Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

TELL

(also TEL)

A settlement in the form of a mound, often found in otherwise level countryside. Related words are tepe, huyuk, and khirbet, and all have been used as elements of modern names and in ancient site identifications made from them. Biblical references are made to both the location of ruins and to existing cities built on mounds.

Tells are the result of a specific type of architecture — mudbrick. They are most characteristic of areas without access to large quantities of alternative building materials such as stone or timber, as is the case in most of Syria-Palestine and Mesopotamia. Mud-brick architecture, though fairly durable when properly maintained, must often be torn down and rebuilt. The tell is formed when this happens, and when abandoned structures disintegrate and new ones are constructed directly on top of their remains. Thus each successive building phase is on a raised surface, and the result is the formation of a mound or tell.

In an environment with scant water supplies, ancient inhabitants often preferred to stay in one place rather than move to another. Tells consequently appear along waterways and close to springs or are placed in other strategic locations such as the center of an area capable of supporting a large population or with good access to raw materials. Others are situated in strategic political positions in naturally defensive areas or on boundaries between political or ethnic entities. Most tell definitions cite the availability of water as the major deciding feature, but this may be overridden by the significance of religion as at, e.g., Jerusalem (though it originally was chosen as a settlement for its neutrality at the time of the Israelite monarchy).

Tells have often been lumped together and referred to in generalities. William G. Dever, however, stresses the uniqueness of each tell and its reflection of individual settlement history. The recognition of these histories is hindered by the complexity of stratigraphy at these sites, making them difficult to excavate. Though easy to identify, the chances of the entire settlement area being delineated are very slim since buildings on the edge are much more vulnerable to wind and rain and the outer limits are likely to be eroded away. Thus the maximum extent of occupation is often obliterated. Additionally, the history of the tell is further obscured since earlier periods may be many meters below the tell surface.

Bibliography. W. G. Dever, “The Tell: Microcosm of the Cultural Process,” in Retrieving the Past, ed. J. D. Seger (Winona Lake, 1996), 37-45.

Katharine A. Mackay

Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

TELL

Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible (2000)