Gate To The Philistine City Of Gath – Once Home To The Giant Biblical Goliath – Discovered

MessageToEagle.com – Israeli archaeologists at Bar-Ilan University have uncovered structures and an entrance gate to the Philistine city of Gath, once home to the giant biblical Goliath, reports Israel’s i24 News.

The gate of Gath is referred to in the Bible (in I Samuel 21) in the story of David’s escape from King Saul to Achish, the King of Gath.

The ancient city of Gath, located in the Tel Zafit national park in the Judean foothills, was once a large city in the Philistines in the 10th century BCE. It was later destroyed in 830 BCE by Hazael, the king of Aram Damascus.

Professor Aren Maeir, an archaeologist at Bar-Ilan University who headed the excavations, said the ancient gate is one of the largest ever discovered in Israel and evidence of the Philistine city’s power in the 10th and ninth centuries BCE.

The team also found an “impressive fortification wall” in addition to a number of buildings, including a temple and an iron production facility.

Tell es-Safi/Gath is one of the largest tells (ancient ruin mounds) in Israel and was settled almost continuously from the 5th millennium BCE until modern times.
According to Maeir, the discovery of Gath as a huge, fortified city on the border of Judea during an extended period, without any signs of destruction, proves the Philistines controlled the Judean plain and it is likely the remnant of a failure of the Israelite kingdom to spread westward, and not a sign of its power.

“The Judean kingdom is supposed to be big, important and strong,” said Maeir. “But it turns out there is a very big city on its western border. For years, I claimed Gath was a big city, but they countered that it has no lower city, and if it has one it is not fortified. After finding a huge fortification, it’s clearly the most important city of the 10th and ninth centuries.”

Bar-Ilan University has been conducting extensive investigations at the site for the past 20 years, and had previously discovered Philistine temples dating back to the 11th century BCE and what is believed to be the earliest Philistine inscription, and remains of the Crusader castle “Blanche Garde” at which Richard the Lion-Hearted is known to have fought.

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