Ascalon

Coordinates: 31°39′43″N 34°32′46″E / 31.66194°N 34.54611°E / 31.66194; 34.54611
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Askalon
)
This article is about the ancient city and archaeological site. For the modern Israeli city, see Ashkelon. For other uses, see Ascalon (disambiguation).
Ascalon
𐤀𐤔𐤒𐤋𐤍
אַשְׁקְלוֹן
Ἀσκάλων
عَسْقَلَان
Crusaders
Site notes
Excavation dates1815, 1920-1922, 1985-2016
ArchaeologistsLady Hester Stanhope, John Garstang, W. J. Phythian-Adams, Lawrence Stager, Daniel Master

Ascalon (

Mediterranean coast of the southern Levant
that played a major role during several historical periods.

The site of Ascalon was first permanently settled in the

Gaza and south of Jaffa. The city remained a major metropolis throughout antiquity and the early Middle Ages, before becoming a highly contested fortified foothold on the coast during the Crusades, when it became the site of two significant Crusader battles: the Battle of Ascalon in 1099, and the Siege of Ascalon
in 1153.

The ancient and

al-Majdal
was established in the same period.

1948
.

The modern Israeli city of Ashkelon takes its name from the site, and was established at the site of al-Majdal, the later town established to the northeast during the Mamluk period.

Names

Map of the ruins of the ancient city
Map of the ruins of the ancient city, from the 1871-77 PEF Survey of Palestine

Ascalon has been known by many variations of the same basic name over the millennia. The settlement is first mentioned in the

19th dynasty recounts the Pharaoh putting down a rebellion at Asqaluna.[3] The settlement is then mentioned eleven times in the Hebrew Bible as ʾAšqəlôn.[1]

In the

Byzantine period.[5][6][7] In the Islamic period, the Arabic form became ʿAsqalān,[8] while in modern Hebrew
, it became Ashkelon. Today, Ascalon is a designated archaeological area known as Tel Ashkelon ("Hill of Ascalon").

History

Neolithic period

About 1.5 kilometres (1 mi) north of the ruins of Ascalon lies a

pre-pottery phase of the Neolithic. The adjacent site had no built structures and was believed to have been used seasonally by pastoral nomads for processing and curing
food.

Canaanite settlement

Restored Canaanite city gate[9] (2014)

The first constructed settlement was hewn into the sandstone outcrop along the coast in the Middle Bronze Age (2000–1550 BCE). A relatively large and thriving settlement for the period, its walls enclosed 60 hectares (150 acres) and as many as 15,000 people may have lived within these fortifications.

Its commanding ramparts measured 2.5 kilometres (1+1⁄2 mi) long, 15 m (50 ft) high and 45 m (150 ft) thick,[citation needed] and even as a ruin they stand two stories high. The thickness of the walls was so great that the mudbrick city gate had a stone-lined, 2.4-metre-wide (8 ft) tunnel-like barrel vault, coated with white plaster, to support the superstructure: it is the oldest such vault ever found.[9]

In the early MB IIA, the Egyptians mainly sent their ships further north to Lebanon (

Tell ed-Dab'a
stratums H-D/1. Contacts with Egypt increased in the late 12th Dynasty and early 13th Dynasty when maritime trade flourished.

Ascalon is mentioned in the

11th dynasty as "jsqꜣnw".[1]

Egyptian period

"'Asqaluni" written on the Merneptah Stele

Beginning in the time of Thutmose III (1479-1425 BC) the city was under Egyptian control, administered by a local governor. In the Amarna letters (c. 1350 BC), there are seven letters to and from King Yidya of Ašqaluna and the Egyptian pharaoh.

During the reign of Ramesses II the Southern Levant was the frontier of the epic war against the Hittites in Syria. In addition, the Sea Peoples attacked and rebellions occurred. These events coincide with a downturn in climatic conditions starting around 1250 BC onwards, ultimately causing the Late Bronze Age collapse. On the death of Ramesses II, turmoil and rebellion increased in the Southern Levant. The king Merneptah faced a series of uprisings, as told in the Merneptah Stele. The Pharaoh notes putting down a rebellion at "'Asqaluni".[3] Further north, the King Jabin of Hazor tried to fight for independence with Mycenaean mercenaries—Merneptah laying waste the grain fields in the Valley of Yizreel to starve out the northern rebellion. These events contributed to the fall of the 19th dynasty.[citation needed]

Philistine settlement

The Philistines conquered the Canaanite city in about 1150 BCE. Their earliest pottery, types of structures and inscriptions are similar to the early Greek urbanised centre at

mainland Greece, adding weight to the hypothesis that the Philistines were one of the populations among the "Sea Peoples" that upset cultures throughout the Eastern Mediterranean
at that time.

