page_title: Gezer
section_title: Bronze Age
hierarchical_section_title: Gezer / History and archaeology / Bronze Age
caption_attribution_description: English: Ongoing work to clear the Bronze Age water system at Gezer, originally excavated by Macalister, June 3 2011
context_page_description: Gezer, or Tel Gezer, in Arabic Tell Jezer or Tell el-Jazari, the site of the abandoned Arab village of Abu Shusheh, is an archaeological site in the foothills of the Judaean Mountains at the border of the Shfela region roughly midway between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. It is now an Israeli national park. In the Hebrew Bible, Gezer is associated with Joshua and Solomon.
  It became a major fortified Canaanite city-state in the first half of the 2nd millennium BCE. It was later destroyed by fire and rebuilt. The Amarna letters mention kings of Gezer swearing loyalty to the Egyptian pharaoh. Its importance was due in part to the strategic position it held at the crossroads of the ancient coastal trade route linking Egypt with Syria, Anatolia and Mesopotamia, and the road to Jerusalem and Jericho, both important trade routes.
caption: June 3, 2011, ongoing works to clear the Bronze Age water system at Gezer, originally excavated by Macalister
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