Overview
About this site
Overview
Tel Hazor is an archaeological tell at the site of ancient Hazor, in the Upper Galilee north of the Sea of Galilee, on the northern Korazim Plateau in Israel. From the Middle Bronze Age (around 1750 BCE) to the Iron Age (ninth century BCE), Hazor was the largest fortified city in the region and one of the most important in the Fertile Crescent.
It is the largest archaeological site in northern Israel, with an upper tell of 12 hectares (30 acres) and a lower city of more than 70 hectares (175 acres). In 2005 the remains were designated a World Heritage Site as part of the Biblical Tels of Megiddo, Hazor and Beer Sheba.
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Where it sits in time
The site's dated range, placed against world reference points.
The scale is logarithmic: each step to the left is about ten times older than the last.
Article
Tel Hazor
Major excavations were conducted for four seasons from 1955 to 1958 by a Hebrew University team led by Yigael Yadin, with a final season in 1968.
ExcavationsSources for this section
- Wikipedia (English): Tel HazorCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (English): Tel HazorCC BY-SA 4.0
Initial soundings were carried out by John Garstang in 1926. Major excavations were conducted for four seasons from 1955 to 1958 by a Hebrew University team led by Yigael Yadin, with a final season in 1968. Excavation by Hebrew University, joined by the Complutense University of Madrid, resumed in 1990 under Amnon Ben-Tor.
Finds from the dig are housed in a museum at Kibbutz Ayelet HaShahar.
FindsSources for this section
- Wikipedia (English): Tel HazorCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (English): Tel HazorCC BY-SA 4.0
Hazor has provided more cuneiform tablets than any other site in the Southern Levant. Those from the Middle Bronze period are in standard Old Babylonian Akkadian language, while those from the Late Bronze Age are in a local dialect.
Late Bronze Age monumental structures on the acropolis combine palatial and religious functions, a practice hitherto undocumented in northern Canaan. They include a Ceremonial Palace with a large throne room, called the Black Building, and, to its east, the White Building, which is closer to the Levantine long-room temple type.
HistorySources for this section
- Wikipedia (English): Tel HazorCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (English): Tel HazorCC BY-SA 4.0
The first settlement excavated is dated to the Early Bronze Age II and III periods, at around the 28th and 24th centuries BCE. During Middle Bronze II (1820-1550 BC), Hazor was a vassal of Ishi-Addu of Qatna and was under strong Syrian influence from the north. Letters from Mari mention Hazor during the reigns of Yasmah-Adad and Zimri-Lim (1775-1761 BC), and Hazor was part of a trade route Hazor-Qatna-Mari.
Amnon Ben-Tor believes that evidence of violent destruction by burning verifies the biblical account of the city's fall. Sharon Zuckerman did not agree with his theory and claimed that the burning was the result of the city's factions opposing each other with excessive force. The date of stratum X is disputed: Israel Finkelstein's Low Chronology is disputed by other archaeologists, while Ben-Tor and Shlomit Bechar support the conventional date in the 10th century.
Tradition and region
About this kind of monument
Other prehistoric stone monuments
The Atlas uses the heading "other" for stone monuments that fit none of its other types, and the same article serves for underground chambers that have no regional article. The records are varied. Many are ziggurats, Egyptian temples and pyramids, and Maya and Andean sites, which are treated in their own articles. What remains is a scatter of single sites in many countries whose descriptions do not allow a closer classification.
Several of these are underground. A hypogeum is literally an "underground" temple or tomb, often with niches for cremated remains or loculi for buried remains. An early example is found at the Minoan Bronze Age site of Knossos on Crete, a beehive-shaped vault cut into soft rock. The Hypogeum of Ħal Saflieni in Paola, Malta, is the oldest example of a prehistoric hypogeum, with its earliest phase dated to 3600 to 3300 BCE. It is a complex of underground chambers, halls and passages covering about 500 square metres on three levels, partly carved to imitate temple architecture and containing extensive prehistoric art.
A rock-cut tomb is cut into an existing rock formation, usually a cliff or sloping rock face, and was a common burial form for the wealthy in several parts of the world. Famous clusters are in Egypt, Iran, Lycia in Turkey, Petra in Jordan and Sicily. Phrygian rock-cut tombs such as the Midas monument date to about 700 BCE, and Etruscan ones to about 500 BCE.
The general rule for these records is that the type tells you how a monument was made, not who made it or when. Dating is taken from the source for each site where a source gives one, and otherwise left as a broad range.
When visiting, read the site's own description first, since the Atlas can offer only a general frame.
