Excavating Philistine Gath: Have We Found Goliath’s Hometown? by Aren M. Maeir, Carl S. Ehrlich
Three of the five cities of the famous Philistine Pentapolis have long been known—Ashkelon, Ashdod and Gaza. A fourth, Ekron, has recently been confirmed by an inscription, locating it at modern Tel Miqne. Gath, the fifth, remains somewhat of a mystery. We believe we have found it—at Tell es-Safi, where we have been digging now for four years. Go to the link above for a very good article with a lot of history and archeology.
More extracts found to be interesting are:
- Even if David’s victory over Goliath is legend, it contains a small reference that might help us identify Gath: After David killed Goliath “in the valley of Elah” (1 Samuel 21:9), the Israelites pursue the Philistines “all the way to Gath and to Ekron” (1 Samuel 17:52). Apparently, Gath is near Ekron.
- Gath figures in several other Biblical stories. When the Philistines capture the Ark of the Covenant at the battle of Ebenezer (1 Samuel 4), it turns out to be a dubious trophy. At first the Philistines set the Ark up in the temple of their god Dagon at Ashdod, but the next morning they find the god’s statue lying face down on the ground (1 Samuel 5). They set him up again, but the next morning Dagon is again lying prone—and this time his head and hands are cut off. Moreover, all the Ashdodites suddenly have very uncomfortable hemorrhoids. They hastily remove the Ark to Gath—and the Gittites, too, contract hemorrhoids! So the Gittites send the Ark to Ekron. When the same thing happens to the Ekronites, they wisely send the Ark on its own (in a wagon drawn by cows) back to the Israelites. The cows go directly east to Beth Shemesh (1 Samuel 6:12). These geographical markers again hint at the location of Gath.
- Gath also features prominently in David’s flight from King Saul. It is to Philistine Gath that David first flees (1 Samuel 21:10). Eventually he enters the service of Achish, king of Gath (1 Samuel 27:2), and in due time Achish grants David the city of Ziklag as a personal fiefdom for David (1 Samuel 27:6).a
- Gath is also mentioned in David’s famous lament for his friend Jonathan: 2 Samuel 1:19–20.
- The archaeologist’s spade, however, has uncovered a rich Philistine culture, which in its material aspects often exceeded the level of contemporaneous Israelite culture.
- The Philistines were one of the Sea Peoples (as we know from an Egyptian inscription), a group of seafaring tribes that emerged in the eastern Mediterranean world at the end of the Bronze Age (1200 B.C.E.). After engaging in a number of battles with Egypt, the Philistines settled in Canaan, possibly as Egyptian mercenaries.2 After attempting to extend their influence farther into inland Canaan, an attempt reflected in the accounts of various battles recorded in the books of Judges and 1 Samuel, the Philistines were wedged into the southwestern coastal strip of Canaan, presumably by King David, in the early tenth century B.C.E.
- The loose confederation of five major cities that the Bible describes includes three coastal cities—Ashdod, Ashkelon and Gaza (from north to south along the Mediterranean coast)—and the inland cities of Ekron and Gath, both of which were on the border between Philistia and Israel or Judah.
The article goes into a lot of detail about the archeological finds and wars in the 8th century but does not mention the earthquake told in Amos during King Uzziah/Azariah of Judah. It does state: In any event, Gath was apparently independent in the middle of the eighth century B.C.E., since we are told that King Uzziah/Azariah of Judah breached the walls of Gath, Yavneh and Ashdod (2 Chronicles 26:6). No similar claim is made in 2 Samuel, so again the passage is of questionable reliability. Nonetheless, it is significant that Gath is once again mentioned in connection with Ashdod in northern Philistia. After that, Gath more or less disappears from the Biblical narrative. In the prophetic oracles against the nations, where we might expect Gath to be mentioned, it is noticeable by its absence.
There is also a dry moat described. Our mysterious trench is just such a dry siege moat, dug by the besiegers of the city, who had both massive manpower and the time to invest in a lengthy siege. The moat was not to keep the city’s attackers out, but to keep residents from escaping, to prevent them from receiving supplies and to prevent them from attacking the besieging forces.
