Answers at Lachish - The BAS Library
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Home > Magazines > BAR > November/December 1979

Answers at Lachish

Sennacherib’s destruction of Lachish identified; dispute over a century’s difference in Israelite pottery dating resolved by new excavations; stamp impressions of Judean kings finally dated.

By David Ussishkin

Lachish was one of the most important cities of the Biblical era in the Holy Land. The impressive mound, named Tel Lachish in Hebrew or Tell ed-Duweir in Arabic, is situated about 25 miles southwest of Jerusalem in the Judean hills. Once a thriving, fortified city, the almost 18 acre tela today stands silent and unoccupied. 018 Settlement began here in the Chalcolithic period, toward the end of the fourth millennium B.C. By the third millennium Lachish was already a large city. In the Middle Bronze Age (first half of the second millennium B.C.), Lachish was heavily fortified by […]

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Footnotes

1.

Readers may be confused by the use of the two spellings of “tel” and “tell” to refer to an ancient mound. “Tell” is the transliteration of the Arabic word and is used with an Arabic site name; “tel” is the transliteration of the Hebrew word and modifies a Hebrew site name. When speaking of specific mounds we use the appropriate spellings; but when speaking in general we use “tell.”

2.

A glacis is an artificial ramp built against a slope in order to fortify it. This was the typical fortification used in the country during the Middle Bronze Age.

3.

These excavations are sponsored by a number of public bodies, primarily by the Samuel H. Kress Foundation in New York, as well as The Northwest Christian College in Eugene, Oregon; Central College in Pella, Iowa; Florida College in Florida, and the University of South Africa in Pretoria.

4.

In addition to those mentioned above, the archaeological core-staff of the expedition includes A. Urweider from Switzerland, architect, and Orna Zimhoni, recorder. Song Nai Rhee from Oregon is the U.S. expedition’s coordinator.