A Proto-Aeolic Capital from Gezer Author(s): BARUCH BRANDL Source: Israel Exploration Journal, Vol. 34, No. 2/3 (1984), pp. 173-176 Published by: Israel Exploration Society Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/27925938 Accessed: 25-05-2015 21:34 UTC
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A Proto-Aeolic Capital fromGezer* BARUCH
Hebrew
BRANDL
University,
Jerusalem
The pool at Gezer,1 described in the final report as 6thegreat Maccabaean reservoir', 'the great reservoir', 'theCentral Reservoir' and 'the great Central Reservoir',2 is one of the less frequentlymentioned architectural remains from the site (Fig. I).3 It is located inMacalister's
Trenches
16-17, north of his 'Maccabaean
Yadin as a Solomonic city-gate.4 Among the finds from the fill of the pool was
Castle',
later identified by
'a fragment of the volute of an Ionic was unable to associate itwith any excavator In the his preliminary report, capital'.5
building.6 In the final report, he assigned this fragment to two different 'Hellenistic' buildings: a probable temple based on classical models7 and the 'city gateway' near the
*
I am grateful to my friend Dr. Daniella Saltz for her help and comments. The following abbreviations in this paper. Gezer I-III ? R.A. Stewart Macalister: The Excavation of Gezer, I?III, London, I? W.G. Dever et ai: Gezer I, Preliminary Report 1912; Gezer-HUC Jerusa Seasons, of the 1964-66 ? II lem, 1970; Gezer-HUC inFields I and II, Jerusalem, idem, Gezer II, Report of the 1967-70 Seasons ? R.A. Stewart Macalister: Fifth Quarterly Report on the Excavation of Gezer, 1974; Fifth Report ? 35 Sixth Report idem, Sixth Quarterly Report on the Excavation of (1903), pp. 299-322; PEFQSt 36 (1904), pp. 9-26; Eleventh Report ? Gezer, PEFQSt idem, Eleventh Quarterly Report on the Excavation of Gezer, PEFQSt 37 (1905), pp. 97-115; Proto-Aeolic Capital ? Y. Shiloh: The Proto-Aeolic ? and Israelite Y. Yadin: Capital Masonry (Qedem 11), Jerusalem, 1976; Solomon's City Wall and Gate are used
Solomon's City Wall and Gate at Gezer, IEJ 8 (1958), pp. 80-86. 1 Pl. IV; Sixth Report, pp. 9-12, Fig. I; Gezer III, Pl. XXVII. Fifth Report, pp. 299-322, 2 Gezer I, p. 100; ibid., p. 223; ibid., pp. 265-268, 137; and Gezer II, pp. Fig.
210,
respectively. 3 J.B. Pritchard,
220,
267,
the excavator of the pool at Gibeon, mentioned the pool at Gezer only in his report: The it in his popular book: Gibeon, 1961, pp. 12-13, and overlooked of Gibeon, Philadelphia, Where the Sun Stood Still: The Discovery the City, Princeton, of the Biblical 1962, pp. 53-78. While Hebrew Union College excavators of Gezer indicated the pool in a preliminary report: W.G. Dever: at Gezer, Excavations A 30 (1967), p. 50, Fig. 8, itwas not plotted on the plans in the final reports: Water
System
Gezer-HUC 4 Gezer 5 Sixth 6 Sixth 1 Gezer
I, PI. I; Gezer-HUC I, p. 265 ;Gezer
II, PI. I.
III, Pl. VI; Solomon's
Report, p. 11; Gezer Report, p. l?.
City Wall
and Gate.
I, pp. 166, 267; Gezer II, p. 364.
II, p. 364.
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174
BARUCH BRANDL
Fig.
1.Above,
location of the pool (detail of GezerlII,
Pl. VI);
below, plan and section
of thepool (SixthReport,p. 11,Fig. 1).
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175
A PROTO-AEOLIC CAPITAL FROM G EZER
Fig. 2. Plan of Macalister's
'Maccabaean
Castle'
'city gateway'
near the 'Maccabaean
(Fig. 2), suggested by Yadin
Castle'
(Gezer /, Fig.
