Image Details

Layer by layer, more than 500 years of Ekron’s history are depicted in this isometric drawing. The drawing shows the remains of the fortifications and industrial buildings just inside the fortifications discovered in field III, in the center of the lower city’s south side. In this view, we are looking towards the southwest. The oldest structure (blue) is a portion of an 11th-century B.C.E. mudbrick wall; next comes (green) an 11th/10th-century stone tower and mudbrick-walled rooms. There follows nearly three centuries of decline, when Ekron’s residents withdrew from the lower city and occupied only the tell’s upper city. Ekron’s resurgence occurred at the beginning of the seventh century B.C.E., a period that saw the construction (orange) of a stone city wall (at upper left), a city gate (at middle top) and olive-oil production rooms. At center and at lower right in the orange area are two complete olive-oil production rooms. Each contains presses, with large central basin and a pressing vat on either side. Strewn about the olive-oil area are perforated stone weights used in the pressing process. A street, running across the middle of the isometric plan from east to west, divides the southern and northern industrial zones in field III. In the sixth century B.C.E., a building with a large courtyard (yellow) was built on top of the destroyed northern industrial zone.