Gath (city)

Archaeological findings at Tell es-Safi

Gath or Gat (Hebrew: גַּת, romanized: Gaṯ, lit. 'wine press'; Latin: Geth, Philistine: 𐤂𐤕 *Gīt) was one of the five cities of the Philistine pentapolis during the Iron Age. It was located in northeastern Philistia, close to the border with Judah. Gath is often mentioned in the Hebrew Bible and its existence is confirmed by Egyptian inscriptions.[1] Already of significance during the Bronze Age, the city is believed to be mentioned in the El-Amarna letters as Gimti/Gintu, ruled by the two Shuwardata and 'Abdi-Ashtarti.[2][3][4] Another Gath, known as Ginti-kirmil (Gath of Carmel) also appears in the Amarna letters.[5]

The site most favored as the location of Gath is the archaeological mound or tell known as Tell es-Safi in Arabic and Tel Zafit in Hebrew (sometimes written Tel Tzafit), located inside Tel Zafit National Park,[6] but a stone inscription disclosing the name of the city has yet to be discovered. Archaeologists believe it was the largest city of the Southern Levant during the 10th and 9th centuries BCE. Recent excavations have uncovered dramatic evidence of a siege and subsequent destruction of the site in the late 9th century BCE, which can be related to the biblical verse that mentions its capture by Hazael of Aram Damascus.[7][8]

A Gittite is a person from Gath.[9]

  1. ^ "Gath of the Philistines | Religious Studies Center". rsc.byu.edu. Retrieved 2024-04-10.
  2. ^ On the two rulers of Gath, see Nadav Naʾaman of Tel Aviv University, "The Shephelah according to the Amarna Letters", page 282.
  3. ^ On the Amarna's name "Gimti" as being an equivalent to the English name "Gath," see Naʼaman (2005), p. 174.
  4. ^ Maeir, Aren M.; Chadwick, Jeffrey R.; Dagan, Amit; Hitchcock, Louise A.; Katz, Jill; Shai, Itzhaq; Uziel, Joe (2019). "The Late Bronze Age at Tell es-Safi/Gath and the site's role in Southwestern Canaan". In Aren M. Maeir; Itzhaq Shai; Chris McKinny (eds.). The Late Bronze and Early Iron Ages of Southern Canaan. De Gruyter. pp. 1–18. doi:10.1515/9783110628371-001. ISBN 978-3-11-062837-1. S2CID 199261231. To start with, we believe that the identification of Tell es-Safi/Gath as Gintu of the el-Amarna texts (Maeir 2012) is to be accepted.
  5. ^ Naʼaman (2005), p. 207.
  6. ^ Cite error: The named reference Harris2011 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  7. ^ Namdar, Dvory; Zukerman, Alexander; Maeir, Aren M.; Katz, Jill Citron; Cabanes, Dan; Trueman, Clive; Shahack-Gross, Ruth; Weiner, Steve (2011). "The 9th century BCE destruction layer at Tell es-Safi/Gath, Israel: integrating macro- and microarchaeology". Journal of Archaeological Science. 38 (12): 3471–3482. Bibcode:2011JArSc..38.3471N. doi:10.1016/j.jas.2011.08.009. ISSN 0305-4403.
  8. ^ Vaknin, Yoav; Shaar, Ron; Lipschits, Oded; Eliyahu Behar, Adi; Maeir, Aren M.; Ben-Yosef, Erez (2023). "Applying thermal demagnetization to archaeological materials: A tool for detecting burnt clay and estimating its firing temperature". PLOS ONE. 18 (10): e0289424. Bibcode:2023PLoSO..1889424V. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0289424. ISSN 1932-6203. PMC 10561874. PMID 37812593.
  9. ^ "Gittite". WebBible Encyclopedia. Retrieved 2015-08-30.