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WILLIAM G. DEVER

GEZER DESTROYED. The Assyrian destruction of Gezer is well attested in the four-room house that abuts the site’s palatial residence. There, collapsed stone walls and layers of burnt debris and smashed pottery covering the floors bear silent witness to a violent conflagration. Among the artifacts recovered from the Assyrian destruction was a storage jar inscribed with the Hebrew word for wine (yayin; shown here), excavated from the casemate wall just west of the gate complex. Archaeologists also found many baked clay loom weights, some iron arrowheads, and a group of clay inkwells, providing a snapshot of daily life at Gezer prior to its destruction.