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SHECHEM

(Heb. šĕḵem)

(PLACE)

A city in the heartland of the Ephraimite hill country (Josh. 20:7). The 6 ha. (15 a.) site is 67 km. (40 mi.) N of Jerusalem, 2 km. (1.2 mi.) E of Roman Neapolis (modern Nablus), and 10 km. (6 mi.) SE of Samaria. Though certain classical sources affiliated biblical Shechem with Neapolis, founded by Vespasian in 72 c.e. (Josephus BJ 4.8.1; Jerome), other early sources located pre-Roman Shechem at modern Tell Balâṭah (177179), 2.5 km. (1.5 mi.) SE of Neapolis, nearer to Mt. Ebal (Eusebius Onom., Bordeaux Pilgrim, Medeba Map). First investigated in 1903 by Hermann Thiersch, scholars generally accept this identification. The NT reference to a site in this region called Sychar (John 4:5; cf. Sychem, Acts 7:16) apparently indicates the Hellenistic and Roman ruins situated beneath modern ʿAskar, just NE of Balâṭah.

Influenced by Gen. 33:18-19, classical writers (Eusebius) and early modern explorers (Edward Robinson) derived the name Shechem from traditions surrounding the son of Hamor who violated Dinah (Josh. 24:32; Judg. 9:28; cf. genealogies of Manasseh, Num. 26:31; Josh. 17:2; 1 Chr. 7:19). The name more likely reflects the physical setting of the city on the “shoulder” (slope) of Mt. Ebal or its opposing proximity to Gerizim, a prominent topographical feature once called the “navel of the land” (Judg. 9:37).

Situated in a strategic pass between Mt. Ebal to its north and Mt. Gerizim to its south, Shechem quickly became an urbane hub of political, economic, and, eventually, religious activity within the region of Samaria. The system of latitudinal and longitudinal roads which converged in this valley of very fertile soil undoubtedly accounted for the founding and flourishing of the city here rather than at higher, more defensible elevations on Ebal or Gerizim. The primary ascent to the central hill country of Samaria from the Jordan River proceeded up the deeply faulted Wadi Fariʿa from just south of the river fords at Adam and continued on to Shechem by way of biblical Tirzah. By Iron Age I (1200-1000 b.c.e.), many small settlements lay along this route, which gained even greater prominence during Iron II (1000-587/586) as the former cultic and political center at Shiloh (S of Shechem) declined. At that time, an alternate road diverged from the former route to Shiloh, assumed a more northerly course from the valley area east of that site, and followed the Ephraim-Manasseh border to Shechem (cf. Josh. 17:7-9). From there, innermontane highways provided passage either to the lucrative coastal route through the Naḥal Shechem or to points farther north and east by way of the Dothan Valley and Jezreel. These crossroads distinguished Shechem as a strategic juncture between northern and southern Samaria (roughly the tribal allotments of Manasseh and Ephraim).

Excavation

Field exploration of Tell Balâṭah and its vicinity has involved two extended series of excavations, first under Austro-German leadership and later by an American joint expedition. After small-scale work at the site by Carl Watzinger (1907-9), Ernst Sellin in 1913-14 exposed some 75 m. (245 ft.) of a wall (wall A) previously observed by Thiersch on the northwest side of the site. Incorporated into this wall was a massive three-entryway gate complex. Sellin also cut a 52 m. (170 ft.) trench from the north side of the mound toward its center, revealing four main occupational phases, subsequently identified as Hellenistic, Israelite, Middle Bronze, and Chalcolithic–Early Bronze I. Sellin undertook five additional campaigns from 1926 to 1928, together with architect Gabriel Welter. In addition to a palace area immediately inside the northwest gate complex, they discovered a huge fortress-temple with foundation walls 5 m. (16 ft.) wide, dating to Late Bronze I (ca. 1550-1400). In the eastern sector of the city they uncovered an offsets-insets wall (wall B) with a two-entryway gate (the east gate), which they dated to LB II (ca. 1400-1200). Sellin’s official report, completed in 1943, all the field records, and numerous artifacts were destroyed during World War II.

