were found from everyday life. So-called female pillar figurines provide information about people's religious ideas.
Some houses of the four-room type date from the Babylonian period, which differ in quality from other houses. On the northern edge of the tell is a building that is significantly larger than a private house. This building may have been the seat of a governor. Numerous other buildings build over the old city map from Iron Age II. What is striking is a bronze circlet with dedicatory inscription in a presumably Neo-Babylonian font, as well as the accumulation of seal impressions with the inscriptionמצה. Presumably this refers to the settlement of Moza near Jerusalem, which delivered agricultural products to Mizpah.
Tell was still settled in Persian times . This is indicated by seal impressions with the inscription jehud . There were also coins from Ptolemaic , Seleucid , Hasmonean , Roman and Byzantine times. Settlement of the tell probably ended around this time.
Most of the finds are now in the Badè Museum of Biblical Archeology at the Pacific School of Religion in Berkeley , California .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Jeffrey R. Zorn, Joseph Yellin, John Hayes: The m (w) sh -Stamp Impressions and the Neo-Babylonian Period. in: Israel exploration journal (IEJ). Jerusalem 44.1994, 161-183. ISSN 0021-2059
literature
- CC McCown et al: Tell en-Nasbeh. 2 vols. New Haven 1947.
- Jeffrey R. Zorn: Tell en-Nasbeh. in: The New Encyclopedia of Archaeological Excavations in the Holy Land (NEAEHL). Vol. 3. New York 1993, pp. 1098-1102. ISBN 0-13-276288-9
- Israel Finkelstein , Neil A. Silbermann: David and Solomon. Munich 2006, ISBN 3-406-54676-5 , p. 193 f.
Coordinates: 31 ° 53 ′ 6.5 ″ N , 35 ° 12 ′ 59 ″ E