Archæology and the Bible

by George A. Barton

5. The German Palestine Society.—While the work of the Palestine Exploration Fund, which has been outlined in detail, was going on, other countries were aroused to similar activities. In 1877 a similar Society, the Deutscher Palästina-Verein, was organized to foster the collection of information about the land of the Bible. Accurate scientific research in all branches of knowledge relating to Palestine was contemplated, and the co-operation of travelers and of the German colonies in Palestine was invited. In 1878 this Society began the publication of a journal[54] which has become a repository of information about the Holy Land.

(1) Guthe’s Excavation at Jerusalem.—In 1880 Prof. Guthe excavated at various points on Ophel at Jerusalem, and followed the line of the ancient wall along the east side of the city of David.[55]

(2) Megiddo.—In 1903 this German Society undertook the excavation of Tell el-Mutesellim, the site of the Biblical Megiddo[56] (Josh. 12:21; 2 Kings 23:29, etc.). This work was entrusted to the direction of Dr. Gottlieb Schumacher, of Haifa. Work was begun on the 7th of February, 1903, and continued at intervals until the 30th of November, 1905. In the lowest stratum of the mound Dr. Schumacher found traces of a settlement the houses of which were constructed of mud-bricks. Over the ruins of these a second series of houses had been built of stone. In the same stratum some tombs were found containing skeletons, some pottery of early forms, a bronze knife, and some scarabs set in gold. The walls of the city were in part built of brick. The settlements represented by this stratum antedated 2000 B. C.

In the next stratum a large structure, probably a palace, was found, which had been occupied through the periods represented by the stratum in which its foundations were laid and the stratum next above it. The building was of stone and was large. In one part of it was a “pillar” apparently used for worship. Various types of pottery, knives of flint and bronze, many stone household utensils, an Astarte figure, and some scarabs of the period of the twelfth Egyptian dynasty were found. This stratum, then, belonged to the period 2000-1800 B. C.

Next above this stratum was one in which types of painted pottery similar to that of the Philistines came to light. In the fifth stratum from the bottom a palace of the Hebrew period was discovered. In this palace a seal was found bearing a lion and the inscription “belonging to Shema, the servant of Jeroboam.” It is impossible to tell whether the Jeroboam who was Shema’s master was Jeroboam I or Jeroboam II. In this same stratum a temple was found containing three “pillars”; (see [Fig. 27]).

In another part of the mound in a sixth stratum, which seemed to be late Hebrew, three “pillars” were found in an open space near the south gate, a stone religious emblem, and a decorated incense-burner. Elsewhere this sixth stratum yielded a blacksmith’s shop. In a seventh stratum, just under the soil, remains of the Greek period were found, among which was an Athenian coin. This was the last occupation of the tell, and was pre-Christian. At the beginning of the Roman period the town was moved from the high land of the mound down nearer the water supply. On the slope of the hill a native-rock altar was found which had been used in prehistoric times.

(3) Taanach.—In 1899 Prof. Ernst Sellin, of Vienna, visited Palestine and became so deeply interested in its exploration that he induced several Austrian scientific bodies and individuals to contribute a fund for the purpose. The result was an excavation of Tell Taanek, the Biblical Taanach (Josh. 12:21; Judges 5:19), conducted by Sellin in 1902 and 1903. Sellin did not excavate the mound in a systematic way and his results are not very clearly presented in his book.[57] He traced in several places four strata in the tell. An early stratum had its beginnings, he thought, as early as 2500 B. C. This stratum represented probably an occupation of more than a thousand years. In its later parts the remains of a large palace were found, and in a cave underneath it four cuneiform tablets, written in the script of the El-Amarna period. Originally there were more tablets in the archive, but it had been rifled in ancient times. Above this was a stratum in which pottery of the Cypriote and Philistine type was found. Next above this was a Hebrew stratum, which seems to have lasted, judging by objects found in it, down to the time of Psammetik I of Egypt, 663-609 B. C. In this stratum the remains of a high place with its “pillars” were found, as well as a terra-cotta incense-altar of wonderful construction. Above this there were in places a few remains from the Seleucid period, including some pottery, and at the top of the mound some remains of an Arabic settlement. This last seems to have been established here about the time of the Crusaders. Sellin thinks Taanach was destroyed by the Scythian invasion, about 625 B. C., that in the Seleucid period the main settlement here was not on the mound, and that it was then unoccupied until the time of the Crusaders.

