Khirbet er-Ra'i

Khirbet er-Ra'i is situated on a hill on the Lachish River's southern bank, between the upper and lower parts of the Shfela (Shephelah). The hill is overlooking the Coastal Plain in the west, the Mount Hebron and Jerusalem in the east and Tell ej-Judeideh and Maresha to the north. Khirbet er-Ra'i controls the main road connecting the coastal plain with the Shephelah and Judea. According to the archeologists, these features make the site suitable to serve as a forward outpost of the settlements in the area of Lachish. ==Discovery and excavations==

The site was noted on the PEF Survey of Palestine maps as Tôr el Hiry, meaning "The mount of the granary; a cliff formed apparently by a landslip" according to E.H. Palmer, 1881. ==Archaeological findings==

Khirbet er-Ra'i appears to have been the main site in the region after the fall of Canaanite Lachish in the late 12th and early 11th centuries BCE. During the 10th century BCE, Khirbet er-Ra'i was a small village, Proto-Canaanite inscription In 2021, archaeologists Garfinkel and Ganor announced the discovery of a proto-Canaanite inscription dating to the 12th century BCE in Khirbet ar-Ra'i, a time period seen by many as the historical setting for the Biblical Book of Judges. The inscription, found on a jar, was deciphered by the epigrapher Prof. Christopher Rollston as bearing the name Jerubbaal, a name that appears only once in the Hebrew Bible as another name for the judge Gideon. According to the archaeologists, this inscription may refer to another Jerubbaal and not the Gideon of biblical tradition, but the fact that an identical name is found in archaeological site dating to a period identified with that of the Judges, shows that even though the Hebrew Bible was compiled in a much later period, some historical memories were preserved and passed down through the generations. Haggai Misgav of the Hebrew University says that because the inscription is partial, he is not certain that "Jerubbaal" is the only possible reading. It's possible that the first letter seen could actually be a zayin letter, not a yodh. There may have been an ayin before that, so the inscription could also refer to "Azruba'al". == Identification with Ziklag ==

A number of scholars have suggested that Khirbet al-Ra'i is the site of biblical Ziklag. Other scholars, such as Israel Finkelstein and Aren Maeir, argue against this identification, on the basis of biblical geography and the lack of continuity in names. ==See also==