Archaeology:

Tel Hazor is a multi-strata tell which is the largest of the tells in Israel (820 dunams). The acropolis (120 dunams) extends across the southern part of the tell, rising about 40 m above the Nahal Hazor river channel. In a lower region, north and east of the acropolis is the lower city (700 dunams) enclosed within a rampart made of crushed earth. The lower strata can be dated to the Early Bronze Age continuing all the way to the Late Bronze Age. Middle Bronze Age discoveries include several fragments of cuneiform tablets dating to the 18th or 17th century BCE (Ben Tor et al.-2017). A destruction layer dated to the end of the Late Bronze Age was discovered in various areas of the excavation of the site. The Iron Age settlement was limited to the upper city and included a cultic high-place, a six-chambered gate and a casemate wall from the 10th century BCE. In the 9th century BCE, the city expanded. The eastern part of the upper city was fortified by a solid wall with various important buildings, such as a storehouse, citadel and a water system. Several destruction layers dated to the 9th and 8th century CE were discovered on site, which left most of the city uninhabited. During the 7th – 2nd century BCE a citadel in the western Upper City was erected. (Stephansky 1999; Hazor I-VII).

History:

The historical sources about Hazor, beginning from the Middle Bronze Age, are primarily the execration texts, Mari letters, El-Amarna letters, other Egyptian documents from the New Kingdom, the Bible, as well as a few Akkadian documents that were discovered on the tell itself in which the name of the city and its king are mentioned. The information derived from these sources and the remains exposed in the excavations on the tell are consistent and demonstrate the existence of a large, important Canaanite city in the area of both the lower city and the acropolis. The population of Hazor in the second millennium BCE is estimated to have been about 20,000, making it the largest and most important city in the entire region (Stepansky 1999). It was destroyed around the end of the 13th century, interpreted by some scholars as the Israelite destruction (Ben-Tor 1998), and was rebuilt and inhabited during the Iron Age as part of the Northern Kingdom of Israel. During this age, the city suffered repeated destruction, as a result of both the Aramean and Assyrian invasions. It was finally destroyed by the Assyrian King Tiglath-Pilesser III in 732 BCE and never again had any importance (Ben-Tor and Ben-Ami 1998). The Assyrians, Babylonians and Persians probably utilized the tell for administrative purposes. The last historical reference to Hazor is to be found in the book of Maccabees (I Macc. 11:67). Here we are told that Jonathan fought against Demetrius (147 BCE) in the “plain of Hazor”. (Stepansky 1999).

History of Research:

The first to identify the tell with biblical Hazor was J.L. Porter in 1875 and in 1928 the British archaeologist J. Garstang conducted a thorough survey and small scale excavations. In 1955-1958 four seasons of excavation were carried out on the tell on behalf of the Hebrew University, under the direction of Y. Yadin. In 1965 A. Kempinski and I. Dunayevsky conducted a trial excavation in the rampart on the eastern spur of the lower city. In 1968-1969 the fifth season of excavations directed by Y. Yadin was conducted and in 1990 excavations were renewed on the acropolis under the direction of A. Ben-Tor, continuing in annual seasons until today. (Stepansky 1999)

The first excavations of Hazor were conducted by the British archaeologist John Garstang in 1928, however, this material was never fully published (Ben-Tor 2016: 11).  Yigael Yadin conducted the first extensive excavations at the site from 1955–1958 and in 1968 (Ben-Tor 2016: 13).  Further excavations were initiated under the direction of Amnon Ben-Tor in 1990 (Ben-Tor 2016: 14).  

            During the Middle Bronze Age, Hazor was one of the largest cities in the Levant, with a population of up to 15,000 at its height (Ben-Tor 2016: 45).  Three MB strata have been identified at the site (Strata pre-XVII and XVII–XVI), with monumental buildings appearing in Stratum XVII (Ben-Tor et al. 2017: 20).  Few complete ceramic vessels were recovered in the MB strata (Bechar 2017: 199).

Geography and Geology

Geographically, Tel Hazor lies at the bottom of the northern spur of the Har Canaan ridge at an elevation of 200 meters ASL, ca. 6 km west from the Jordan River and 6 km south of Hula Lake. Hazor is situated south of Nahal Machberam and north of Nahal Hazor and northeast of where the Hazor springs flow at the foot of the mound.  Geologically, it is situated north of Ramat Korazim, a plateau constituting a topographic sill separating the Hula Valley in the north from the Kinarot Valley in the south, the Upper Galilee in the west and the Jordan River in the East. The area of Hazor is a contact region between different kinds of rock: Senonian chalk, a soft conglomerate of alluvial fans and ancient river terraces (Hazor conglomerate), soft limestone lacustrine deposits (Gadot formation), areas of hard Eocene and Cenomanian limestone, as well as several basalt outcrops. (Stepansky 1999). Local ceramics would have been produced from the alluvial soil near the river beds, around Nahal Machberam and Nahal Hazor. For iron-rich ceramics, the local basalt outcrops, present around the around, could have been used as an inclusion in the production.    

Contributor: Eshchar Gichon and Claudia Epley, August 2021