Paraphrased from Wikipedia: Megalith, Wikipedia: Hypogeum, Wikipedia: Rock-cut tomb, Wikipedia: Stele · CC BY-SA 4.0
From the article
Dated moments in the story
- 2200 BCE
In 2021, archaeologists discovered that Intermediate Bronze Age (ca. 2300–2200 BC) Hazor was preceded by years of abandonment, which started in the Early Bronze Age III (ca. 2500 BC).
Source - 1765 BCE
King Ibni-Addu of Hazor (c. 1770–1765 BC) is known through a letter fragment addressed to him..
Source - 1750 BCE
From the Middle Bronze Age (around 1750 BCE) to the Iron Age (ninth century BCE), Hazor was the largest fortified city in the region and one of the most important in the Fertile Crescent.
Source - 1200 BCE
One archaeological stratum dating from around 1200 BCE (13th century BCE) shows signs of catastrophic fire, and cuneiform tablets found at the site refer to monarchs named Ibni Addi, where Ibni may be the etymological origin of Yavin (Jabin).
Source - 732 BCE
Despite the defences, in 732 BCE Hazor was captured, its population deported, and the city was burnt to the ground.
Source - 1926
Initial soundings were carried out by John Garstang in 1926. Major excavations were conducted for four seasons from 1955 to 1958 by a Hebrew University team led by Yigael Yadin.
Source - 1968
Yadin returned to Hazor for a final season of excavation in 1968. The excavations were supported by James A. de Rothschild, and were published in a dedicated five volume set of books by the Israel Exploration Society.
Source - 1990
The work from 1990 to 2012 is detailed in two IEF books.
Source - 1998
Levy and Daniel Frese have noted that the evidence of the pottery from Jezreel is insufficient to support the Low chronology: "A more serious objection, made by many researchers, is that the pottery of the Iron Age IIA is basically the same for much of the 10th and 9th centuries (Ben-Tor and Ben-Ami 1998: 30;...
Source - 2008
In 2008, some artifacts in the museum were damaged in an earthquake.
Source - 2010
In the 2010 excavation season, two cuneiform fragments from the same tablet, made of local clay, were discovered dating to the Old Babylonian period of the Middle Bronze Age.
Source - 2016
The excavation of 2016 was in the LBA administrative palace destruction layer of area M3. Finds included fragments of an Egyptian statue.
Source - 2017
Among scholars who support Finkelstein's Low chronology, regarding Tel Hazor's stratum X, is Merja Alanne, which in her (2017) Doctoral dissertation, quoting late Dr.
Source
Photographs
7 photographs, each with its author and licence
More photographs
Lore
Evidence & Lore
What the sources actually support — and, kept apart, what has been claimed.
What the evidence supports
Dates
Est. 4000 BCE–600 CEHow this date was established: Type comparisonTypological estimate, not a date for this site: a other in the Near East is normally dated between 4000 BCE and 600 CE (Atlas typological table).Source for this date
Measured facts
- Location
- Upper Galilee, north of the Sea of GalileeSource: Location
- Upper tell
- 12 hectaresSource: Upper tell
- Lower city
- more than 70 hectaresSource: Lower city
- Upper mound height
- about 40 metersSource: Upper mound height
- Cuneiform tablets
- more than any other site in the Southern LevantSource: Cuneiform tablets
- World Heritage status
- 2005, within the Biblical Tels—Megiddo, Hazor, Beer Sheba propertySource: World Heritage status
- Heritage designation
- part of UNESCO World Heritage SiteSource: Heritage designation
Where it stands
Israel
The pin marks the monument itself — its exact point.
- Coordinates
- 33°01′06″ N, 35°34′09″ EFor a GPS or map app: 33.01833, 35.56917
Access is as our sources describe it; we have not visited the site to check.
Nearby
The closest sites in the Atlas, by straight line.
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Sources
Every record behind this page, with the link it came from.
2 sources behind this page
- 01Wikidata Q740138wikidata.org
- 02Fringe claim sourceen.wikipedia.org
Image files
- Tel hatzor.JPGPublic domain
- Ayelet HaShahar 2026.jpgיודוקוליסCC BY 4.0
- 126701 tel hazor PikiWiki Israel.jpgזאב שטייןCC BY 2.5
- 126704 tel hazor PikiWiki Israel.jpgזאב שטייןCC BY 2.5
- Common house structure in upper Hazor (5831065378).jpgIan ScottCC BY-SA 2.0
- Courtyard with miqveh at Hazor (5831074450).jpgIan ScottCC BY-SA 2.0
- D512-110 Yadin, Ben-Gurion and Peres.jpgMoshe PridanPublic domain
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Around this place
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Credit
Text, licence and sources
Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Tel Hazor" (English), licensed CC BY-SA 4.0; authors are listed in the page history. Reused under CC BY-SA 4.0. Read on Wikipedia · Edit history and authors
- Wikipedia (English): Tel HazorCC BY-SA 4.0
- Wikidata Q740138CC0