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Ashdod (ancient city)

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Ashdod (Philistine: 𐤀𐤔𐤃𐤃 *ʾašdūd; Hebrew: אַשְׁדּוֹד, romanized: ʾašdōḏ; Arabic: أسدود, romanized: ʾasdūd) or Azotus (Koinē Greek: Ἄζωτος, romanized: azōtos) was an ancient Levantine metropolis situated at Tel Ashdod, 'Mound of Ashdod', an archaeological site located a few kilometers south of the modern Ashdod in present-day Israel.

Ashdod / Azotus / Isdud
اسدود
Philistine pottery at the Museum of Philistine culture, Ashdod, Israel
Ashdod is located in Israel
Ashdod
Ashdod
Shown within Israel
Ashdod is located in Levant
Ashdod
Ashdod
Ashdod (Levant)
LocationAshdod, Israel
RegionLevant
Coordinates31°45′13″N 34°39′42″E / 31.75361°N 34.66167°E / 31.75361; 34.66167
TypeAncient Levantine city

The first documented urban settlement at Ashdod dates to the 17th century BCE, when it was a fortified Canaanite city,[1] before being destroyed in the Bronze Age Collapse. During the Iron Age, it was one of the five cities of the Philistine pentapolis, and is mentioned 13 times in the Hebrew Bible. After being captured by Uzziah, it was briefly ruled by the Kingdom of Judah before changing hands between the Neo-Assyrian Empire, the Neo-Babylonian Empire and the later Achaemenid Empire.

Following the conquests of Alexander the Great, the city became Hellenized,[2] and was known as Azotus. It was later incorporated into the Hasmonean kingdom. In the 1st century BCE, Pompey removed the city from Judean rule and annexed it to the Roman province of Syria. In 30 BCE, Ashdod came under Herod's rule, who bequeathed it to his sister Salome I, a decision later confirmed by Augustus. During the First Jewish–Roman War, Vespasian subdued and garrisoned the town.[2] Ashdod was a bishopric under Byzantine rule, but its importance diminished over the course of the medieval period.[3]

In the Ottoman-era, this was the site of the former and now depopulated Palestinian village of Isdud.[4][5] There was ongoing habitation at the site in the early modern period through to the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, when the then village of Isdud was depopulated when its inhabitants fled or were expelled. Today, the site is an archaeological site that is open to the public, with visible remains of Isdud and earlier historical ruins, thought to date back to the Philistine period.[6]

Name evolution

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The ancient Levantine settlement of Ashdod had many names. Its first attestation comes in the form of 11th century BCE Egyptian lists, where is it transcribed as "ísdd", which scholars have determined is derived from the Late Bronze Age Canaanite "’aṯdādu".[7] This became "asdudu" or "asdūdu" in Assyrian records,[7][8] "ašdudu" in Babylonian cuneiform and "ášdadi" in Ugaritic. The Hebrew "’ašdōd", or "Ashdod", is likewise believed to be derived from the Canaanite form.[7][8]

In the Hellenistic period, the name of the settlement became "Azotus" in Greek and sometimes specifically "Azotus Mesogaias", literally "Inland Azotus", in contrast to Azotus Paralios, literally "Azotus-by-the-sea", or Ashdod-Yam in Hebrew. In the Early Muslim period, the geographer Ibn Khordadbeh referred to the city in the 9th century as "Azdud", echoing the pre-Hellenistic name.[9] By the 16th century, it had lost its initial vowel to become just "Sdud",[10] before regaining it by the 19th century as "Esdud"[11] – a form of the settlement's name that changed little through to the 20th century "Isdud".[12]

History

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Bronze Age

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Middle Bronze

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The earliest major habitation in Ashdod dates to the 17th century BCE. Ashdod was fortified in MBIIC with a two-entryway city gate (similar to Shechem).[13]

Late Bronze

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Ashdod is first mentioned in written documents from Late Bronze Age Ugarit, which indicate that the city was a center of export for dyed woolen purple fabric and garments. At the end of the 13th century BCE, the Sea Peoples conquered and destroyed Ashdod. By the beginning of the 12th century BCE, the Philistines, generally thought to have been one of the Sea Peoples, ruled the city. During their reign, the city prospered and was a member of the Philistine Pentapolis ('five cities'),[14] which included Ashkelon and Gaza on the coast and Ekron and Gath farther inland, in addition to Ashdod.

