The Israel Antiquities Authority announced on Tuesday the unearthing of a monumental 5,500-year-old city gate at Tel Erani in Israel. This latest discovery is Israel’s oldest known city gate.
Instead of the traditional local mud brick, this gate was constructed from giant stone blocks dating to the Early Bronze Age. Standing nearly five feet tall, the gate also included a stone passageway through the city walls and two stone guard towers.
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The material construction of the gate puzzled archaeologists, along with the presence of another gate made of mud brick that is more consistent with the rest of the settlement.
The team used pottery found with the gates to determine that they were both in use during the time.
The gate would have served as both a defense and a signal of political, social, and economic fortitude during a time when the Lower and Upper Kingdoms of Egypt were undergoing unification. By the end of the Bronze Age, the two empires were one.
Prior to this discovery, the earliest known gate in Israel was built three centuries later at Tel Arad.
While Tel Erani has been occupied since the Chalcolithic period, it was largely settled in the Bronze Age. Based on Bronze Age pottery found at the site, archaeologists know that Tel Erani traded with other areas in the region such as the Negev and the Judean Desert.
Rescue excavations over the last month have been funded by the Mekorot water company, employees of which found artifacts while laying new pipe.
Source: artnews.com