Tell en-Nasbeh[Kingdom of Israel (Samaria)|], likely the biblical city ofMizpah in Benjamin, is a 3.2 hectare tell located on a low plateau northwest of Jerusalem in the West Bank. The site lies adjacent to an ancient roadway connecting Jerusalem with the northern hill country, which is how Tell en-Nasbeh gained importance as Judah's northern border fortress during its prime phase of occupation in the Iron Age. There are also archaeological remains at the site and in surrounding cave tombs that have been dated to the Early Bronze I, Iron I, Babylonian and Persian, Hellenistic, Roman and Byzantine Periods.
Excavation history
The site was excavated over 5 seasons between 1926 and 1935 by William Frederic Badè of the Pacific School of Religion in Berkeley, CA. The project was jointly sponsored by the Pacific School of Religion and the American Schools of Oriental Research, and represents one of the earliest scientific excavations in region. After Badè's untimely death in 1936, his colleagues compiled and published a 2-volume final report for the excavation. The original dig records, specifically the stratigraphic evidence, were later re-analyzed and published by Jeffrey R. Zorn of Cornell University. Research of the Tell en-Nasbeh collection continues today, both by staff of the Badè Museum of Biblical Archaeology at the Pacific School of Religion and by outside scholars from around the world. Museum staff are also involved in a huge multi-year project to digitize over 5,800 objects that comprise the Tell en-Nasbeh collection. This project, based in Open Context, is in collaboration with staff of the in San Francisco, CA.
Occupational history
Tell en-Nasbeh was a small village in the Late Chalcolithic and Early Bronze I periods. It was then abandoned until the beginning of the Iron Age, around the 10th century BCE, when it became a sizable agricultural village. By Iron Age II, it was a walled settlement with a massive city gate, on the frontier between the southern and northern Israelite kingdoms. After the fall of Jerusalem to the Babylonians in 586 BCE, Mizpah became the administrative center for the district of Binyamin in Judah. Pottery, coins, and other small finds indicate Tell en-Nasbeh was still occupied by the Hellenistic Period when Judas Maccabeus gathered his army at Mizpah to confront the Seleucid army. Later finds, including a tower, tombs in the extramural cemeteries, and the floor of a Byzantine church near the western cemetery, speak to some occupation in later periods.
