11 Days until Christmas -- "Solomonic" Gates

Very few times does archaeology harmonize to what is mentioned in text. Yet, both text and archaeology are lenses by which we view the world and neither one usually give the whole picture. It is the interpretation of this picture, which is what we call “history.”
 
There is a passage in the book of 1 Kings in 9:15 that says “And this is the account of the forced labor that King Solomon drafted to build the house of the YWHW, his house, the Millo, the wall of Jerusalem and Hazor, and Megiddo and Gezer.”
 
The passage refers to the reinforcement and building projects King Solomon implemented on the temple, his own palace, the walls of Jerusalem, and the walls of some major cities within his kingdom -- at Hazor, Megiddo and Gezer. There is not evidence of his building projects on the Temple since it was destroyed in 586 BCE and later built over by Herod the Great in the 1st Century BCE. What may remain from Solomon’s palace is under centuries of occupations in Jerusalem which is also not to mention a living, thriving city. However, the building projects for rebuilding walls of these other cities in interesting may provide a clue to King Solomon himself.
 
In gate structures during this period, we have what are called “chambered gates.” This is a particular architectural gate style which emerges in the Iron Age II period (10th – 9th Centuries BCE). There are two chamber gates, four chamber gates and six chamber gates reflecting the amount of chambers each gate has (see schematic image above).  The purpose of these chambers was span from their use in cultic shrines for travelers to offer sacrifices, to watering areas for animals and livestock. 

Around this time period we have only three examples of what are known as the 6 Chamber Gates, which are the largest and more significant of the three types. The sites which contain this mysterious architectural feature are only found at Hazor, Megiddo and Gezer, the three cities where Solomon supposedly reinforced the city walls mentioned in 1 Kings 9.
 
Do the discoveries of these three gates exhibit the building projects implemented by Solomon during his reign in Israel? The topic of David and Solomon’s historicity is another hotly debated subject and many have used this architectural feature to champion for Solomon’s relevancy.

See you tomorrow with number 10 of our countdown!

​-Tal