Shaaraim
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Shaaraim (Template:Langx), possibly meaning Two Gates, is an Israelite city mentioned several times in the Hebrew Bible. Some have identified it with Khirbet Qeiyafa, an archaeological site on a hilltop overlooking the Valley of Elah in the Judean Mountains.[1]
Biblical references
The city appears in the city list of Judah's tribal inheritance, after Sokho and Azekah (Script error: No such module "Bibleverse".). After David killed Goliath, the Philistines ran away and were slain on the "road to She'arayim" (Script error: No such module "Bibleverse".). In the city list of the tribe of Simeon, She'arayim is mentioned as one of the cities "unto the reign of David" (Script error: No such module "Bibleverse".).
Identification with Kh. Qeiyafa
After excavating the site, Yosef Garfinkel of Hebrew University of Jerusalem and others believe that Khirbet Qeiyafa is She'arayim. Fieldwork uncovered a wall that makes a nearly complete circuit with two gates. Garfinkel says it is the only contender for She'arayim, as all other sites dating to the period have a single city gate. Carbon dating and the absence of pig bones strengthen Garfinkel's argument that Qeiyafa is Israelite She'aryaim and not a Canaanite fortress.[2]
Israel Finkelstein claimed that Tel Megiddo and several other ancient towns in Canaan had two gates.[1]
Nadav Na'aman of Tel Aviv University doubts that Sha'arayim means "two gates" at all, citing multiple scholarly opinions that the suffix -ayim in ancient place names is not the dual suffix used for ordinary words.[3] Na'aman proposes instead that the name means just "gate", perhaps "because it was located on the western border of Judah with Philistia, a place that was seen as the gateway to the kingdom of Judah."[3]
References
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- ^ a b Julia Fridman, Crying King David: Are the ruins found in Israel really his palace?, at Haaretz, 26 August 2013.
- ^ Oldest Hebrew inscription Discovered in Israelite Fort on Philistine border, Biblical Archaeology Review, March/April 2010, p. 52.
- ^ a b Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Nadav Na'aman (2008). "Shaaraim — the gateway to the Kingdom of Judah" (PDF). Journal of Hebrew Scriptures. 8 (24). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2014-10-17. Retrieved 2017-08-28.
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