Iron Age through Persian period

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Egyptian ruler Psamtik I during the fall of Ashdod in 635 BCE, illustration by Patrick Gray, 1900.

In 950 BCE, Ashdod was destroyed during Pharaoh Siamun's conquest of the region. The city was not rebuilt until at least 815 BCE.

Overall, the city remained independent of Judean and Israelite rule up until the Hellenistic period.[15]

Asdûdu led the revolt of Philistines, Judeans, Edomites, and Moabites against Assyria after expulsion of king Ahi-Miti, whom Sargon had installed instead of his brother Azuri. Gath (Gimtu) belonged to the kingdom of Ashdod at that time.[16] Assyrian king Sargon II's commander-in-chief (turtanu), whom the King James Bible calls simply "Tartan" (Isaiah 20:1), regained control of Ashdod in 712/711 BCE[17][18] and forced the usurper Yamani to flee. Sargon's general[19] destroyed the city and exiled its residents, including some Israelites who were subsequently settled in Media and Elam.[20]

Mitinti (Akkadian: 𒈪𒋾𒅔𒋾 mi-ti-in-ti; Philistine: 𐤌𐤕𐤕 *Mītīt or *Matīt)[21] was king at the time of Sargon's son Sennacherib (r. 705–681 BCE), and Akhimilki in the reign of Sennacherib's son Esarhaddon (r. 681–669 BCE).

Psamtik I of Egypt (r. 664 – 610 BCE) is reported to have besieged the great city of "Azotus" for twenty-nine years (Herodotus, ii. 157); the biblical references to the remnant of Ashdod (Jeremiah 25:20; cf. Zephaniah 2:4) are interpreted as allusions to this event.

The city absorbed another blow in 605 BCE, when Nebuchadnezzar of Babylonia conquered it.[22] Under Babylonian rule it was a province.[15]

In 539 BCE the city was rebuilt by the Persians.

Hellenistic period

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See also: Azotus Paralios

In 332 BCE the city was conquered in the wars of Alexander the Great.

During the Hellenistic period through to the late medieval period, the city was known to the Greeks as Αzotus (Greek: Άζωτος) or Azotus Mesogaios (literally "inland Azotus").[23] It was also known as Hippinos (literally "of the horsemen"), to the Romans.[23]

Despite its location four miles (6 km) from the coast, Ptolemy (c. 90 – c. 168 CE) described the Hellenized city as a maritime city, as did Josephus in Antiquities.[24][non-primary source needed] Josephus also describes Ashdod as "in the inland parts".[24][non-primary source needed] This curious contradiction may refer to Ashdod's control of a separate harbor, called "Azotus Paralios", or Ashdod-on-the-Sea (παράλιος - "paralios", Greek for "on the coast").[25][26]

Azotus prospered until the Maccabean Revolt, during which Judas Maccabeus took the city and "laid it waste".[24][non-primary source needed] His brother Jonathan Maccabaeus conquered it again in 147 BCE and destroyed the temple of Dagon associated with a Biblical story about the Philistine captivity of the Ark.[27] During the rule of Alexander Jannaeus, Ashdod was part of his territory.[24] The succession wars between Hyrcanus II and Aristobulus II wreaked destruction on Azotus.[24][non-primary source needed]

Roman period

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Pompey restored the independence of Azotus, as he did with all Hellenising coastal cities.[24][non-primary source needed] A few years later, in 55 BCE, after more fighting, Roman general Gabinius helped rebuild Ashdod and several other cities left without protective walls.[24][23] In 30 BCE Ashdod came under the rule of King Herod, who then bequeathed it to his sister Salome.[24][23] This was later confirmed by Augustus.[2] By the time of the First Jewish–Roman War (66-70), there was evidently a significant Jewish presence in Ashdod, prompting Vespasian to station a garrison in the city in the spring of 68.[23][2]

Byzantine period

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During the Byzantine period, Azotus Paralios overshadowed its inland counterpart in size and importance. The 6th-century Madaba Map shows both under their respective names.[28]

The prominence of Hellenised, then Christian Azotus continued until the 7th century.

The city was represented at the Council of Chalcedon by Heraclius of Azotus.

