<< Other Photo Pages >> Khirbet Qeiyafa - Ancient Village or Settlement in Israel
Submitted by Andy B on Tuesday, 15 March 2011 Page Views: 5063
DigsSite Name: Khirbet Qeiyafa Alternative Name: Elah FortressCountry: Israel Type: Ancient Village or Settlement
Nearest Town: Bait Shemash Nearest Village: Elah Valley
Latitude: 31.696300N Longitude: 34.957500E
Condition:
5 | Perfect |
4 | Almost Perfect |
3 | Reasonable but with some damage |
2 | Ruined but still recognisable as an ancient site |
1 | Pretty much destroyed, possibly visible as crop marks |
0 | No data. |
-1 | Completely destroyed |
5 | Superb |
4 | Good |
3 | Ordinary |
2 | Not Good |
1 | Awful |
0 | No data. |
5 | Can be driven to, probably with disabled access |
4 | Short walk on a footpath |
3 | Requiring a bit more of a walk |
2 | A long walk |
1 | In the middle of nowhere, a nightmare to find |
0 | No data. |
5 | co-ordinates taken by GPS or official recorded co-ordinates |
4 | co-ordinates scaled from a detailed map |
3 | co-ordinates scaled from a bad map |
2 | co-ordinates of the nearest village |
1 | co-ordinates of the nearest town |
0 | no data |
Internal Links:
External Links:
Ancient Settlement in Israel
Khirbet Qeiyafa, recently proposed as the biblical Sha'arayim (English:Shaaraim), is a 10th century BCE Israelite royal fortress now an archaeological site overlooking the Elah Valley where, according to the Biblical account, David fought Goliath. It was a key location in the kingdom of Judah along the main road from Philistia and the Coastal Plain to the eastern Hill Country.
The site is understood to have been a Judean city occupied for a period of only about 20 years in the tenth century BCE, before being destroyed. The tenth century is the period ascribed to the kingdoms of David and Solomon. The site is dated by pottery styles and by two burned olive pits tested for carbon-14 at Oxford University and found to date from between 1050 and 970 B.C., the period most scholars consider to be during the reign of King David. The excavations were carried out by archaeologists Yosef Garfinkel and Saar Ganor of the Hebrew University beginning in 2007.
A 15 cm x 16.5 cm trapezoid pottery sherd (ostracon) with five lines of text written in ink was discovered at the site in 2008 during excavations carried out by Prof. Yosef Garfinkel. The inscription cannot be dated directly, but according to the New York Times article noting the discovery, C14 dating tests on two burnt olive pits place the date of the site, and hence by inference the ostracon, to between 1050-970 BCE.
The inscription is written in the Proto-Canaanite alphabet. It is written on the ostracon in ink (not inscribed or scratched into the surface) and the ink had faded to varying degrees, making the letters difficult to read.
Read more at Wikipedia
See also the Khirbet Qeiyafa archaeological project
You may be viewing yesterday's version of this page. To see the most up to date information please register for a free account.
Do not use the above information on other web sites or publications without permission of the contributor.
Nearby Images from Flickr
The above images may not be of the site on this page, but were taken nearby. They are loaded from Flickr so please click on them for image credits.
Click here to see more info for this site
Nearby sites
Click here to view sites on an interactive map of the areaKey: Red: member's photo, Blue: 3rd party photo, Yellow: other image, Green: no photo - please go there and take one, Grey: site destroyed
Download sites to:
KML (Google Earth)
GPX (GPS waypoints)
CSV (Garmin/Navman)
CSV (Excel)
To unlock full downloads you need to sign up as a Contributory Member. Otherwise downloads are limited to 50 sites.
Turn off the page maps and other distractions
Nearby sites listing. In the following links * = Image available
2.1km W 281° Tel Azeqa Ancient Village or Settlement
3.3km E 91° Ramat Beit Shemesh ritual baths* Ancient Village or Settlement
4.2km ESE 104° 2,000-year-old ‘Emperor’s Road’ near Beit Shemesh* Ancient Trackway
5.4km SSE 165° Khirbat Ethri* Ancient Village or Settlement
6.4km NE 34° Tel Beth-Shemesh* Artificial Mound
6.9km S 170° Tel Burgin* Ancient Village or Settlement
8.0km SSW 209° Tel Goded Ancient Village or Settlement
10.4km W 273° Tel Gath Ancient Village or Settlement
10.9km SW 227° Tel Burna* Ancient Village or Settlement
10.9km SW 227° Tel Burna* Ancient Village or Settlement
11.9km SSW 209° Bet Guvrin-Maresha National Park* Ancient Village or Settlement
13.5km NW 312° Tel 'Ekron Ancient Village or Settlement
16.1km N 11° Emmaus Ancient Village or Settlement
17.5km SW 228° Ziklag* Ancient Village or Settlement
17.9km SW 215° Tel Lachish* Artificial Mound
18.4km NNW 348° Tel Gezer* Ancient Village or Settlement
18.5km SSW 192° Amatzia* Ancient Mine, Quarry or other Industry
20.9km ENE 58° Motza Neolithic City* Ancient Village or Settlement
22.6km ENE 63° Tel Motza* Ancient Village or Settlement
23.3km E 83° Rachel's Tomb Ancient Temple
24.0km SE 143° Cave of the Patriarchs Rock Cut Tomb
25.2km ENE 76° Talpiot Tomb Rock Cut Tomb
27.1km SW 233° Tel El-Hesi Ancient Village or Settlement
27.1km E 97° Herodion* Ancient Palace
27.6km ENE 72° Hezekiah's Tunnel* Ancient Mine, Quarry or other Industry
View more nearby sites and additional images