Tall Al-Ajjul
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Tall al-Ajjul or Tell el-'Ajul is an archaeological mound or '' tell'' in the
Gaza Strip The Gaza Strip, also known simply as Gaza, is a small territory located on the eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea; it is the smaller of the two Palestinian territories, the other being the West Bank, that make up the State of Palestine. I ...
. The fortified city excavated at the site dates as far back as ca. 2000–1800 BCE and was inhabited during the
Bronze Age The Bronze Age () was a historical period characterised principally by the use of bronze tools and the development of complex urban societies, as well as the adoption of writing in some areas. The Bronze Age is the middle principal period of ...
. It is located at the mouth of Wadi Ghazzah just south of the town of Gaza.


Location

Tell el-Ajjul is about inland from the modern coastline. It is close to the main land route between ancient Egypt and the Levant.


History

Archaeologists have excavated remains dated mainly to the Middle and Late
Bronze Age The Bronze Age () was a historical period characterised principally by the use of bronze tools and the development of complex urban societies, as well as the adoption of writing in some areas. The Bronze Age is the middle principal period of ...
.


Middle Bronze


Middle Bronze IIA

In the MBIIA, Tell el-Ajjul was an important city in the Southern Levant.


Middle Bronze IIB–C

In the MB IIB, the population increased and many sites developed in the southern Levant. Tell el-Ajjul had the largest number of Egyptian
Second Intermediate Period The Second Intermediate Period dates from 1700 to 1550 BC. It marks a period when ancient Egypt was divided into smaller dynasties for a second time, between the end of the Middle Kingdom and the start of the New Kingdom. The concept of a Secon ...
imports. The settlement of al-Moghraqa was less than from Tell el-Ajjul and was active in the Middle Bronze Age; it may have functioned as a satellite settlement of Tell el-Ajjul.


Late Bronze

Large quantities of pumice were deposited during the Late Bronze Age, which may have been caused by the Thera (Santorini) volcanic eruption. This was further investigated by the Austrian scholar P.M. Fischer, and this proved to be a good correlation and dating tool. Some samples of Chocolate-on-white ware were identified from the horizons dating to 1640-1410 BC. Also, some connections with Tell el-Dab'a in Egypt were found.


Treaty of Tell Ajul (1229)

The
Sixth Crusade The Sixth Crusade (1228–1229), also known as the Crusade of Frederick II, was a military expedition to recapture Jerusalem and the rest of the Holy Land. It began seven years after the failure of the Fifth Crusade and involved very little actua ...
came to an end with the so-called Treaty of Jaffa and Tell Ajul. These were in fact two different treaties, the first being the one signed at Tell Ajul by the competing
Ayyubid The Ayyubid dynasty (), also known as the Ayyubid Sultanate, was the founding dynasty of the medieval Sultan of Egypt, Sultanate of Egypt established by Saladin in 1171, following his abolition of the Fatimid Caliphate, Fatimid Caliphate of Egyp ...
rulers of
Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...
,
Syria Syria, officially the Syrian Arab Republic, is a country in West Asia located in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Levant. It borders the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Turkey to Syria–Turkey border, the north, Iraq to Iraq–Syria border, t ...
and various smaller principalities. This treaty settled their territorial disputes and left Sultan
Al-Kamil Al-Malik al-Kamil Nasir ad-Din Muhammad (; – 6 March 1238), titled Abu al-Maali (), was an Egyptian ruler and the fourth Ayyubid sultan of Egypt. During his tenure as sultan, the Ayyubids defeated the Fifth Crusade. He was known to the Franki ...
of Egypt in a very powerful position. The follow-up treaty was signed at Jaffa by Al-Kamil and the leader of the Sixth Crusade, Emperor Frederick II, thus removing the threat posed to Al-Kamil by the European armies.


Identification

Ajjul is one of the proposed sites for Sharuhen and for Beth Eglaim mentioned in Eusebius's ''Onomasticon'', in contrast with Petrie's initial identification with ancient Gaza. Eusebius placed Beth Eglaim at eight Roman miles from Gaza. The name is absent from the Bible, and is given by Eusebius in Greek as Bethaglaim. In the 1970s, the archaeologist Aharon Kempinski proposed identifying Tell el-Ajjul with Sharuhen, the last stronghold of the
Hyksos The Hyksos (; Egyptian language, Egyptian ''wikt:ḥqꜣ, ḥqꜣ(w)-wikt:ḫꜣst, ḫꜣswt'', Egyptological pronunciation: ''heqau khasut'', "ruler(s) of foreign lands"), in modern Egyptology, are the kings of the Fifteenth Dynasty of Egypt ( ...
c. 1550 BCE.