Early Muslim period

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Azotus came under Muslim rule in the 7th century.

The geographer Ibn Khordadbeh (c. 820 – 912, Early Muslim period) referred to the inland city as "Azdud" and described it as a postal station between al-Ramla and Gaza.[9]

Crusader and Mamluk periods

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12-century Crusader church endowments and land deeds mention settlement in Azotum. During the Mamluk period, Isdud was a key village along the Cairo—Damascus road, which served as a center for rural religious and economic life.[29]

Ottoman period

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Main article: Isdud

During the Ottoman period, the site was the location of a village, whose position on the Via Maris contributed to its importance. In 1596 CE, administered by nahiya ("subdistrict") of Gaza under the liwa' ("district") of Gaza, the population of Ashdod (named Sdud) numbered 75 households, about 413 persons, all Muslims. The villagers paid a fixed tax rate of 33,3% on wheat, barley, sesame and fruit crops, as well as goats and beehives; a total of 14,000 Akçe.[30][10]

 
Ruins of medieval Isdud, in 1900

In the late nineteenth century, Isdud was described as a village spread across the eastern slope of a low hill, covered with gardens. A ruined khan stood southwest of the village. Its houses were one-storey high with walls and enclosures built of adobe brick. There were two main sources of water: a pond and a masonry well. Both were surrounded by groves of date-palm and fig-trees.[31]

British Mandate

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Isdud, c. 1914–1918

In the 1922 census of Palestine, conducted by the British Mandate authorities, Isdud had a population of 2,566 inhabitants; 2,555 Muslims and 11 Christians,[12] where the Christians were all Catholics.[32] The population increased in the 1931 census to 3,240; 3,238 Muslims and 2 Christians, in a total of 764 houses.[33]

1948 Arab-Israeli War

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Isdud 1948

The village of Isdud was occupied by the Egyptian army on May 29, 1948, and became the Egyptians' northernmost position during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. While the Israelis failed to capture territory, and suffered heavy casualties, Egypt changed its strategy from offensive to defensive, thus halting their northward advance.[34] Egyptian and Israeli forces clashed in the surrounding area, with the Egyptians being unable to hold the Ad Halom bridge over the Lachish River. Israeli forces surrounded the town during Operation Pleshet, and shelled and bombed it from the air.[35] For three nights from 18 October the Israeli Air Force bombed Isdud and several other locations.[36] Fearing encirclement, Egyptian forces retreated on October 28, 1948, and the majority of the residents fled.[37] The 300 townspeople who remained were driven southwards by the Israel Defense Forces.[38][39] The village was part of territory that was granted to Israel in the 1949 Armistice Agreements following the end of the war.

Biblical references

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The Book of Nehemiah, referring to events in the 5th century BCE, mentions the Ashdodites[40] and the speech of Ashdod, which half of the children from mixed families are described as adopting. Hugo Winckler explains the use of that name by the fact that Ashdod was the nearest of the Philistine cities to Jerusalem.[41]

In Joshua 11, Ashdod is listed among the cities assigned to the Tribe of Judah (Joshua 11:21-22)[15]

In I Samuel 6:17 Ashdod is mentioned among the principal Philistine cities. After capturing the Ark of the covenant from the Israelites, the Philistines took it to Ashdod and placed it in the temple of Dagon. The next morning Dagon was found prostrate before the Ark; on being restored to his place, he was on the following morning again found prostrate and broken. The people of Ashdod were smitten with boils; a plague of mice was sent over the land (1 Samuel 6:5).[42]

The 1st century CE Book of Acts refers to Azotus as the place in which Philip the Evangelist reappeared after he converted the Ethiopian eunuch to Christianity.[43]

Archaeology

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Ancient Ashdod has today become an archaeological site known as "Tel Ashdod", located a few kilometers south of the modern Israel city of Ashdod. It was excavated by archaeologists in nine seasons between 1962 and 1972. The effort was led during the first few years by David Noel Freedman of the Pittsburgh Theological Seminary and Moshe Dothan.[44][45] The remaining seasons were headed by Dothan for the Israel Antiquities Authority.[46]