In this period, the Hebrew Bible presents Ašqəlôn as one of the five Philistine cities that are constantly warring with the Israelites. According to Herodotus, the city's temple of Aphrodite (Derketo) was the oldest of its kind, imitated even in Cyprus, and he mentions that this temple was pillaged by marauding Scythians during the time of their sway over the Medes (653–625 BCE). It was the last of the Philistine cities to hold out against Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar II. When it fell in 604 BCE, burnt and destroyed and its people taken into exile, the Philistine era was over.[citation needed]

Persian, Hellenistic and Roman periods

Ancient sarcophagus in Ashkelon

Until the conquest of

Persian
culture. It is in this archaeological layer that excavations have found dog burials. It is believed the dogs may have had a sacred role; however, evidence is not conclusive.

During the Persian period, the city was probably in

archaeological findings.[11]

After the conquest of Alexander in the 4th century BCE, Ashkelon was an important free city and

Hellenistic
seaport.

It had mostly friendly relations with the

Syria province
.

Roman and Islamic era fortifications, faced with stone, followed the same footprint as the earlier Canaanite settlement, forming a vast semicircle protecting the settlement on the land side. On the sea it was defended by a high natural bluff. A roadway more than six metres (20 ft) in width ascended the rampart from the harbor and entered a gate at the top.

The city remained loyal to Rome during the Great Revolt, 66–70 CE.

Byzantine period

ΑϹΚΑΛ[ⲰΝ] / ASKAL[ŌN] on the Madaba Map

The city of Ascalon appears on a fragment of the 6th-century Madaba Map.[16]

The bishops of Ascalon whose names are known include Sabinus, who was at the

Robber Council of Ephesus in 449 and the Council of Chalcedon in 451. Bishop Dionysius, who represented Ascalon at a synod in Jerusalem in 536, was on another occasion called upon to pronounce on the validity of a baptism with sand in waterless desert. He sent the person to be baptized in water.[17][18]

No longer a residential bishopric, Ascalon is today listed by the Catholic Church as a titular see.[19]

Early Islamic period

During the

Second Muslim Civil War (680–692), but the Umayyad caliph Abd al-Malik (r. 685–705) recaptured and fortified it.[8] A son of Caliph Sulayman (r. 715–717), whose family resided in Palestine, was buried in the city.[20] An inscription found in the city indicates that the Abbasid caliph al-Mahdi ordered the construction of a mosque with a minaret in Asqalan in 772.[8]

Asqalan prospered under the

Seljuks.[8] However, during this period, Fatimid rule over Asqalan was periodically reduced to nominal authority over the city's governor.[8]

Shrine of Husayn's Head

Main article: Shrine of Husayn's Head
The shrine during the annual festival

In 1091, a couple of years after a campaign by grand vizier Badr al-Jamali to reestablish Fatimid control over the region, the head of Husayn ibn Ali (a grandson of the Islamic prophet Muhammad) was "rediscovered", prompting Badr to order the construction of a new mosque and mashhad (shrine or mausoleum) to hold the relic, known as the Shrine of Husayn's Head.[21][22][23] According to another source, the shrine was built in 1098 by the Fatimid vizier al-Afdal Shahanshah.[24][verification needed]

The mausoleum was described as the most magnificent building in Asqalan.

