J11-5: What The Godfather Of All Hebrew Archaeologists Had To Say About Civilization At Hazor

Just as Jebus (another name for “Jerusalem”) was the ruler over the southern Canaanite kingdoms, so was Hazor the ruler over the northern regions of Canaan during Joshua’s time.

A good 1000 years before Joshua and his Hebrew army ever stepped foot inside the Promised Land, Hazor was one of the largest and most powerful cities in Canaan.

It’s at this juncture that I’d like to introduce an interesting fellow to you.

His name is Yigael Yadin and he was the second Chief of Staff of the Israel Defense Forces and the Deputy Prime Minister from 1977 to 1981.

But that’s not all he was.

He’s also considered to be the “Don Corleone” (in other words the godfather) of all Hebrew archaeologists.

According to Yadin, the lowest layer of the ruins at Hazor can be dated all the way back to 2700 B.C.!!!

However, archaeologists have yet to dig far enough to have reached the oldest strata of civilization at Hazor. 

Let me remind you that during Bible times, civilizations were built, destroyed and rebuilt on top of each other over and over and over again throughout the centuries.

And when this happened, the rubble left over from the previous city wasn’t necessarily all cleared away.

A new city would be built right on top of the destroyed city that came before it.

Why was it done like this?

There were a multitude of common sense reasons why.

For one, normally a major city was situated smack dab where key highways and trade routes were located and…

…second, a major city was usually near a major water source which obviously was necessary to survive.

So it just didn’t make any sense to build a new city anywhere else but where the previous city had been.

I mean why start all over again when the original city was near a dependable water source and already had established highways and trade routes?

Concerning the construction process, usually the buildings were made out of a combination of bricks and stones that were just knocked down to the ground when the city was destroyed by some conquering force.

So when a city was rebuilt, instead of going through the pain in the neck process of lugging around all of this heavy material thousands of feet from one place to another…

…OR…

…re-sculpturing by hand new stones needed to rebuild the city, the same material was just recycled.

Alrighty, that does it for today.