From 1956-1973 Drew University, McCormick Theological Seminary, the ASOR, and Harvard University collaborated to renew fieldwork under the direction of George Ernest Wright. Over seven full seasons and three shorter ones, the team opened 14 “fields” of excavation and employed improved techniques of debris-layer analysis and ceramic study to distinguish 24 strata ranging from the Chalcolithic to the late Hellenistic periods, during which time four lengthy occupational gaps disrupted settlement at the site. Excavators also discovered a domestic quarter on the northern side of the city and related it stratigraphically to the public architecture situated on the acropolis to the west. Supplementing this on-site work, Edward F. Campbell conducted a regional survey from 1964-1972.

Settlement History

Separate fields in strata XXIV-XXIII, which lay immediately on bedrock, yielded scant remains of circular mud-brick structures from the Chalcolithic period (ca. 4000-3500). Sherd collections indicate that this occupation may have extended into EB I (ca. 3500-3300). Following this limited occupation, the site was abandoned until ca. 1900. From here to the city’s final destruction, three further occupational gaps would divide the history of Shechem into four major phases: MB II (1900-1550), LB IB–Iron IA (1450-1150/1125), Iron II–Persian (975-475), and Hellenistic (331-107).

Shechem developed from an unfortified, domestic settlement in MB IIA (ca. 1900; strata XXII-XXI) to a city with a heavily defended acropolis flanked by substantial domestic quarters in MB IIB (ca. 1750-1650; strata XX-XVII) to a powerful city state center in MB IIC (ca. 1650-1550; strata XVI-XV). Early in this period, Shechem appeared in the Egyptian Execration Texts as the principal center in the Ephraimite hill country (complementing Jerusalem in the southern highlands), and its regional prominence may even have attracted Egyptian military activity by the late 19th century. On the acropolis in the western precinct of the city, an MB IIB courtyard revealed a complex of structures which underwent at least four phases of construction. Wright’s interpretation of these as temples has encountered serious opposition more recently. During MB IIC were built the “cyclopean wall A,” northwest gate complex, fortress temple, and, on the eastern side of the site, the east gate and fortification wall B. Also, what Sellin believed represented a palace seems instead to have served as a central sanctuary surrounded by guard rooms. North of the acropolis and its enclosure wall, a quarter of fine domestic houses may have included the private residences of some city officials. The heavy destruction debris that overlay stratum XV likely stemmed from Egyptian retaliation against the Hyksos ca. 1550. A century-long occupational gap followed.

During LB and Early Iron (strata XIV-XI), occupants rebuilt the northwest and east gates. A new temple, somewhat smaller than its migdal predecessor but complete with altar and large maṣṣeba (“standing stones”), stood on the acropolis. This structure likely correlates to the “house of Baal-berith/El-berith” (also called the “tower of Shechem”) in Judg. 9:4, 46 (excavators found a bronze figurine of a standing male deity — an apparent representation of Baal — in the succeeding stratum). Stratum XIII, corresponding to the Amarna age (14th century) during which the aggressive Labʾayu ruled a sizable kingdom from Shechem, again revealed a well-planned domestic quarter in field XIII on the north side of the site, while the area to the east accommodated a large public building in field III. The correspondence from Tell el-Amarna (EA 289; cf. nos. 244-45, 249, 252-55, 263, 280) indicates that Shechem not only dominated the entire north-central hill country, as the earlier Execration Texts reveal, but that Labʾayu at times extended its influence as far as the Sharon Plain (EA 250). A violent destruction, traced across the site, marked the end of stratum XIII and of Labʾayu’s principality sometime ca. 1300. The ensuing strata XII and XI reflect a less affluent society whose diminished political power might provide the historical backdrop to the city’s amenable treaty and social relations with the Israelites (Josh. 24). Not until Abimelech attempted to impose kingship upon the city did these relations end in disaster, as reflected in the massive destruction of stratum XI ca. 1125-1100 and in the textual traditions of Judg. 9.

