Tell Balata

Tell Balata () is an archaeological site in the West Bank near Nablus, Palestine, that includes the remains of an ancient Canaanite and Israelite (Samaritan) city, identified since 1913 with the Biblical city of Shechem. The built-up area of Balata, a Palestinian village and suburb of Nablus, covers about one-third of the tell, and overlooks a vast plain to the east.Pfeiffer, 1966, p. 518. The Palestinian village of Salim is located to the east.Kalai, 2000, p. 114.

The site is listed by UNESCO as part of the Inventory of Cultural and Natural Heritage Sites of Potential Outstanding Universal Value in the State of Palestine. Experts estimate that the towers and buildings at the site date back 5,000 years to the Chalcolithic and Bronze Ages.

Modern name

Tell is an old Semitic word for an archaeological mound, long used by Arabic-speaking Fellahin. ''Balata'' is the name of the ancient Arab village located on the tell, and of the adjacent Palestinian refugee camp of Balata established in 1950. The name was preserved by local residents and used to refer both to the village and the hill (and later on, the refugee camp).

One theory holds that ''balata'' is a derivation of the Aramaic word ''Balut'', meaning ''acorn''; another theory holds that it is a derivation of the Byzantine-Roman era, from the Greek word ''platanos'', meaning "terebinth", a type of tree that grew around the spring of Balata.Crown et al., 1993, p. 39.Mazar and Ahituv, 1992, p. 53. The local Samaritan community traditionally called the site 'The Holy Oak' or 'The Tree of Grace'.

Identification as ancient Shechem

Traditionally, the site has been associated with the biblical Samaritan city of Shechem, said by Josephus to have been destroyed by John Hyrcanus I; this is based on circumstantial evidence such as its location and preliminary evidence of habitation during the late Bronze and early Iron Ages. Tell Balata lies in a mountain pass between Mount Gerizim and Mount Ebal, a location that fits well with the geographical description provided for Shechem in the Bible.Rast, 1992, p. 31. No inscriptional evidence to support this conclusion has been found ''in situ'', and other sites have also been identified as the possible site of the biblical Shechem; for example, Y. Magen locates that city nearby on Mount Gerizim, at a site covering an area of 30 hectares.Shatzman, 1991, p. 60.

Archaeology

The site was first excavated by a German team led by Ernst Sellin from 1913 to 1914. After the end of World War I, work by Sellin was resumed in 1926 and lasted until 1934 with the last few seasons led by G. Welter.

Excavations were conducted at Tell Balata by the American Schools of Oriental Research, Drew University, and the McCormick Theological Seminary in 8 seasons between 1956 and 1964 when the West Bank was under the rule of Jordan. Archaeologists who took part in this expedition included Paul and Nancy Lapp, Albert Glock, Lawrence Toombs, Edward Campbell, Robert Bull, Joe Seeger, and William G. Dever, among others.Silberman in Meskell, 1998, p. 184. Further excavations are to be undertaken by Palestinian archaeologists along with students from the University of Leiden in the Netherlands as part of a joint effort funded by the Dutch government.

A 2002 final published report on the stratigraphic and architectural evidence at Tell Balata indicates that there was a break in occupation between the end of the Late Bronze Age (c. 1150 BC) through to the early Iron Age II (c. 975 BC).Edward F. Campbell, ''Shechem III: The Stratigraphy and Architecture of Shechem/Tell Balâtah''. Vol. 1. Text. Vol. 2. The Illustrations, American Schools of Oriental Research, 2002, A small quadrangular altar discovered in Tell Balata, similar to ones found in other Iron Age sites such as Tel Arad and Tel Dan, may have been used for burning incense.Becking, 2001, p. 52.

One of the oldest coins discovered in Palestine was an electrum Greek Macedonian coin, dated to circa 500 BC, found at Tell Balata.De Vaux, 1997, p. 208. There is evidence that the site was inhabited in the Hellenistic period until the end of the 2nd century BC.Isaac, 1998, p. 16. This Hellenistic era city was founded in the late 4th century BC and extended over an area of 6 hectares. The built structure shows evidence of considerable damage dated to the 190s BC, and attributed to Antiochus III's conquest of Israel. Habitation continued until the final destruction of the city at this site in the late 2nd century BC.

References

See also

*Cities of the ancient Near East

References

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*Robert J. Bull, A Note on Theodotus' Description of Shechem, The Harvard Theological Review, vol. 60, no. 2, pp. 221–227, 1967
*Edward F. Campbell Jr, Shechem II: Portrait of a Hill Country Vale: The Shechem Regional Survey, American Schools of Oriental Research, 1991,
*Dan P Cole, Shechem 1: The Middle Bronze IIB Pottery, Eisenbrauns, 1984,
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* Dever, W., The MB IIC Stratification in the Northwest Gate Area At Shechem, Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research, no. 216, pp. 31–52, 1974
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* Horn, S., Scarabs and Scarab Impressions from Shechem-II, Journal of Near Eastern Studies, Vol. 25, No. 1, pp. 48–56, 1966
* Lapp, N., The Stratum V Pottery from Balâtah (Shechem), Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research, no. 257, pp. 19–43, 1985
* Lapp, N., Shechem IV: The Persian-Hellenistic Pottery of Shechem/Tell Balatah, American Schools of Oriental Research, 2008,
* Lapp, N., Pottery from Some Hellenistic Loci at Balâtah (Shechem), Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research, no. 175, pp. 14–26, 1964
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* Taha, Hamdan, and Gerrit van der Kooij. "Tell Balata (Shechem): An Archaeological and Historical Reassessment." Biblical Narratives, Archaeology and Historicity: Essays In Honour of Thomas L. Thompson (2019):
*Lawrence E. Toombs, The Stratification of Tell Balâtah (Shechem), Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research, no. 223, pp. 57–59, 1976
* Ussishkin, D., Notes on the Fortifications of the Middle Bronze II Period at Jericho and Shechem, Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research, no. 276, pp. 29–53, 1989
* Wright, G.E., Selected Seals from the Excavations at Balâtah (Shechem), Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research, no. 167, pp. 5–13, 1962
*G. R. H. Wright, The Architectural Recording of the Shechem Excavation, The Biblical Archaeologist, vol. 23, no. 4, pp. 120–126, 1960

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External links

Tell Balata Archaeological Park

Populated places disestablished in the 2nd century BC
1913 archaeological discoveries
Archaeological sites in the West Bank
Former populated places in Palestine
Tourist attractions in Palestine
History of Nablus
Bronze Age sites in Palestine
Balata
Shechem