(4) Capernaum.—The Deutsche Orient-Gesellschaft, which was carrying on excavations in Egypt, Babylonia, and Assyria, undertook the investigation of the remains of ancient synagogues in Galilee and the Jaulan. Among these they excavated the ruins of the synagogue at Tell Hum on the Sea of Galilee,[58] the probable site of Capernaum. Here they found the remains of a once beautiful synagogue which was probably built in the fourth century A. D. Beneath it is the floor of a still older building. This last is probably the synagogue in which so many of the incidents of the ministry of Christ in Capernaum took place, the one built by a Roman centurion. (See Luke 7:5 and [Fig. 32].)

(5) Jericho.—This same Society undertook, in the years 1907-1909, the excavation of Jericho; (see [Fig. 29]). The work was entrusted to the direction of Prof. Sellin, of Vienna. The digging occupied about three weeks in the spring of 1907, and about three months of the early part of each of the years 1908 and 1909.[59] At the bottom of the mound traces of a prehistoric occupation of the site were uncovered, but as these were under the foundations of a Canaanitish fortress, which were not demolished, nothing further was ascertained about them. Above this prehistoric city were the remains of an Amorite or Canaanite city. A jar handle found in the lower half of this Canaanite stratum was stamped with a scarab of the time of the twelfth Egyptian dynasty, which indicates that this occupation goes back to about 2000 B. C. The walls of this early city were traced on all sides of the tell except the east. On this side, where the Ain es-Sultan is (otherwise called Elisha’s Fountain, from the incident of 2 Kings 2:19-22), the wall had entirely disappeared. This early city was small. The whole of it could have been put into the Colosseum at Rome. All early Palestinian cities were, however, small. In the city was a citadel with a double wall. Each wall represented a different period of history. Both were built of brick, as were the houses of the time. The outer wall was between four and five feet thick and appeared to be the older; the inner one was about ten feet thick. They were joined here and there by transverse walls; (see [Fig. 37]). The city had been burned apparently about 1300-1200 B. C., perhaps at the time of the Hebrew conquest.

Above the ruins of this pre-Israelitish city were the remains of the Hebrew town. The earliest of these remains seems to date from the ninth century B. C.; (see 1 Kings 16:34), as it was rebuilt in the days of Ahab; (see [Fig. 34]). The Israelites, in Sellin’s judgment, made the city considerably larger than it had been in the earlier time. A wall, which he believed to be the wall of the Hebrew period, was found on all sides except the east, considerably outside the older wall. Père Vincent, of the French École Biblique at Jerusalem, believes this wall to have been built in the Canaanite period also, but his reasons do not seem convincing. On the eastern edge of the Israelitish stratum the remains of a large stone building were found. Sellin thinks this may be the palace and fortress built by Hiel in the time of Ahab (1 Kings 16:34). This Israelitish city seems to have flourished only about two hundred years. It was probably destroyed in the time of Sennacherib, about 700 B. C. Sellin thought he found traces of another rebuilding which must soon have followed the destruction, but this Jericho was also destroyed by Nebuchadrezzar in 586 B. C. At some time after the Babylonian Exile the city was rebuilt and flourished until destroyed by Vespasian in 70 A. D. It was rebuilt after 325 A. D. and continued until destroyed by the invasion of the Persian King Chosroes II, in 614 A. D. Some slight settlements have existed on the mound in Moslem times, but the Jericho of today is more than a mile distant.