Ekron (Philistine: 𐤏𐤒𐤓𐤍 *ʿAqrūn,Ra'ad, 2019, p. 86. or *Aqārān , ), in the Hellenistic period known as Accaron ()Accaron, at Bible Study Tools was at first a Canaanite, and later more famously a Philistine city, one of the five cities of the Philistine Pentapolis, located in present-day Israel.
In 1957, Ekron was first identified with the mound of Khirbet el-Muqanna (Arabic) or Tel Miqne (Hebrew), near the depopulated Palestinian village of 'Aqir, on the basis of the large size of the Iron Age archaeological remains; the judgement was strengthened by the discovery in 1996 of the Ekron inscription. The tell lies west of Jerusalem, and north of Tel es-Safi, the almost certain site of the Philistine city of Gath, on the grounds of Kibbutz Revadim on the eastern edge of the Israeli coastal plain. The other main cities of the Philistine Pentapolis beyond Ekron and Gath were Gaza, Ashkelon, and Ashdod.
In the Bible In the Hebrew Bible, Ekron is mentioned initially in : This is the land that still remains: all the regions of the Philistines and all those of the Geshurites from Shihor, which is east of Egypt, northward to the boundary of Ekron.
counts it the border city of the Philistines and seat of one of the five Philistine city lords, and mentions Ekron's satellite towns and villages. The city was reassigned afterwards to the tribe of Dan (), but came again into the full possession of the Philistines. It was the last place to which the Philistines carried the Ark of the Covenant before they sent it back to Israel ( and ), and the city lords returned here once they had seen that the Ark reached the Israelites in Beth Shemesh ().
There was a noted sanctuary of Baal at Ekron. The Baal who was worshipped was called Baal Zebub, which some scholars connect with Beelzebub, known from : [King] Ahaziah fell through the lattice in his upper chamber at Samaria and was injured. So he sent messengers whom he instructed: "Go inquire of Baal-zebub, the god of Ekron, whether I shall recover from this injury." (JPS translation) The prophet Elijah repeatedly condemned Ahaziah for turning to Baal-zebub for assurance: Is it because there is no God in Israel that you are sending to inquire of Baal-Zebub, the god of Ekron? Therefore you shall not come down from the bed to which you have gone up, but you shall surely die.
Ekron's destruction is prophesied in : Ekron shall be rooted up.
Location Jerome wrote that Ekron was to the east of Azotus and Iamnia (consistent with the modern interpretation), however he also mentioned that some equated the city with Straton's Tower at Caesarea Maritima. This may be a reference to Rabbi Abbahu's identification of Ekron with Caesarea in Megillah.
Robinson first identified the Arab village of Aqir as the site of Ekron in 1838, and this was accepted until it was contested by Macalister in 1913, who suggested Khirbet Dikerin, and Albright in 1922, who suggested Qatra.
The identification of Ekron as Tel Miqneh was suggested by Naveh and Kallai in 1957–1958, a theory now widely accepted in light of the Ekron Royal Dedicatory Inscription found during the 1996 excavations.
History The site of Tel Miqne was lightly occupied beginning in the Chalcolithic period and up to the Early Bronze Age.
Middle Bronze IIB After a 400-year gap when only the upper tel was occupied, the city underwent a major expansion c.1600 BCE, under the Canaanites.
In Stratum XI (MB IIB) both the Upper City and Lower City was occupied. Later, the occupation would retreat to the Upper City.
Late Bronze The Canaanite city had shrunk in the years before its main public building burned in the 13th century BCE, during the Bronze Age collapse, a period of general devastation associated with the Sea Peoples.
Ekron Stratum VIII destroyed by fire ending the LBA Canaanite city.
Iron Age Iron Age I It was re-established by Philistines at the beginning of the Iron Age, c.12th century BCE. During the Iron Age, Ekron was a border city on the frontier contested between Philistia and the kingdom of Judah.
Ekron Stratum VIIB saw the founding of the Philistine city with Mycenaean IIIC:1 monochrome pottery.
Iron Age IIC Records of the Neo-Assyrian Empire also refer to Ekron, as Amqarrūna.Seymour Gitin, 'Philistines in the Book of Kings,' in André Lemaire, Baruch Halpern, Matthew Joel Adams (eds.)The Books of Kings: Sources, Composition, Historiography and Reception, BRILL, 2010 pp.301–363, for the Neo-Assyrian sources p.312: The four city-states of the late Philistine period (Iron Age II) are Amqarrūna (Ekron), Asdūdu (Ashdod), Hāzat (Gaza), and Isqalūna (Ascalon), with the former fifth capital, Gath, having been abandoned at this late phase. The siege of Ekron in 712 BCE is depicted on one of Sargon II's wall reliefs in his palace at Khorsabad, which names the city. Ekron revolted against Sennacherib and expelled Padi (Fadi), his governor, who was sent to Hezekiah, King of Judah, for safe-keeping in Jerusalem. Sennacherib marched against Ekron and the Ekronites called upon the aid of the king of Mutsri from northwest Arabia. Sennacherib turned aside to defeat this army, which he did at Eltekeh, and then returned and took the city by storm, put to death the leaders of the revolt and carried their adherents into captivity. This campaign led to the famous attack of Sennacherib on Hezekiah and Jerusalem, in which Sennacherib compelled Hezekiah to restore Padi, who was reinstated as governor at Ekron. The Philistine city of Ekron is specifically named in the Aramaic stele (Oriental Institute Prism) detailing Sennacherib's exploits in the land of Judah: The cities of his (i.e. Hezekiah's), which I had despoiled, I cut off from his land and to Mitinti, king of Ashdod, [and to] Padi, king of Ekron, [and to] Silli-bel, king of Gaza, I gave. And (thus) I diminished his land. (Reprint 2005)
Ashdod and Ekron survived to become powerful city-states dominated by the Assyrians in the 7th century BCE. Towards the end of this century, the name of Ekron's king may have been Adon, who wrote a letter known as the Adon Papyrus in Aramaic appealing for help from the pharaoh of Egypt in the face of the approaching forces of the Neo-Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar II. Apparently it was to no avail, as in 604 BCE the city was destroyed by those forces, and although it is mentioned, as "Accaron", as late as 1 Maccabees 10:89 (2nd century BCE), it was never resettled on a large scale.
