A fierce fire that once devastated a palace and the city it rules over still puzzles scholars today.
The ancient city Hazor was the largest fortified city in the region known as Canaan during the Second Millennium BCE. Spanning some 208 acres, It was one of the most important trade crossroads in the Fertile Crescent, famous from as early as the Middle Bronze Age (around 1750 BCE) and through to the Israelite period (ninth century BCE). In the 1950’s, excavations began in the site known as Tel Hazor, or in Arabic as Tell Waqqas, in the upper Galilee. Over the decades archaeologists discovered monumental ruins and echoes of the city’s prominence, and in 2005 Hazor was designated a World Heritage Site by UNESCO.
In recent digs clear proof of a fire that destroyed the palaces and nearby structures ignited a fresh debate: Is this proof of what’s written in the 11th chapter of Joshua? Or is there a 150 year gap between the estimated time of the conquest and the carbon findings of these burnt ambers? And does it even matter? Once again, science and politics, biblical scholarship and ideological interpretations come into play, trying to solve an ancient riddle: Who burnt Hazor?
The Bible already gives two contradictory options. In today’s chapter, Joshua continues the conquest, turning to the north to quell the attack by Yabin, King of Hazor, who, like the King of Jerusalem before him, unites with four other local kingdoms to fend off the attacks of Israel. Joshua prevails with a surprise attack and takes over the city, whose fate is said to be unique:
רַ֣ק כׇּל־הֶעָרִ֗ים הָעֹֽמְדוֹת֙ עַל־תִּלָּ֔ם לֹ֥א שְׂרָפָ֖ם יִשְׂרָאֵ֑ל זוּלָתִ֛י אֶת־חָצ֥וֹר לְבַדָּ֖הּ שָׂרַ֥ף יְהוֹשֻֽׁעַ׃
“However, all those towns that are still standing on their mounds were not burned down by Israel; it was Hazor alone that Joshua burned down.”
Why is Hazor mentioned as the only one to be burned to the ground when Jericho and Ai shared the same fate? And what’s to do with the text in the upcoming Book of Judges that describes a similar battle between Yabin King of Hazor - and between the later leaders of Israel, Deborah and Barak, who are also burn the city?
Ancient sages and modern scientists have no answers here, only speculations.
Some use these findings to offer irrefutable facts that strengthen Israel’s right to the land, and to its ongoing occupation. Others point at the inconsistent narratives as obvious proof of the text’s doubtful historical veracity. Dr. Sharon Zuckerman, is one of the archaeologists who worked on the site in recent years and discovered 3,400 year old burnt jars in the basement of a palatial building. She suggests that the city was purposefully abandoned and destroyed about 150 years prior to the Israelite conquest, likely because of internal strife and social tensions.
There is another riddle hiding in Hazor. Among the findings are three impressive formulations of ritual stones, Matzebot, dating to the early Iron Age. those rock formations keep showing up throughout this book of Joshua, marked as milestones for various sorts. Were these erected by Joshua’s people, consistent with the other sites throughout the conquest?
Dr.Shlomit Bechar offers A fascinating theory:
“In all three cases at Hazor, the standing stones were set up in relation to the destruction level of the Canaanite city, which was still standing in its ruins. Thus, I believe that all three complexes were part of a tradition of “ruin cult” which took place at Hazor.
Ruin cult refers to cultic practices that are conducted in relation to ruins of a previous culture or settlement. The ruins are the focus of the ritual activities. This cultic practice is well-attested in the Aegean area from the end of the second millennium and the beginning of the first millennium. At sites where this practice was identified, the ruins functioned as the context of the cult performed by the inhabitants of the earliest Iron Age settlement...Practices of ruin cult are believed to have be used to create socio-political institutions, glorify the past to gain legitimacy under new political and social circumstances, or to express social distinctions using the heroic past of the Bronze Age.”
We may never know who burned down Hazor or why and who erected these monumental rocks. But the ruin cult? Still here. Big time. From the veneration of the Western Wall to the First Nations Native American names that are found on every modern map of North America - how we handle, honor, abuse or abandon our conquered past is at the heart of our often conflicted ongoing storytelling of identity.
The cult of ruins and its implications to the ancient book and modern politics continues, along with the conquest of Joshua, into the second part of the book, beginning with the next chapter.
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Ruin cult! Could become metaphor for the state of democracy.
The Wall. Also to some degree the Kaaba. And isn’t the image of the crucifixion basically the worship of a ruined human, thus redeemed. The ruin is a beacon of hope in a paradoxical way.