Tel Jezreel

Chalcolithic Age During the excavations, archaeologists collected pottery and other findings scattered all over the site. The earliest archaeological findings at the site date to the Wadi Raba culture of the 5th millennium BCE. Bronze Ages The "breathtaking views" that the site commands to the north and east are considered to have been of strategic importance during the Bronze and Iron Ages because the commercial and military highway from Egypt to Syria and Mesopotamia passed through Megiddo, the Jezreel Valley, and Beth Shean. Iron Age Iron IB An unfortified settlement since the LBA. See Book of Samuel. Iron IIA In the 9th century BCE, Tel Jezreel was a main fortress thought to be built by king Omri. It was active in the reigns of King Ahab and his consort Queen Jezebel and their son King Jehoram. Byzantine period The anonymous author of the Itinerarium Burdigalense, who visited the site in 333 CE, calls it by its Latinized name, Stradela, a word derived from the Greek form Esdráēla (). The fourth-century Christian nun and pilgrim Egeria visited Jezreel and reported that "the tomb of Jezebel is stoned by everyone to this very day." It was the site of a large Ottoman-era fortified tower. During the 1947–1949 Palestine war, the village of Ze'rin "became a central base for Arab forces" and was therefore conquered and the site cleared. ==Excavations==

, 1880s. by a member of the American Colony in Jerusalem. Archaeologists David Ussishkin and John Woodhead led a dig at Jezreel. The excavations uncovered a casemate wall and four projecting towers surrounding the fortress, built with a combination of well-cut ashlars, boulders and smaller stones, and an upper level of mud-brick. The fortress enclosed an area of almost . It was 860' long and 470' wide, and defended by a steep slope to the north and a moat 20' deep and rampart on the other three sides. While vineyards do not leave direct archaeological remains, an independently conducted soil analysis found a plot of land in Jezreel properly suited for growing grapes, while the soils in the fields further west from the location were found to be the right quality for growing olives. Furthermore, numerous indicators of an ancient winery were discovered at a "particularly impressive installation...carved into the limestone bedrock at the foot of the hill of Jezreel", such indicators including rock-cut treading floors; two adjacent rock-cut vats, each more than one meter in depth; another treading floor connected to a vat by a rock-cut channel; a deep circular basin that possibly functioned as additional vat; and a sump for collecting liquids. ==The Bible==

Book of Samuel Prior to the division of the United Kingdom of Israel, the city was the hometown of Ahinoam, second wife of King David, Michal, Saul's daughter, being the first, Ahinoam being his second, and Abigail, widow of Nabal, being his third (). Book of Kings Ahab According to , following the prophet Elijah's victory over the prophets of Ba'al at Mount Carmel, Elijah instructs Ahab to return home to Jezreel, where he would be reporting on events to Jezebel, his wife, but "the hand of the Lord was upon Elijah" and he reached Jezreel ahead of Ahab (). Jezreel is around 50 km from Mount Carmel. According to the First Book of Kings, the royal palace of King Ahab, "one of the most famous of the royal residences of the kings of Israel", was in Jezreel, adjacent to the vineyard of Naboth (). Ahab's capital remained in Samaria. Jehu executed by defenestration in Jezreel, by Gustav Doré As recounted in , after Jehu kills King Jehoram, son of Ahab, he confronts Jezebel in Jezreel and urges her eunuchs to kill her by throwing her out of a window. They comply, throwing her out the window. They left her in the street where she was eaten by dogs. Only Jezebel's skull, feet, and hands remained. In Jehu orders the death of 70 descendants of Ahab, and has their heads sent to the new king in Jezreel and piled up in "two heaps at the gate entrance." Book of Hosea The book of Hosea mentions Jezreel. God commands Hosea to name his son "Jezreel, because I will soon punish the house of Jehu for the massacre at Jezreel, and I will put an end to the kingdom of Israel" (Hosea 1:4). God also tells Hosea as to a future event, "I will espouse you with faithfulness; then you shall be devoted to the LORD. In that day, I will respond—declares the LORD—I will respond to the sky, and it shall respond to the earth; And the earth shall respond with new grain and wine and oil, and they shall respond to Jezreel." (). Hosea also mentions, "In that day I will break Israel's bow in the Valley of Jezreel." (). ==References==