The site of Tell en-Nasbeh has been identified as the biblical town of Mizpah in the territory of the ancient tribe of Benjamin, which today lays in the area around the modern city of Ramallah. It was excavated under the direction of William F. Badé, whose work represents one of the earliest scientific excavations in Palestine. With a permit from the British Mandate Department of Antiquities, he spent five seasons there from 1926 to 1935 and excavated two thirds of the eight-acre mound. Badé uncovered a massive fortification wall, impressive gateway, three and four-room houses, silos and cisterns, mostly dating from the 10th through the 6th centuries BCE, meaning the time of the Hebrew monarchy and the subsequent Neo-Babylonian period. He also excavated many tombs on and around the mound dating from the Early Bronze Age (3200-2000 BCE) and the Hellenistic and Roman Periods. At the close of each season of excavation, after artifacts were removed, the soil was replaced on the mound. Only one section of the huge town wall, deliberately left exposed, is visible at the site today.
Of the hundreds of lamps, pitchers, bowls, jars, jewelry and cosmetic items found, about half were deposited at the Rockefeller Museum in Jerusalem and the remainder shipped to Berkeley, where they are stored in what is now the Badé Museum. They offer testimony of everyday life in a provincial town of ancient Israel three thousand years ago.
J. C. Wampler. Tell En-Nasbeh II: The Pottery (Excavated under the Direction of the Late William Frederic Badé). . Berkeley and New Haven: The Palestine Institute of Pacific School of Religion and the American Schools of Oriental Research, 1947
J. C. Wampler. Tell En-Nasbeh II: The Pottery (Excavated under the Direction of the Late William Frederic Badé). . Berkeley and New Haven: The Palestine Institute of Pacific School of Religion and the American Schools of Oriental Research, 1947
