31°41′47″N 34°57′26″E / 31.69639°N 34.95722°E
Alternative name | Elah fortress |
---|---|
Coordinates | 31°41′47″N 34°57′27″E / 31.6963°N 34.9575°E |
Grid position | 146/122 PAL |
History | |
Founded | 10th-century BCE |
Periods | Iron Age, Hellenistic |
Site notes | |
Excavation dates | 2007 – |
Archaeologists | Yosef Garfinkel, Saar Ganor |
Condition | ruin |
Website | qeiyafa |
Khirbet Qeiyafa (Arabic: خربة قيافة), also known as Elah Fortress and in Hebrew as Horbat Qayafa (Hebrew: חורבת קייאפה), is the site of an ancient fortress city overlooking the Elah Valley and dated to the first half of the 10th century BCE.[1][2] The ruins of the fortress were uncovered in 2007,[3] near the Israeli city of Beit Shemesh, 30 km (20 mi) from Jerusalem.[4] It covers nearly 2.3 ha (6 acres) and is encircled by a 700-meter-long (2,300 ft) city wall constructed of field stones, some weighing up to eight tons.[5] Excavations at site continued in subsequent years.[6] A number of archaeologists, mainly the two excavators, Yosef Garfinkel and Saar Ganor, have claimed that it might be one of two biblical cities, either Sha'arayim, whose name they interpret as "Two Gates", because of the two gates discovered on the site, or Neta'im;[7] and that the large structure at the center is an administrative building dating to the reign of King David, where he might have lodged at some point.[8][9] This is based on their conclusions that the site dates to the early Iron IIA, ca. 1025–975 BCE,[10] a range which includes the biblical date for the biblical Kingdom of David. Others suggest it might represent either a North Israelite, Philistine, or Canaanite fortress, a claim rejected by the archaeological team that excavated the site.[11] The team's conclusion that Khirbet Qeiyafa was a fortress of King David has been criticised by some scholars.[10] Garfinkel (2017) changed the chronology of Khirbet Qeiyafa to ca. 1000–975 BCE.[12][13]
Vol8Ar22
was invoked but never defined (see the help page).We cannot close this article without a comment on the sensational way in which the finds of Khirbet Qeiyafa have been communicated to both the scholarly community and the public. The idea that a single, spectacular finding can reverse the course of modern research and save the literal reading of the biblical text regarding the history of ancient Israel from critical scholarship is an old one. Its roots can be found in W.F. Albright's assault on the Wellhausen School in the early 20th century, an assault that biased archaeological, biblical and historical research for decades. This trend—in different guises—has resurfaced sporadically in recent years, with archaeology serving as a weapon to quell progress in critical scholarship. Khirbet Qeiyafa is the latest case in this genre of craving a cataclysmic defeat of critical modern scholarship by a miraculous archaeological discovery
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