Following another century without appreciable occupation (1100-1000), Shechem and the entire area around it managed only a modest recovery during the United Monarchy (stratum X; note the political vicissitudes hinted at in Ps. 60:6-7[MT 7-8] = 108:8-9[9-10]). The site reverted to town status as part of Solomon’s administrative network (1 Kgs. 4:8ff.). Though Shechem also appears in both rosters of levitical cities (Josh. 21:21; 1 Chr. 6:67), many interpret this as a secondary addition due to its position now as a city of refuge (Josh. 20:7). Ceramic dating confirms the destruction of stratum X during the invasion by Pharaoh Shishak ca. 925 (cf. 1 Kgs. 14:25). Jeroboam I subsequently rebuilt the site (stratum IX) and temporarily made it his capital (1 Kgs. 12:25). The mention of Shechem in an early 8th-century Samaria ostracon (no. 44) indicates that the city now served the economic needs of the monarchic regime ensconced in the north; a large building, possibly a granary, in stratum VIII, supports this function. Rather than representing the primary partner, as it had in the earlier patron-client relationships between Labʾayu and various pastoralist and mercenary classes (ʿapiru), Shechem apparently now had to subordinate itself in a new political and social order between capital and countryside.

Strata VI-V, spanning the Assyrian and Persian periods, yielded only meager material remains. Though overall the prosperity and political influence of the city seem to have diminished during this time, excavation of fields I, VII, and IX yielded a substantial quantity of Attic black-glazed ware and an assemblage of small finds which included an electrum coin and various seal impressions. Jer. 41:4-8 records that early in the 6th century a party of Shechemites arrived in Jerusalem with cereal and incense offerings and the claim that they had stores of wheat, barley, oil, and honey hidden in the north.

The site once again lay abandoned from ca. 475 until the appearance in Canaan of Alexander the Great. As Samaritans fled eastward under the punitive raids of Alexander, Shechem regained its status as a fortified center of activity (Josephus Ant. 11.8.6). In strata IV-III (ca. 323-190), dated by the recovery of a series of Ptolemaic coins, massive quantities of fill covered the partially exposed remains from previous periods and provided a level building area for well-planned homes over the earlier terraces in field VII. The arrangement of the new fortifications approximated that of the MB II plan; the east gate area itself was cleared to MB levels. A conspicuous shift to Seleucid coinage in stratum II reflects the influence gained throughout the region by Antiochus III and Antiochus IV Epiphanes following the former’s military victory in 198 at Panias in northern Israel. Although Josephus records that the final destruction of Shechem occurred in 128 (Ant. 13. 254-56, 275-81), both ceramic and numismatic evidence suggest lowering the date to 108/107 and correlating the disaster to the mayhem associated with the northern raids of the Hasmonean priest John Hyrcanus, who not only destroyed the Samaritan temple on nearby Tell er-Ras (on Mt. Gerizim) but devastated and then buried the city occupying Tell Balâṭah.

Bibliography. E. F. Campbell, Shechem II: Portrait of a Hill Country Vale. ASOR Archaeological Report 2 (Atlanta, 1991); Campbell and J. F. Ross, “The Excavation of Shechem and the Biblical Tradition,” BA 26 (1963): 1-27, repr. in BAR 2, ed. D. N. Freedman and E. F. Campbell (Garden City, 1964), 275-300; W. G. Dever, “The MB IIC Stratification in the Northwest Gate Area at Shechem,” BASOR 216 (1974): 31-52; J. D. Seger, “The Middle Bronze IIC Date of the East Gate at Shechem,” Levant 6 (1974): 117-30; L. E. Toombs, “The Stratification of Tell Balâṭah (Shechem),” BASOR 223 (1976): 57-59; G. E. Wright, Shechem: The Biography of a Biblical City (New York, 1965); G. R. H. Wright, “Temples at Shechem,” ZAW 80 (1968): 1-35.

Ron E. Tappy

Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

SHECHEM

Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible (2000)