References

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  1. ^ Moshe Dothan (1990). Ashdod – Seven levels of excavations (in Hebrew). Israel: Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel, Ashdod branch. p. 91. ULI Sysno. 005093624.
  2. ^ a b c d Rogers, Guy MacLean (2021). For the Freedom of Zion: the Great Revolt of Jews against Romans, 66-74 CE. New Haven: Yale University Press. pp. 44, 281, 293. ISBN 978-0-300-24813-5.
  3. ^ "Ashdod | Israel | Britannica". www.britannica.com. Retrieved 2022-06-25.
  4. ^ Jacobs, D.; Eber, S.; Silvani, F. (1998). Israel and the Palestinian Territories. Music rough guide. Rough Guides. p. 113. ISBN 978-1-85828-248-0. Retrieved 2022-12-22. Four kilometres out of town and just west of Route 4, Tel Ashdod was the centre of the village of Isdud - ancient Ashdod - and site of the Philistine port. Get off the bus if you like old mounds, derelict Palestinian homes...
  5. ^ Carta's Official Guide to Israel: And Complete Gazetteer to All Sites in the Holy Land. Carta Publishing for the Ministry of Defence Publishing House. 1983. p. 81. ISBN 978-965-220-047-1. Retrieved 2022-12-22. Tel Ashdod... Ancient tel, 7 km S. of modern Ashdod within abandoned Arab village of Isdud...
  6. ^ "Tel Ashdod, Esdûd (S); Isdud, Sdud (M)". antiquities.org.il. Retrieved 2022-12-27.
  7. ^ a b c Cross Jr., F. M.; Freedman, D. N. (1964). "The Name of Ashdod". Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research. 175 (1): 48–50. doi:10.2307/1355824. JSTOR 1355824. S2CID 163848559.
  8. ^ a b Seymour Gitin, 'Philistines in the Book of Kings,' in André Lemaire, Baruch Halpern, Matthew Joel Adams (eds.)The Books of Kings: Sources, Composition, Historiography and Reception, BRILL, 2010 pp.301–363, for the Neo-Assyrian sources p.312: The four city-states of the late Philistine period (Iron Age II) are Amqarrūna (Ekron), Asdūdu (Ashdod), Hāzat (Gaza), and Isqalūna (Ashkelon), with the former fifth capital, Gath, having been abandoned at this late phase.
  9. ^ a b Khalidi, 1992, p. 110
  10. ^ a b A. Petersen (2005). The Towns of Palestine under Muslim Rule AD 600–1600. BAR International Series 1381. p. 133.
  11. ^ Robinson and Smith, 1841, vol 3, 2nd appendix, p. 118 Archived 2015-04-08 at the Wayback Machine
  12. ^ a b Barron, 1923, Table V, Sub-district of Gaza, p. 8 Archived 2015-04-04 at the Wayback Machine
  13. ^ Dothan 1971
  14. ^ B.Frenkel (1990). The Philistines (in Hebrew). Israel: Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel, Ashdod branch. p. 119. ULI Sysno. 005093624.
  15. ^ a b c Lemche, Niels Peter (2004). "Ashdod". Historical dictionary of ancient Israel. Historical dictionaries of ancient civilizations and historical eras. Lanham, Md.: Scarecrow Press. pp. 61–62. ISBN 978-0-8108-4848-1.
  16. ^ J. Kaplan (1990). Yamani stronghold in Ashdod-Yam (in Hebrew). Israel: Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel, Ashdod branch. p. 125. ULI Sysno. 005093624.
  17. ^ "Introducing Ashdod-Yam: History and Excavations". Ashdod-Yam Archaeological Project, website of. The Institute of Archaeology of Tel Aviv University & Institut für Alttestamentliche Wissenschaft, Universität Leipzig. 2014. Archived from the original on 21 May 2015. Retrieved 24 May 2015.
  18. ^ H. Tadmor (1966). "Philistia under Assyrian Rule". The Biblical Archaeologist. 29 (3). The American Schools of Oriental Research: 86–102. doi:10.2307/3211004. JSTOR 3211004. S2CID 165315779.
  19. ^ Cogan, Mordechai (1993). "Judah under Assyrian Hegemony: A Reexamination of Imperialism and Religion". Journal of Biblical Literature. 112 (3). The Society of Biblical Literature: 403–414. doi:10.2307/3267741. JSTOR 3267741.
