{"id":43327,"date":"2015-08-09T16:25:44","date_gmt":"2015-08-09T21:25:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/?p=43327"},"modified":"2015-08-10T08:00:38","modified_gmt":"2015-08-10T13:00:38","slug":"unearthing-gath-city-of-goliath","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/inspiration\/unearthing-gath-city-of-goliath\/","title":{"rendered":"Unearthing Gath, City of Goliath"},"content":{"rendered":"

Archeologists at Bar Ilan University made a startling discovery last week: remnants of the ancient city of Gath, the city of Goliath.<\/p>\n

Led by Professor Aren Maeir of the Martin (Szusz) Department of Land of Israel Studies and Archaeology at the University, the excavations of the ancient city of Gath were conducted in the Tel Zafit national park, located in the Judean foothills between Jerusalem and Ashkelon.<\/p>\n

The archaeological dig\u2014now in its 20th year (noted USA Today<\/a>)\u2014 has uncovered the entrance gate to Gath fortifications and an entrance gate to the biblical city.<\/p>\n

“We knew that Philistine Gath in the 10th to ninth century [B.C.] was a large city, perhaps the largest in the land at that time,” Professor Maeir told The Discovery Channel News<\/a>. \u201cThese monumental fortifications stress how large and mighty this city was.”<\/p>\n

Israel Today<\/a> also reports that among the various building discovered in the city is an iron production facility large enough to produce the kind of weapons used by Goliath, as mentioned in Tanach.<\/p>\n

Among other significant findings at the site is evidence of an earthquake in the 8th century BCE that is seemingly connected to the earthquake mentioned in the Book of Amos and two of the earliest Philistine inscriptions ever discovered, both of which contain two names similar to Goliath. A large assortment of weapons used by the Philistines were uncovered along with extensive evidence of the capture and destruction of the city by Hazael, which is mentioned in 2 Kings 12:18. There is also evidence of the first Philistine settlement in Canaan around 1200 BCE.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Archeologists at Bar Ilan University made a startling discovery last week: remnants of the ancient city of Gath, the city of Goliath. Led by Professor Aren Maeir of the Martin (Szusz) Department of Land of Israel Studies and Archaeology at the University, the excavations of the ancient city of Gath were conducted in the Tel<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":775,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_cloudinary_featured_overwrite":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[85],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-43327","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-inspiration"],"yoast_head":"\nUnearthing Gath, City of Goliath - OU Life<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/inspiration\/unearthing-gath-city-of-goliath\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Unearthing Gath, City of Goliath - OU Life\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Archeologists at Bar Ilan University made a startling discovery last week: remnants of the ancient city of Gath, the city of Goliath. Led by Professor Aren Maeir of the Martin (Szusz) Department of Land of Israel Studies and Archaeology at the University, the excavations of the ancient city of Gath were conducted in the Tel\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/inspiration\/unearthing-gath-city-of-goliath\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"OU Life\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-08-09T21:25:44+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2015-08-10T13:00:38+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Batya Rosner\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Batya Rosner\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/inspiration\/unearthing-gath-city-of-goliath\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/inspiration\/unearthing-gath-city-of-goliath\/\",\"name\":\"Unearthing Gath, City of Goliath - OU Life\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2015-08-09T21:25:44+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2015-08-10T13:00:38+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/#\/schema\/person\/69bade8a188706c98f053e793b2efd81\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/inspiration\/unearthing-gath-city-of-goliath\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/\",\"name\":\"OU Life\",\"description\":\"Everyday Jewish Living\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/#\/schema\/person\/69bade8a188706c98f053e793b2efd81\",\"name\":\"Batya Rosner\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/c2512983144e83677d175eaaa0ed12a4a0720e1edf8652d9b67602130b5df457?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/c2512983144e83677d175eaaa0ed12a4a0720e1edf8652d9b67602130b5df457?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Batya Rosner\"},\"description\":\"Batya Rosner is a staff writer of the Orthodox Union and ou.org\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/author\/batya_rosner\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Unearthing Gath, City of Goliath - OU Life","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/inspiration\/unearthing-gath-city-of-goliath\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Unearthing Gath, City of Goliath - OU Life","og_description":"Archeologists at Bar Ilan University made a startling discovery last week: remnants of the ancient city of Gath, the city of Goliath. Led by Professor Aren Maeir of the Martin (Szusz) Department of Land of Israel Studies and Archaeology at the University, the excavations of the ancient city of Gath were conducted in the Tel","og_url":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/inspiration\/unearthing-gath-city-of-goliath\/","og_site_name":"OU Life","article_published_time":"2015-08-09T21:25:44+00:00","article_modified_time":"2015-08-10T13:00:38+00:00","author":"Batya Rosner","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Batya Rosner","Est. reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/inspiration\/unearthing-gath-city-of-goliath\/","url":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/inspiration\/unearthing-gath-city-of-goliath\/","name":"Unearthing Gath, City of Goliath - OU Life","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/#website"},"datePublished":"2015-08-09T21:25:44+00:00","dateModified":"2015-08-10T13:00:38+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/#\/schema\/person\/69bade8a188706c98f053e793b2efd81"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/inspiration\/unearthing-gath-city-of-goliath\/"]}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/","name":"OU Life","description":"Everyday Jewish Living","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/#\/schema\/person\/69bade8a188706c98f053e793b2efd81","name":"Batya Rosner","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/c2512983144e83677d175eaaa0ed12a4a0720e1edf8652d9b67602130b5df457?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/c2512983144e83677d175eaaa0ed12a4a0720e1edf8652d9b67602130b5df457?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Batya Rosner"},"description":"Batya Rosner is a staff writer of the Orthodox Union and ou.org","url":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/author\/batya_rosner\/"}]}},"acf":[],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43327","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/775"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43327"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43327\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43328,"href":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43327\/revisions\/43328"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43327"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43327"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43327"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}