Azekah Adventures

I kept pretty busy during the Shiloh dig season, but I tried to take one day off each weekend to go adventuring with team members. We had such a large team that each weekend, there were multiple small groups making plans and going on adventures, so no matter what I decided to do, I was missing out on several equally exciting trips.

During the Shiloh dig season, I kept my blog focussed on excavation updates, and I didn’t have time to talk about my weekend adventures. Now, all the excitement is over, and my life is going to be a little low-key for the next little while as I focus on working on my PhD dissertation and on preparing lectures for several conferences that I’m presenting at this fall. So, I won’t have a whole lot interesting to write about. So, I’m planning to use my weekly blog posts for the next little while to catch you up on my weekend adventures during the Shiloh dig season.

The view from Azekah of the Elah Valley

My first adventure of the season was before the season even started. One of my teammates, Gary, came early to help get everything set up for the dig. He had been doing some research on Azekah and the surrounding area, so we set aside a day to go exploring there.

Azekah is a biblical site in the Shephelah, the low hills that separate the coastal plain from the mountains of Israel. The first biblical reference to Azekah is in Joshua 10, where the Israelites are chasing the coalition of Canaanites that attacked Gibeon. The last biblical reference to Azekah is in Jeremiah 34:7, which states that the king of Babylon had destroyed Jerusalem and all the fortified cities of Judah except for Lachish and Azekah. The site is mentioned a few other times in between those two references. The most notable mention is in 1 Samuel 17, which states that at the battle between David and Goliath, the Philistines were camped between Sochoh and Azekah.

The archaeological site of Azekah is well known, and several areas on the tel have been excavated. There is currently a team from Tel Aviv University exacting there. And, when I say currently, I mean that they are in the field as I write. Their excavation season started this week, and I have been thinking about going down to visit the dig if I have time.

Gary had been doing some research about Azekah and the surrounding area in relation to the Israelites’ battle with the Canaanites in Joshua 10. He had scoped out some nearby sites that he wanted to visit. We set out in the morning and headed to Azekah. We took a wrong turn as we approached the site, which made our drive a few minutes longer, but allowed us a nice tour of the campground and hiking areas surrounding the tel.

I explored a cave.

When we found the site, we parked and hiked up the hill. We took a few moments to admire the view and to locate other places that we knew. From Azekah, we could see Sochoh, Khirbet Qeiyafa, and the Elah Valley. We could picture the Israelites camped at Khirbet Qeiyafa, the Philistines camped between Sochoh and where we stood at Azekah, and David and Goliath meeting in the valley in between.

We explored the site, stopping at each excavated area to try to figure out what the archaeologists had found there. We found the city fortification wall, some structures inside the city, and a hiding system from the Bar-Kochba revolt on the slopes outside the city.

When we were finished exploring Azekah, we got back in the car and headed to some nearby sites. They were not nearly as well-known as Azekah. In fact, the only place that we could find any information about them was on hiking maps. We found a parking area near one of the sites and hiked up the hill to it. There wasn’t a lot to see, but we found ruins of a few walls, and at the top of the hill, we found a big olive press stone. We also found a wine-press area, a cistern, and a cave.

When we left that site, we tried to find another one. We drove up a gravel road to a hilltop where we were hoping to find a site, but instead, we found a basketball court. We headed back to Jerusalem after that, but as it turned out, our adventures at Azekah were not over.

The ruins of a pillared building

After examining satellite images of the area, and using Google Translate on several hiking websites, we came up with a couple more small sites in the vicinity of Azekah. That weekend, team members began arriving for the dig, and on Saturday, we decided to go back to explore some more. This time, four of us went.

Our first stop was Azekah, and since I had just been there, I made a point of exploring a few areas that I hadn’t gotten to earlier in the week. Then, we headed out, driving up gravel roads and using Google Maps’ satellite view to keep track of where we were in relation to where we wanted to go.

We drove until the road was too rough, and then we got out and hiked. We explored for a while, and eventually found ourselves back at the same site that we had found earlier in the week. We explored a bit more and found some tombs in the hillside. They were mostly full of silt, and there wasn’t much to see.

Lunch at the Elvis Cafe

We headed back to the car and drove a little further. This time, we found a site that had been partially excavated. There were a lot of ruins including pillars that were still standing. The structures looked to me like Iron Age II houses. When we finished exploring that site, we got back in the car to search for one more site. We had to get back on the highway and circle around, but we found it on a dirt road just off the highway. This looked like a later site chronologically speaking. We saw a lot of pottery that looked like it was from the Byzantine period.

The road that we found. Is this the ancient road to Emmaus?

By now, it was almost lunchtime, and we headed to the Elvis Cafe. The Elvis Cafe seems pretty random to me. It’s in a small town in the middle of nowhere between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. It is dedicated to all things Elvis. The walls are plastered with photos of Elvis, there are multiple statues of Elvis, and they sell all kinds of Elvis memorabilia. And, of course, they play Elvis music non-stop. We ordered burgers fries, and Coca Cola. Looking at the menu, we saw that they also serve more Israeli -style food like hummus and salads, but it didn’t seem right to get anything but a burger at the Elvis Cafe.

After lunch, we made one more stop, or at least we tried to. We had heard that there was a stretch of ancient road in that vicinity, the road that ran from Jerusalem to Emmaus. We circled around, driving through the town and then on dirt roads. Finally, we got as close as the car could take us, and we got out and walked from there. We did finally find what looked like it might be an ancient road, but it also could have been more modern. We weren’t convinced that we had found the right place, but we couldn’t figure out where else to look. We headed back to the car and back to Jerusalem.