Investigations

In 1930–1934 Tell el-Ajjul was excavated by British archaeologists under the direction of Sir Flinders Petrie, who thought the site was ancient Gaza. He was accompanied by Olga Tufnell. One of Flinders Petrie's discoveries were three hoards of Bronze Age gold jewellery, considered to be among the greatest Bronze Age finds in the
Levant The Levant ( ) is the subregion that borders the Eastern Mediterranean, Eastern Mediterranean sea to the west, and forms the core of West Asia and the political term, Middle East, ''Middle East''. In its narrowest sense, which is in use toda ...
.British Museum Collection
/ref> Scarab seals of the Egyptian pharaohs Apepi, Sheshi, Sekhaenre and 'Ammu were also uncovered. Most of the collection is preserved at the
British Museum The British Museum is a Museum, public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is the largest in the world. It documents the story of human cu ...
in London and the
Rockefeller Museum The Rockefeller Archeological Museum, formerly the Palestine Archaeological Museum ("PAM"; 1938–1967), is an archaeology museum located in East Jerusalem, next to Herod's Gate, that houses a large collection of artifacts unearthed in the exca ...
in Jerusalem. Plans for new investigations at Tell el-Ajjul began to be developed in 1998 as a joint collaboration between the recently formed Department of Antiquities of Palestine and the
University of Gothenburg The University of Gothenburg () is a List of universities in Sweden, university in Sweden's second largest city, Gothenburg. Founded in 1891, the university is the third-oldest of the current List of universities in Sweden#Public universities, S ...
in Sweden. The department was established in 1994 and the work at Tell el-Ajjul was one of several international collaborations as the Palestinian people took on a greater role in fieldwork in the country. In 1999 and 2000 the archaeological fieldwork was led by Peter M. Fischer and Moain Sadeq because of a common interest in the protection and exploration of the site. The work was interrupted due to the outbreak of the
Second Intifada The Second Intifada (; ), also known as the Al-Aqsa Intifada, was a major uprising by Palestinians against Israel and its Israeli-occupied territories, occupation from 2000. Starting as a civilian uprising in Jerusalem and October 2000 prot ...
. A large amount of imported pottery from Cyprus has been discovered. These imports begin with Base-ring I, and White Slip I types of pottery. In particular, over 200 sherds of White Slip I have been found, which pottery is rarely found outside of Cyprus. The majority of the sherds, nevertheless, are of the later White Slip II and Base-ring II wares. There are also sherds of other kinds of Cypriot pottery, including Bichrome Wheel-made, Monochrome, Red Lustrous Wheel-made, and White Painted V/VI. Mycenean pottery and such from Upper Egypt were also found.


Conservation

A combination of erosion and human intervention in the form of bulldozing have left the tell smaller than it was in the first half of the 20th century. After the conclusion of excavations at Tell el-Ajjul in the early 21st century the site was buried and adapted to agriculture. The area underwent significant landscapes changes with clearances in the 2000s followed by the construction of new buildings nearby and infrastructure such as roads. Around the time of the 2014 Gaza War, craters and buildings demolitions were recorded at Tell el-Ajjul and in its vicinity through aerial photography. Though thousands of artefacts have been discovered at from Tell el-Ajjul, evidencing that the settlement was "an extremely rich and important trade hub", the finds were moved to other countries. During the Israeli invasion of the Gaza Strip, hundreds of hundreds of cultural heritage sites in Gaza were damaged or destroyed. UNESCO began a damage assessment and included Tell el-Ajjul amongst the sites that were damaged during the conflict.


See also

* Tell el-Ajjul gold hoards * Tell es-Sakan * Ein HaBesor


References


Bibliography


Early Descriptions

* (visit in 1863: p
212
)


Excavation Reports

* * * * * * * * *


Subsequent Archaeological Studies

* * (reprinted in ) * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *


Encyclopedia Articles

* * * * * *


Museum Collections

* (Search for "place=Ajjul").


External links


Palestinian-Swedish Project at Tell el-Ajjul
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ajjul History of Palestine (region) Archaeology of the Near East Archaeological sites in the Gaza Strip Tells (archaeology) Bronze Age sites in Palestine Iron Age sites in Palestine