An olive oil production center dating from the seventh century BCE discovered at Ekron has over one hundred large olive oil presses, and is the most complete olive oil production center from ancient times to be discovered. The discovery indicates that olive oil production was highly developed in the Levant and that it was a major producer of olive oil for its residents as well as for other parts of the Ancient Near East, such as Egypt and especially Mesopotamia.
Archaeology
The Tel Miqne excavations were conducted for 14 seasons between 1981 and 1996, sponsored by the Albright Institute of Archaeological Research and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, under the direction of Trude Dothan and Seymour Gitin.T. Dothan and S. Gitin, Tel Miqne (Ekron) Excavations, Spring 1981, Field INE, Iron Age 1-1, Ekron Limited Edition Series 1, 1981T. Dothan and S. Gitin, Tel Miqne (Ekron) Excavations, Spring 1982, Field INE, Iron Age 1-1, ELES 2, 1982B. M. Gittlen, Tel Miqne-Ekron Excavations, 1984, Field IIISE, ELES 3, 1985A. E. Killebrew, Tel Miqne-Ekron Excavations, 1984, Field INE, ELES 4, 1986D.B. MacKay, Tel Miqne-Ekron Excavations, 1994 Spring Season, Field IISW: The Olive Oil Industrial Zone of the Late Iron Age II, ELES 5, 1995A.E. Killebrew, Tel Miqne-Ekron Excavations, 1986-1987, Field INE, Areas 5,6, 7-The Late Bronze and Iron Ages, ELES 6, 1996N. Bierling, Tel Miqne-Ekron Excavations, 1995-1996, Field XNW, Areas 77, 78, 79, 89, 90, 101, 102: Iron Age I, ELES 7, 1998 The primary research focus was an interdisciplinary investigation of the interactions between the Philistines, Israelites, Phoenicians, Assyrians, and Egyptians during the Late Bronze Age II, Iron Age I and II.
Chronological development The ceramic evidence indicates a presence at the site in the Chalcolithic period and Early Bronze Age. A continuous stratigraphic profile, however, was found only in the upper city on the Northeast Acropolis (Field I), beginning in Stratum XI of the MB IIB and extending through the end of Stratum I of the Iron IIC. In the lower city (Fields II, III, IV, V, X), a 400-year occupational gap followed Stratum XI of the 17th–first half of the 16th century BCE until its resettlement in Stratum VII at the beginning of the Iron I, ca. 1175 BCE. Another occupational gap of ca. 270 years followed the end of Iron I Stratum IV, ca. 975 BCE, in the lower city (Fields II, III, IV, V, X), until it was again resettled in Stratum I of the 7th century BCE. The cities at Ekron were well planned in both the Iron I and Iron II, with four distinct zones of occupation: fortifications, industrial, domestic, and elite. The final Iron II occupation in the 7th/6th centuries BCE was represented by a single architectural unit in Field III in the lower city. A presence in the Roman, Byzantine, and Islamic periods was attested in Fields IV Upper and V.
Chronological chart
Middle Bronze Age The tel was apparently shaped by fortifications that encompassed both the upper and lower cities in the Middle Bronze Age. Monumental platforms, part of the fortification ramparts, were excavated in Fields III and X. MB II ceramic evidence was found throughout the tel, as were fragmentary architectural remains and three infant jar burials excavated in Field IV Lower.
Late Bronze Age The unfortified Strata X–VIII settlement was found only in the upper city in Field I on the Northeast Acropolis. It yielded Cypriot and Mycenaean imported pottery and Anatolian Grey burnished ware, attesting to international maritime trade. Egyptian influences are also evident, inter alia, in the burial containing a 19th Dynasty seal and scarab and in the 14th century BCE scarab bearing the name of the Egyptian Pharaoh Amenhotep III and dedicated to the "Lady of the Sycamore Tree," usually associated with the foundations of Egyptian shrines, an heirloom found in a later Iron I phase. The last Canaanite city of Stratum VIII was destroyed in a violent conflagration, dramatically illustrated on the Summit by a severely-burnt storeroom complex that yielded jars containing carbonized grains, lentils, and figs.
Iron Age I Stratum VII is characterized by a new material culture with Aegean and Cypriot affinities introduced by the Philistines, one of the Sea Peoples featuring the locally made Philistine 1 (previously designated Mycenaean IIIC:1) pottery. Such pottery is known as Cypriot Bichrome ware, and Philistine Bichrome ware.
In the Strata VI–V Philistine 2 (Bichrome) pottery with red and black decoration on white slip is a major part of the ceramic assemblage. The material culture of Stratum IV is characterized by Philistine 3 (debased) pottery and the influence of a ceramic tradition of predominantly red-slipped and burnished ware.
In the upper city features in Stratum VII, include a mudbrick city wall, megaron-type buildings, hearths, a limestone bathtub, and an industrial kiln area. In Strata VI–V, a major feature was the mudbrick glacis, a cultic room with an incised scapula similar to those found in the 12th and 11th century BCE shrines at Enkomi and Kition on Cyprus.