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Tell en-Nasbeh

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Tell en-Nasbeh
تل النصبة‎
תל א-נצבא‎
Aerial view of Tell en-Nasbeh
Tell en-Nasbeh is located in the West Bank
Tell en-Nasbeh
Shown within the West Bank
Alternative nameMizpah
LocationRamallah and al-Bireh Governorate
RegionWest Bank
Coordinates31°53′06″N 35°12′59″E / 31.885136°N 35.216417°E / 31.885136; 35.216417
Typesettlement
History
PeriodsIron Age II – Byzantine period
CulturesCanaanite, Israelite, Second Temple Judaism
Site notes
ArchaeologistsWilliam Badè
ConditionIn ruins

Tell en-Nasbeh, likely the biblical city of Mizpah in Benjamin,[1] is a 3.2 hectare (8 acre) tell located on a low plateau 12 kilometers (7.5 mi) northwest of Jerusalem in the West Bank. The site lies adjacent to an ancient roadway connecting Jerusalem with the northern hill country, which is how Tell en-Nasbeh gained importance as Judah's northern border fortress during its prime phase of occupation in the Iron Age II (Strata 3A-C; 1000–586 BCE). There are also archaeological remains at the site and in surrounding cave tombs that have been dated to the Early Bronze I (Stratum 5; 3500–3300 BCE), Iron I (Stratum 4; 1200–1000 BCE), Babylonian and Persian (Stratum 2; 586–323 BCE), Hellenistic, Roman and Byzantine Periods (Stratum 1; 323 BCE – 630 CE).

Excavation history

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The site was excavated over 5 seasons between 1926 and 1935 by William Frederic Badè of the Pacific School of Religion in Berkeley, CA. The project was jointly sponsored by the Pacific School of Religion (PSR) and the American Schools of Oriental Research (ASOR), and represents one of the earliest scientific excavations in region. After Badè's untimely death in 1936, his colleagues compiled and published a 2-volume final report for the excavation.[2][3]

The original dig records, specifically the stratigraphic evidence, were later re-analyzed and published by Jeffrey R. Zorn of Cornell University.[4] Research of the Tell en-Nasbeh collection continues today, both by staff of the Badè Museum of Biblical Archaeology at the Pacific School of Religion (formerly the Palestine Institute, then Badè Institute of Biblical Archaeology) and by outside scholars from around the world.[5]

Museum staff are also involved in a huge multi-year project to digitize over 5,800 objects that comprise the Tell en-Nasbeh collection.[5] This project, based in Open Context,[6] is in collaboration with staff of the Alexandria Archive Institute in San Francisco, CA.

Occupational history

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Tell en-Nasbeh was a small village in the Late Chalcolithic and Early Bronze I periods. It was then abandoned until the beginning of the Iron Age, around the 10th century BCE, when it became a sizable agricultural village.[7] By Iron Age II (9th–8th centuries BCE), it was a walled settlement with a massive city gate, on the frontier between the southern and northern Israelite kingdoms.[1]

Iron Age city gate, similar in design to other Israelite city gates of the same period

During the Jewish–Babylonian War, the area to the north of Jerusalem yielded to the Babylonians without a battle, according to archaeological evidence and other indications in the Hebrew Bible.[8] After the destruction of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar II in 587/6 BCE, Mizpah became the administrative center for the district of Binyamin in Judah.[1] According to a study done by Tel Aviv University, Tell en-Nasbeh survived the Babylonian campaign and rose to prominence in the sixth century BCE as the most important settlement nearby.[8]

Sanctuary dedicated to Astarte appears on the left

Pottery, coins, and other small finds indicate Tell en-Nasbeh was still occupied by the Hellenistic Period when Judas Maccabeus gathered his army at Mizpah to confront the Seleucid army.[9] Later finds, including a tower, tombs in the extramural cemeteries, and the floor of a Byzantine church near the western cemetery, speak to some occupation in later periods.[7]

References

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  1. ^ a b c "Tell en-Nasbeh: Biblical Mizpah of Benjamin". The College of Arts and Sciences, Cornell University.
  2. ^ McCown, C. C. 1947. "Tell en-Nasbeh I: Archaeological and Historical Results." Pacific Institute of Pacific School of Religion and American Schools of Oriental Research, Berkeley and New Haven.
  3. ^ Wampler, J. C. 1947. "Tell en-Nasbeh II: The Pottery." Palestine Institute of Pacific School of Religion and American Schools of Oriental Research, Berkeley and New Haven.
  4. ^ Zorn, J. R. 1993. "Tell en Nasbeh: A Re-evaluation of the Architecture and Stratigraphy of the Early Bronze Age, Iron Age and Later Periods." Unpublished Doctoral Dissertation, University of California Berkeley.
  5. ^ a b "Tell en-Nasbeh Database". Badè Museum of Biblical Archaeology at Pacific School of Religion.
  6. ^ "Tell en-Nasbeh Collection at the Badè Museum of Biblical Archaeology". Open Context.
  7. ^ a b Zorn, J. R. 1993. 'Tell en-Nasbeh.' Pp. 1098–1102 in The New Encyclopedia of Archaeological Excavations in the Holy Land, ed. E. Stern. Jerusalem: Israel Exploration Society & Carta.
  8. ^ a b Finkelstein, I., & Silberman, N. A. (2002). The Bible Unearthed: Archaeology's New Vision of Ancient Israel and the Origin of Its Sacred Texts. Simon and Schuster. p. 307
  9. ^ "1 Maccabees, Chapter 3".
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