Solomon’s Powerplay: Gezer’s Royal Complex Confirmed

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Did Solomon fortify the royal city of Gezer as the Hebrew Bible claims (1 Kings 9)? Explore new archaeological evidence that confirms he did. Monumental architecture now securely dated to the mid-tenth century BCE testifies that Gezer was a fortified administrative center already during the time of King Solomon, when the rising power of Judah was expanding westward into the Shephelah.

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Footnotes

1. Steven Ortiz and Samuel Wolff, “Pharaoh’s Fury: Merneptah’s Destruction of Gezer,” BAR, Summer 2022.

2. Philip D. Stern, “Solomon’s Egyptian Bride: Artful Alliance or Biblical Boast?” BAR, Spring 2024.

3. Yigal Levin, “Did Pharaoh Sheshonq Attack Jerusalem?” BAR, July/August 2012.

Endnotes

1. Yigael Yadin, “Solomon’s City Wall and Gate at Gezer,” Israel Exploration Journal 8.2 (1958), pp. 80–86.

2. See David Ussishkin, “King Solomon’s Palace and Building 1723 in Megiddo,” Israel Exploration Journal 16.3 (1966), pp. 174–186. More recently, scholars have termed these buildings Lateral Access Podium Structures or Central Hall Tetra-Partite Residencies. See Ilan Sharon and Anabel Zarzecki-Peleg, “Podium Structures with Lateral Access,” in Seymour Gitin et al., eds., Confronting the Past: Archaeological and Historical Essays on Ancient Israel in Honor of William G. Dever (Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 2006), pp. 145–167; and Gunnar Lehmann and Ann E. Killebrew, “Palace 6000 at Megiddo in Context,” Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research 359 (2010), pp. 13–33.