102).
to be the outer gate of the Solomonic
gate complex.8 The first suggestion can be ruled out conclusively, for no remains of such a building were ever found, as admitted by the excavator himself: that there was at least one building, probably a temple, designed on classical models was shewn by the fragment of an Ionic volute found in the Central Reservoir;
this building, however, had otherwise
been rooted out of existence...'9 The attribution of the fragment to a gateway, however, seems highly probable. The best example of ashlar masonry at Gezer is the outer gate of the Solomonic gate The masonry of the castle is of two different complex, as Macalister himself noted: kinds. At the gateway the stones are more carefully squared and fitted than anywhere in the mound...'10
else 8
Gezer
I, p. 267; Solomon's City Wall and Gate, pp. 82-83 (element C). Different suggestions were ? Z. Herzog The City-Gate in Eretz Israel and itsNeighboring Countries, Tel subsequently in the 'Solomonic' Gate at 1976, pp. 125-129 idem, The Hellenistic Drainage-Channel (Hebrew); in The Fifth Archaeological in Israels Jerusalem, 1978, p. 5; A. Zertal: The Gates of Conference
published Aviv, Gezer, Gezer, Date
El
15 (1981),
of Gezer's
esp. Fig. 4 (Hebrew) and p. 83* (English summary); I. Finkelstein: The Tel Aviv 8 (1981), pp. 136-145, esp. p. 141; W.G. Dever: The Late Bronze, Defences of Gezer, Journal of Jewish Studies 33 (1982), pp. 19-34.
pp. 222-228,
Outer Wall,
Iron Age, and Hellenistic 9 Gezer II, p. 364. 10 Gezer I, p. 222; see also Eleventh Report, p. 105. A photograph of this structure, overlooked by Dever ? R.A. Stewart Macalister: Bible (above, n. 8), p. 29, was published by the excavator in his popular book the Mound cf. Gezer 1907, Gezer, London, I, Fig. 102. A new print of this Side-Lights from of Fig. 46; photograph, (Pl. 20:A).
No.
899A
I would
of the Photographic Archive of the Palestine Exploration Fund, is reproduced here like to thank Gillian Webster, Executive Secretary of the P.E.F., for her assistance in
supplying the photograph.
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176
BARUCH BRANDL
well-known insight that the 'Maccabaean Castle' and the gatehouse are a Solomonic gate complex, confirmed in the field by theHebrew Union College actually excavations,11 strengthens the likelihood that this fragment indeed belonged to the Proto-Aeolic group of capitals which were invariably associated with ashlar masonry as Yadin's
a characteristic feature of royal Israelite architecture,12 despite the fact that its date could not be determined from itsfind spot.13
related it to the gateway it is apparent that the original complete capital must have been large. Since there was no free-standing pillar in the gate, the capital must have been engaged, with one side leftrough.14 From the fact thatMacalister
If our suggestion is correct, Gezer becomes the seventh site to yield Proto-Aeolic capitals. This fragment should be considered together with the other typical Israelite architectural elements at the site: the plan of the gates, ashlar masonry, the bonding technique of ashlar with field stones and themasons' marks.15
11
Solomon's
City Wall
(?971), pp. 112-120. 12
and Gate; W.G.
Proto-Aeolic
67-77.
Dever
et ai:
Capital; Y. Shiloh: New Proto-Aeolic For a confusion between Ionic and Proto-Aeolic
Further Excavations
at Gezer
1967-1971,
BA
34
in Israel, BASOR Found 222 (1976), pp. capitals, regarding them as one type, see e.g. G.E. on the Period of the Judges and the Early Monarchy, JBL 40 (1941), Capitals
Observations Wright: Archaeological p. 39. 13 Macalister Sixth Report, pp. 11-12; changed his dating several times: Fifth Report, pp. 321-322; Gezer I, p. 267; ibid., pp. 267-268. 14 See a restoration in Proto-Aeolic 12-13. During a visit to London inMarch 1979 I Capital, Figs. I wish to thank (if one was ever taken) of this find but was unsuccessful. attempted to locate a photograph for her cooperation Gillian Webster 15 Ibid., pp. 58, 63, 68, 86.
inmy search.
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PLATE 20 A:
Macalister's
photograph of the outer gate of Gezer.
A PROTO-AEOLIC CAPITAL FROM GEZER
: Themenorot from Kafr'Abbush.
^^^^L??*-i^^?^BB?fc
EN O ROT FROM WESTERN SAMARIA
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