Palestinian Arabs from the region.[28] Prior to its destruction, the shrine was the holiest Shi'a site in Palestine.[29] In 2000, a marble dais was built on the site by Mohammed Burhanuddin, an Indian Islamic leader of the Dawoodi Bohras.[30]

Crusaders, Ayyubids, and Mamluks

Battle of Ascalon, 1099. Engraving after Gustave Doré

During the Crusades, Asqalan (known to the Crusaders as Ascalon) was an important city due to its location near the coast and between the Crusader States and Egypt. In 1099, shortly after the Siege of Jerusalem, a Fatimid army that had been sent to relieve Jerusalem was defeated by a Crusader force at the Battle of Ascalon. The city itself was not captured by the Crusaders because of internal disputes among their leaders. This battle is widely considered to have signified the end of the First Crusade.[citation needed] As a result of military reinforcements from Egypt and a large influx of refugees from areas conquered by the Crusaders, Asqalan became a major Fatimid frontier post.[24] The Fatimids utilized it to launch raids into the Kingdom of Jerusalem.[31] Trade ultimately resumed between Asqalan and Crusader-controlled Jerusalem, though the inhabitants of Asqalan regularly struggled with shortages in food and supplies, necessitating the provision of goods and relief troops to the city from Egypt on several occasions each year.[24] According to William of Tyre, the entire civilian population of the city was included in the Fatimid army registers.[24] The Crusaders' capture of the port city of Tyre in 1134 and their construction of a ring of fortresses around the city to neutralize its threat to Jerusalem strategically weakened Asqalan.[24] In 1150 the Fatimids fortified the city with fifty-three towers, as it was their most important frontier fortress.[32]

The siege of Ascalon by King Baldwin III of Jerusalem, miniature from Sébastien Mamerot's book "Passages d'outremer" (1474)

Three years later, after a seven-month siege, the city was captured by a Crusader army led by King Baldwin III of Jerusalem.[24] Ibn al-Qalanisi recorded that upon the city's surrender, all Muslims with the means to do so emigrated from the city.[33] The Fatimids secured the head of Husayn from its mausoleum outside the city and transported it to their capital Cairo.[24] Ascalon was then added to the County of Jaffa to form the County of Jaffa and Ascalon, which became one of the four major seigneuries of the Kingdom of Jerusalem.

After the Crusader conquest of Jerusalem the six elders of the Karaite Jewish community in Ascalon contributed to the ransoming of captured Jews and holy relics from Jerusalem's new rulers. The Letter of the Karaite elders of Ascalon, which was sent to the Jewish elders of Alexandria, describes their participation in the ransom effort and the ordeals suffered by many of the freed captives. A few hundred Jews, Karaites and Rabbanites, were living in Ascalon in the second half of the 12th century, but moved to Jerusalem when the city was destroyed in 1191.[34]

In 1187,

Richard, Earl of Cornwall reconstructed and refortified the citadel during 1240–41, as part of the Crusader policy of improving the defences of coastal sites. The Egyptians retook Ascalon in 1247 during As-Salih Ayyub
's conflict with the Crusader States and the city was returned to Muslim rule.

The ancient and medieval history of Ascalon was brought to an end in 1270, when the then Mamluk sultan Baybars ordered the citadel and harbour at the site to be destroyed as part of a wider decision to destroy the Levantine coastal towns in order to forestall future Crusader invasions. Some monuments, like the shrine of Sittna Khadra and Shrine of Husayn's Head survived. According to Marom and Taxel, this event irreversibly changed the settlement patterns in the region. As a substitute for ‘Asqalān, Baybars established Majdal ‘Asqalān, 3 km inland, and endowed it with a magnificent Friday Mosque, a marketplace and religious shrines.[35]

Archaeology

Beginning in the 18th century, the site was visited, and occasionally drawn, by a number of adventurers and tourists. It was also often scavenged for building materials. The first known excavation occurred in 1815. The Lady Hester Stanhope dug there for two weeks using 150 workers. No real records were kept.[36] In the 1800s some classical pieces from Ascalon (though long thought to be from Thessaloniki) were sent to the Ottoman Museum.[37] From 1920 to 1922 John Garstang and W. J. Phythian-Adams excavated on behalf of the Palestine Exploration Fund. They focused on two areas, one Roman and the other Philistine/Canaanite.[38][39][40][41][42][43][44][45] Over the following years a number of salvage excavations were carried out by the Israel Antiquities Authority.[46]

Archaeological site with artifacts from the Neolithic era
Ashkelon Pre-Pottery Neolithic C flint arrowheads

In 1954 by French archaeologist

domesticated and non-domesticated animals, and around 20,000 flint artifacts. It was concluded that the site was used by pastoral nomads for meat processing, with the nearby sea supplying salt for the curing
of meat.