  20. ^ Price, Massoume (2001). "A brief history of Iranian Jews". Iran Chamber Society. Archived from the original on 30 September 2007. Retrieved October 11, 2007.
  21. ^ NAVEH, JOSEPH. "Writing and Scripts in Seventh-Century B.C.E. Philistia: The New Evidence from Tell Jemmeh." Israel Exploration Journal, vol. 35, no. 1, Israel Exploration Society, 1985, pp. 8–21, http://www.jstor.org/stable/27925967.
  22. ^ O. Kolani; B. Raanan; M. Brosh; S. Pipano (1990). Events calendar in Israel and Ashdod (in Hebrew). Israel: Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel, Ashdod branch. p. 79. ULI Sysno. 005093624.
  23. ^ a b c d e Raphael Patai (1999). The Children of Noah: Jewish Seafaring in Ancient Times. Princeton University Press. pp. 144–145. ISBN 9780691009681. Archived from the original on 29 May 2021. Retrieved 5 April 2015.
  24. ^ a b c d e f g h Josephus Flavius. "The Antiquities of the Jews". Archived from the original on 13 June 2015. Retrieved 5 April 2015.
  25. ^ "Strong's Greek: 3882. παράλιος (paralios) -- by the sea, the sea coast". Archived from the original on 4 November 2014. Retrieved 29 June 2015.
  26. ^ S. Piphano (1990). Ashdod-Yam in the Byzantine period (in Hebrew). Israel: Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel, Ashdod branch. p. 143. ULI Sysno. 005093624.
  27. ^ S.Shapira (1990). Battle of Ashdod (147BC) (in Hebrew). Israel: Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel, Ashdod branch. p. 135. ULI Sysno. 005093624.
  28. ^ "Madaba Map, numbers 96 (Azotus) and 97 (Azotus-on-the-Sea) with discussions". Archived from the original on 2015-03-31. Retrieved 2018-12-28.
  29. ^ Marom, Roy; Taxel, Itamar (2023-10-01). "Ḥamāma: The historical geography of settlement continuity and change in Majdal 'Asqalan's hinterland, 1270–1750 CE". Journal of Historical Geography. 82: 49–65. doi:10.1016/j.jhg.2023.08.003. ISSN 0305-7488.
  30. ^ Hütteroth and Abdulfattah, 1977, p. 143. Quoted in Khalidi, 1992, p. 110
  31. ^ Conder and Kitchener, 1882, SWP II, p. 409 Archived 2016-10-28 at the Wayback Machine. Quoted in Khalidi, 1992, pp. 110-111
  32. ^ Barron, 1923, Table XIII, p. 44 Archived 2017-10-20 at the Wayback Machine
  33. ^ Mills, 1932, p. 4 Archived 2016-06-10 at the Wayback Machine.
  34. ^ New York Times[permanent dead link] June 8, 1948
  35. ^ Yehudah Ṿalakh (2003). Battle Sites in the Land of Israel (in Hebrew). Israel: Carta. p. 24. ISBN 965-220-494-3.
  36. ^ Khalidi, 1992, p. 112
  37. ^ "Zochrot - Isdud". Archived from the original on 2018-04-28. Retrieved 2018-07-16.
  38. ^ "From Isdud to Ashdod: One man's immigrant dream; another's refugee nightmare". International Middle East Media Center. April 13, 2006. Archived from the original on 26 September 2007. Retrieved September 21, 2007.
  39. ^ Morris (2004), p. 471.
  40. ^ at 13:23,24.
  41. ^ Geschichte Israels. 1898. p. 224.
  42. ^ Harris JC (2006). "The plague of Ashdod". Arch. Gen. Psychiatry. 63 (3): 244–5. doi:10.1001/archpsyc.63.3.244. PMID 16520427.
  43. ^ Acts 8:40)
  44. ^ M. Dothan and David Noel Freedman, Ashdod I, The First Season of Excavations 1962, Atiqot, vol. 7, Israel Antiquities Authority, 1967
  45. ^ David Noel Freedman, The Second Season at Ancient Ashdod, The Biblical Archaeologist, vol. 26, no. 4, pp. 134–139, 1963
  46. ^ Moshe Dothan, Ashdod VI: The Excavations of Areas H and K (1968–1969) (Iaa Reports) (v. 6), Israel Antiquities Authority, 2005, ISBN 965-406-178-3
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