Tel Yarmuth

Chronologically the city reached its peak at the same time as the Old Kingdom in Egypt and the Early Dynastic III period in Mesopotamia. After that the city was abandoned, with modest occupation in later periods.

Early Bronze period material from Tel Yarmuth has been radiocarbon dated and is being used to support the contention that EB III ended around 2500 BC. Samples tested were "3 from Final EB IB, 15 from EB II, and 19 from EB III". Results were Final EB IB to EB II transition between 3030 and 2960 BC, EB II to EB III transition between 2980 and 2910 BC.[3][4]

The only notable EB IB find was a basalt spindle whorl.[5]

The entire site including the lower town was heavily occupied in the Early Bronze (EB) II and III periods.[6][7] The site was abandoned around 2400 BC, during EB III.[5]

Early Bronze Age vessel found at Tel Yarmuth

The EB II and III monumental construction includes the large "White Building", a plastered masonry broad-room temple with a side altar. At its peak the city had massive sophisticated fortifications and a large main city gate (Area E). The first city wall (Wall A) was made of stone, was 6 meters deep and is preserved to 4 meters in height. A larger wall (Wall B) was later added outside of that built of cyclopean construction. The fortifications were subsequently improved even further.[6][7] A number of EB III flint Canaanite blades, believed to be used as sickle inserts or in threshing, were found.[5]

The acropolis was lightly re-occupied, based on potsherd finds, in the Middle Bronze IIA.

The site saw some occupation in the Late Bronze II. It included 13th century BC Mycenaean and Cypriot sherds. The only other epigraphic find was a hoe with a partial hieroglyphic inscription in a hoard of bronze objects, mostly fragmentary. They were dated to the time of the 19th Dynasty (12th century BC) and may not be in their original context.[5]

Somewhat more substantial building occurred on the acropolis in Iron I times. Finds from that period included a 2nd-century BC cooking pot with a yršlm (Jerusalem) stamp.

According to old Hebrew canonical books,[8] compiled during the late Bronze Age, Yarmuth (English text: Jarmuth) is mentioned along with the cities Adullam and Socho as occupying a place in the Land of Canaan, in the region geographically known as the Shefelah, or what is a place of transition between the mountainous region and the coastal plains. It was one of many city-states with independent and sovereign kings.[9] According to the same source, the king of Yarmuth (Jarmuth) was slain by Joshua and the Israelites during their conquest of the land of Canaan.[10]

In the late 8th-century BCE (ca. 700 BCE), Yarmuth was in the territorial domain belonging to King Hezekiah. In the 14th-year of King Hezekiah's reign, Sennacherib embarked on his third military campaign, this time against the cities of the Levant, including against the king of Sidon and against Jerusalem in Judah, where King Hezekiah was besieged.[11] Many of the king's important cities in Judah were at that time taken by Sennacherib and given over to other potentates faithful to Sennacherib. Although Yarmuth is not specifically named in the Aramaic stele (Oriental Institute Prism) detailing Sennacherib's exploits, it can be inferred by the account that the city did not go unscathed:

As for Hezekiah, the Jew, who did not submit to my yoke, forty-six of his strong, walled cities, as well as the small cities in their neighborhood, which were without number...I besieged and took. Two-hundred thousand, and one-hundred and fifty people, great and small, male and female, horses, mules, asses, camels, cattle and sheep, without number, I brought away from them and counted as spoil. Himself, like a caged bird, I shut up in Jerusalem his royal city... The cities of his, 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.[12]

The only record of Yarmuth for this time-period (c. 539–331 BCE) is taken from the Hebrew Bible, specifically the account of Nehemiah who returned with the Jewish exiles from the Babylonian captivity, during the reign of Artaxerxes I. According to Ezra, the acclaimed author of the book, some of these returnees had settled in Yarmuth, as shown by the Book of Nehemiah.[13] The political entity that was established in Judea at the time was that of a vassal state, as Judea became a province of the Persian Empire, governed by a satrap.[14]

During the Hellenistic and Roman periods, no records of events concerning Yarmuth have survived, although potsherds from the Roman period have been discerned.

Some Early Byzantine era terraces and potsherds were found in the lower town area.[15]