Tel Erani

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Tel Erani (also Tell esh-Sheikh Ahmed el-'Areini ) is an archaeological excavation site in the south of today's Israel . The place was inhabited for several millennia and is one of the oldest cities in the region. Today it is a hill with an elevation in the northeast, which the excavators refer to as the Acropolis. Another elevation is in the west. The oldest remains found so far belong to the Copper Age , to the Ghassulia culture . Intensive contacts with Egypt are attested from the early Bronze Age (around 3000 BC). The name of the Egyptian ruler Narmer was found here .

The first excavations took place in 1956–1961, which testified that the most extensive settlement remains date back to the Bronze Age and that it is probably not a Philistine city , as previously assumed. It was possible to differentiate between 12 layers of settlement dating from the Copper Age and the Bronze Age, which go back to the Early Bronze Age III (around 2000 BC). Other remains of the settlement date back to the Iron Age (11th to 7th centuries BC) and the Byzantine era. A cemetery dates back to the early Arab period (around 7th to 15th centuries) and probably served as a burial place for the local population. Further excavations took place from 1985 to 1988. Since 2013 there has been another excavation here by an Israeli-Polish team.

Various massive, well-built houses, which perhaps once were even two-story, date from the Bronze Age in particular. The remains of a city wall, which was up to 8 m wide, also date from this time. The walls were partially preserved up to 2 m high. The wall consisted of mud bricks, which were mostly 50 × 30 × 15 cm in size. The foundations of the walls were made of stone. Stone tools document their use in the Bronze Age. Some of the pottery is based on Egyptian models, but is locally produced, as an examination of the clay shows. There are numerous storage vessels under the other ceramics. Egyptian seal impressions also date from this period. Egyptian influence is also visible in the brick wall technique. The more recent excavations indicate that the place may have been around 4000 BC. Had relations with Egypt.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Aharon Kempinski & Isaac Gilead, New Excavations at Tel Erani: A Preliminary Report of the 1985–1988 Seasons , in Tel Aviv , 18: 2, 164
  2. ↑ Shemuel Yeivin: First Preliminary Report On The Excavations at Tel Gat (Tell Sheykh Ahmed el-'Areyny) Seasons 1956-1958 , Jerusalem 1961, 6-7
  3. ↑ Tel ʽErani , in: Hadashot Arkheologiyot Volume 129 Year 2017
  4. ↑ Yeivin: First Preliminary Report On The Excavations at Tel Gat , p.4
  5. ↑ Yeivin: First Preliminary Report On The Excavations at Tel Gat
  6. ^ Y. Yekutieli: Chapter 3: Analysis of Previous Excavations at Area D. In: Cialowicz, KM, Yekutieli, Y., and Czarnowicz, M. (eds.): Tel Erani I: A Preliminary Report of the 2013-2015 Excavations . Kraków: Wydawnictwo Alter, 2016, pp. 15–26.
  7. ↑ Omer Shalev: The Fortification Wall of Tel Erani: A Labor Perspective , in: Tel Aviv, 45: 2, p. 193
  8. ↑ Kempinski, Gilead, in A Preliminary Report of the 1985–1988 Seasons , Tel Aviv, 18: 2, p. 180
  9. ↑ Kempinski, Gilead, in A Preliminary Report of the 1985–1988 Seasons , Tel Aviv, 18: 2, p. 187
  10. ^ Egyptian trading post at Tel Erani in Israel older than previously thought

Coordinates: 31 ° 37 '  N , 34 ° 47'  E