Modern excavation began in 1985 with the Leon Levy Expedition. Between then and 2006 seventeen seasons of work occurred, led by Lawrence Stager of Harvard University.[47][48][49][50][51][52][53] In 2007 the next phase of excavation began under Daniel Master. It continued until 2016.

In 1991 the ruins of a small ceramic tabernacle was found a finely cast bronze statuette of a bull calf, originally silvered, ten centimetres (4 in) long. Images of calves and bulls were associated with the worship of the Canaanite gods El and Baal.

In the 1997 season a cuneiform table fragment was found, being a lexical list containing both Sumerian and Canaanite language columns. It was found in a Late Bronze Age II context, about 13th century BC.[54]

In 2012 an Iron Age IIA Philistine cemetery was discovered outside the city. In 2013 200 graves were excavated of the estimated 1,200 the cemetery contained. Seven were stone built tombs.[55]

One ostracon and 18 jar handles were recovered inscribed with the

Cypro-Minoan script. The ostracon was of local material and dated to 12th to 11th century BC. Five of the jar handles were manufactured in coastal Lebanon, two in Cyprus, and one locally. Fifteen of the handles were found in an Iron I context and the rest in Late Bronze Age context.[56]

Notable people

See also

References

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  8. ^ a b c d e f g h Hartmann & Lewis 1960, p. 710.
  9. ^ a b Lefkovits, Etgar (8 April 2008). "Oldest arched gate in the world restored". The Jerusalem Post. Jerusalem. Archived from the original on 14 August 2013. Retrieved 21 January 2018.
  10. ^ M. Stern, Greek and Latin Authors on Jews and Judaism, Vol. III: III. Pseudo-Scylax
  11. ^ Andrea M. Berlin, Archaeological Sources for the History of Palestine: Between Large Forces: Palestine in the Hellenistic Period, The Biblical Archaeologist 60, 1997, p 42 doi: 10.2307/3210581
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  13. ^ "Ashkelon". Project on Ancient Cultural Engagement/Brill. Archived from the original on 4 September 2015. Retrieved 14 July 2014.
  14. ^ Negev, A (1976). Stillwell, Richard.; MacDonald, William L.; McAlister, Marian Holland (eds.). The Princeton encyclopedia of classical sites. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press. {{cite encyclopedia}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  15. ^ Eusebius (1890). "VI". In McGiffert, Arthur Cushman (ed.). The Church History of Eusebius. Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series II. §2, notes 90-91.
  16. ISBN 978-90-3900011-3. quoted in The Madaba Mosaic Map: Ascalon
  17. ^ Bagatti, Ancient Christian Villages of Judaea and Negev, quoted in The Madaba Mosaic Map: Ascalon
  18. ^ Pius Bonifacius Gams, Series episcoporum Ecclesiae Catholicae, Leipzig 1931, p. 452
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  33. ^ Benjamin Z. Kedar. “Subjected Muslims of the Frankish Levant.” In James M. Powell, editor. Muslims under Latin Rule, 1100-1300. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1985. p. 150
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  40. ^ John Garstang, "Askalon Reports: The Philistine Problem", PEFQS, vol. 53, pp. 162–63, 1921
  41. ^ John Garstang, "The Excavations at Ashkalon", PEFQS, vol. 54, pp. 112–19, 1922
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  50. ^ [5] Michael D. Press, "Ashkelon 4 The Iron Age Figurines of Ashkelon and Philistia", Eisenbrauns, 2012 ISBN 978-1-57506-942-5
  51. ^ Lawrence E. Stager, J. David Schloen, and Ross J. Voss, "Ashkelon 6 The Middle Bronze Age Ramparts and Gates of the North Slope and Later Fortifications", Eisenbrauns, 2018 ISBN 978-1-57506-980-7
  52. ^ Lawrence E. Stager, Daniel M. Master, and Adam J. Aja, "Ashkelon 7 The Iron Age I", Eisenbrauns, 2020 ISBN 978-1-64602-090-4
  53. ^ Tracy Hoffman, "Ashkelon 8 The Islamic and Crusader Periods", Eisenbrauns, 2019 ISBN 978-1-57506-735-3
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Sources

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