Urban City Planning in the Eighth Century: A Case Study of Recent Excavations at Tel Gezer (Reading between the Lines: Uzziah's Expansion and Tel Gezer)

Abstract

This article presents a case study in how archaeological data assists in biblical interpretation. The author uses the recent excavations of Tel Gezer, along with recent archaeological research on the Shephelah in the eighth century BCE to reconstruct the political and historical period of Uzziah. The first part of the article reviews the current excavations of Beth Shemesh and Tel es-Safi along with recent articles on the eighth-century destructions in the Shephelah. An overview of city-planning in the eighth century is provided. The second part of the article is a presentation of the results of the recently renewed excavations of Gezer (2006–2009). The author proposes that Judah experienced greater city-planning and regional development under King Uzziah than the latter period of Hezekiah.

Guarding the Border to Jerusalem: The Iron Age City of Gezer

“…Sometime during the eighth century b.c.e., Gezer was revived with a new city plan that rebuilt major public buildings (e.g., the tripartite buildings), an industrial complex, and a new enlarged four-room house. This expansion should be associated with Uzziah's westward expansion (Ortiz 2009;Zukerman and Shai 2006).…”