IN PALESTINE IN RELATION TO THE BIBLE, 



223 



or their sites deserted, the returniii*^ or new occupiers usually 

 found it more convenient to start with entirely new house 

 foundations and streets than to unearth the old. " Tells " are 

 scattered all over Palestine but more particularly in, or on the 

 ^dges of the great plains ; towns built on steep rocky sites are 

 frequently refounded on the rock, the old foundations being 

 thrown over or utilised, but on level ground it was easier to 

 build upon the old rubbish than to remove it. 



The first work on the " tells " was begun at Tell el Hesy, a site 

 on the edge of the Phihstine Plain, by Professor Plinders Petrie, 

 on behalf of the "Palestine Exploration Fund," in 1890. In a 

 six weeks' reconnaissance this explorer was able with the 

 practised eye of an expert to lay down general lines with 

 respect to the dating of the successive strata by means of the 

 pottery, which with but slight modifications, have been followed 

 by all the subsequent workers. 



Dr. P. J. Bliss took up the work when Professor Petrie left it, 

 until 1893. The results he published in a small volume 

 entitled A Mound of Many Cities. After a spell of work at the 

 walls of Jerusalem (see below) Dr. Bliss in conjunction with 

 Mr. E. A. S. Macalister explored some of the "tells" of the 

 iShaphelah or low hill country of Judea. The area in which the 

 firman permitted work to be done included Tell Zeikareyeli 

 (perhaps Azekah), Tell Judeycleli (an unknown site), Tell es 

 Sciji (probably Gath), Tell Sandcumnnah (Mareshah) and Tell 

 Shmueikeh (Socoh). Of these sites all but the last "were 

 iittacked.* At Tell es Saji little could be done through the 

 hi 11- top being largely occupied by another village. This was the 

 more disappointing as of all the sites this is the one most 

 striking, its commanding situation at the very entrance to the 

 historic Vale of Elah and its good and abundant water supply 

 point to this as the site of an important place. Tell Zakareye.li 

 and Tell Judeydeh did not yield very great results, though the 

 work there was a necessary stepping stone to the understanding 

 of that at Gezer. Of all places the uninhabited TelL 

 ^andalicnmah — so called after the church of St. Anne, whose 

 ruins lie in the neighbourhood — should have yielded a rich 

 harvest, but unfortunately the "firman" expired before little 

 more than the upper layer of what proved to be the Greek city 

 of Marissa had been explored. The site is without doubt that 

 of Mareshah, a city fortified by llehoboam (2 Chron. xi, 8), the 



* For full account see Excavations in Palestine, 1898-1900, F. J. Bliss 

 and R. A. S. Macalister, Palestine Exploration Fund 



