Early Bronze Age The first settlement excavated in Tel Hazor is dated to the Early Bronze Age II and III periods, existing at around the 28th and 24th centuries BCE. It was part of a system of settlements around the
Hula Valley, including
Abel Beth Maachah,
Dan and
Kedesh. The settlement was exposed in limited areas where a few houses were discovered. Based on these finds, Early Bronze Age Hazor was not a significant settlement. With that said, it seems that a large monumental structure dated to the following Middle Bronze Age period was already erected in the Early Bronze Age, sometime after the 27th century BCE. If this is true it implies that already in its beginnings, Hazor was a well-planned settlement that served as an urban center. It also shows one of the earliest examples of
basalt slabs used as foundations to walls (
orthostates) in the
Southern Levant, only preceded by a temple from
Tel Megiddo. The transition to the Early Bronze Age III period is characterized by the movement of people from rural areas within the valley to major urban sites such as Hazor, Dan and Abel Beth Maachah. Thus the establishment of a possible palace in Hazor, as well as in Dan, attest to this phenomenon.
Intermediate Bronze Age Compared to the rest of Canaan, Hazor and Megiddo did not show signs of urban decline in the Intermediate Bronze Age. In Hazor, there was evidence of human settlements and a thriving economy, based on copper ingots and pottery from the Megiddo Ware family. In 2021, archaeologists discovered that Intermediate Bronze Age (ca. 2300–2200 BC) Hazor was preceded by years of abandonment, which started in the Early Bronze Age III (ca. 2500 BC). The latter was left in ruins but the new city built on top followed similar architectural patterns.
Middle Bronze Age During the Middle Bronze II (1820–1550 BC), Hazor was a vassal of
Ishi-Addu of
Qatna and his son
Amutpiel II. Qatna was at the time a rival of the Great Kingdom of Yamhad centered on Aleppo, which also included Ebla and Hamath. Qatna controlled territory towards the Akkar Plain and the Beqa Valley to Hazor. However, Qatna also faced rebellions in the south, often instigated by Yamhad. In any case, Hazor was under strong Syrian influence from the north.
King Ibni-Addu A king Ibni-Addu of Hazor (c. 1770–1765 BC) is known. There are trade routes connecting Hazor with Zimri-Lim of Mari and Yarim-Lim of Yamhad. Tin trade was important used together with copper to make the alloy bronze. For a brief period, Mari received tin from Elam before their friendship collapsed. ARMT 23 556 (dating to year 9–10 of Zimri-Lim) mentions this tin trade and Ibni-Addu of Hazor.
Execration texts In Egypt, Hazor is mentioned in the
execration texts.
Mari Archive At
Mari (Syria), on the Euphrates River, letters mention Hazor during the reigns of
Yasmah-Adad and
Zimri-Lim (1775–1761 BC). Hazor is part of a trade route Hazor-Qatna-Mari. A tablet fragment was also found at Hazor which listed an expected trade path from Hazor to Mari and then on to Ekallatum. The Mari Letter (IAA 1997-3305) is a list of commodities from Mari to Hazor.
Late Bronze Age Egyptian period At the beginning of the early
New Kingdom,
Ahmose I started military campaigns into the southern Levant to evict the Hyksos. Several cities were attacked and more military campaigns came with
Thutmose I and later
Thutmose III. Under Thutmose III
Canaan was an Egyptian
vassal state. In the Amarna Period (c. 1350 BCE), the Man of Hazor (LU2 Hasura) saw its petty king
Abdi-Tirshi swearing loyalty to the Egyptian pharaoh. In Amarna Tablet EA 148,
Abi-Milku, the king of
Tyre, accused to pharaoh that the land of Hazor is taken by
Habiru and the king of Hazor aligned with
Habiru, and in EA 228, the king of Hazor requests the pharaoh to remember the harm that is done (by
Habiru/ʿApiru or neighboring cities) against his city.
Biblical archaelogy According to the
Book of Joshua, Hazor was the seat of
Jabin, a powerful Canaanite king who led a Canaanite confederation against
Joshua, an Israelite military commander. However, Joshua and his soldiers defeated the Canaanites and burnt Hazor to the ground. According to the
Book of Judges, Hazor was the seat of Jabin, the king of Canaan, whose commander,
Sisera, led a Canaanite army against
Barak, but was ultimately defeated.
Textual scholars believe that the prose account of Barak, which differs from the
poetic account in the
Song of Deborah, is a conflation of accounts of two separate events, one concerning Barak and Sisera like the poetic account, the other concerning Jabin's confederation and defeat. Amnon Ben-Tor of the
Hebrew University of Jerusalem believes that recently unearthed evidence of violent destruction by burning verifies the Biblical account. In 2012, a team led Ben-Tor and Sharon Zuckerman discovered a scorched palace from the 13th century BCE in whose storerooms they found ewers holding burned crops; Sharon Zuckerman did not agree with Ben-Tor's theory, and claimed that the burning was the result of the city's numerous factions opposing each other with excessive force.
Israel Finkelstein claims that the Israelites emerged as a subculture within Canaanite society and rejects the biblical account of the Israelite conquest of Canaan. In this view, the Book of Joshua conflates several independent battles between disparate groups over the centuries, and artificially attributes them to a single leader, Joshua. The city also show signs of having been a magnificent Canaanite city prior to its destruction, with great temples and opulent palaces, split into an upper
acropolis, and lower city; the town evidently had been a major Canaanite city. He theorized that the destruction of Hazor was the result of civil strife, attacks by the
Sea Peoples, and/or a result of the
general collapse of civilization across the whole
Eastern Mediterranean in the Late Bronze Age. Some scholars argue the Book of Judges and Book of Joshua may be parallel accounts referring to the same events, rather than describing different time periods, and thus they may refer to the same Jabin, a powerful king based in Hazor, whose Canaanite confederation was defeated by an Israelite army. Some Christian polemicists report that the
lunar origins of Allah can be found in Hazor, which has been criticized by archaeologists.
Iron Age Israelite Hazor The archaeological remains suggest that after its destruction, the city of Hazor was rebuilt as a minor village within "the territory of Naphtali" (
Joshua 19:36). According to the
Books of Kings, the town, along with
Megiddo, and
Gezer, was substantially fortified and expanded by
Solomon. Like Megiddo and Gezer, the remains at Hazor show that during the Early Iron Age the town gained a highly distinctive
six-chambered gate, as well as a characteristic style to its administration buildings; archaeologists determined that these constructions at Hazor were built by the same leadership as those at Megiddo and Gezer. others date these structures to the early 9th century BCE, during the reign of the
Omrides. Archaeological remains indicate that towards the later half of the 9th century BCE, when the king of Israel was
Jehu, Hazor fell into the control of
Aram Damascus. Some archaeologists suspect that subsequent to this conquest Hazor was rebuilt by Aram, probably as an Aramaean city. When the
Assyrians later defeated the Aramaeans, Hazor seemingly returned to Israelite control; Assyrian records indicate that
Joash, king of Israel at the time, had paid tribute to Assyria and Israel had become an Assyrian vassal state. and the city was burnt to the ground. ==See also==