Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

WALLS

Walls provided the primary defense of a city or fortress, along with towers and gate complexes. The height and thickness of a city wall depended upon the perceived need for the defense of a particular city and its economic capabilities (for labor and materials). Cities important to a monarchial administration for economic or strategic reasons generally have larger walls while less important or nonstrategic cities generally have lighter or no fortifications. Besieging armies also built walls.

Wall Types

Several types of city walls are attested: a peripheral belt of houses, a massive (solid) wall, and a casemate wall. Some villages and small cities built a peripheral belt of houses, i.e., houses abutted in a circular manner facing inward so that the solid back wall of the houses doubled as a defense wall. The roofs of the houses served as observation posts and provided strategic positions for defenders in case of attack. This provided defense for a city or village with minimal economic resources.

The three types of massive walls are regular, a wall with towers, and the offset-inset wall. Regular massive walls are simple solid walls, separate from any other structure, composed of field or dressed stones, mudbrick, or both. Walls with towers are regular massive walls with built-in towers at regular intervals and strategic positions such as at corners and gates. The towers usually extended beyond and were taller than the city walls, creating an enfilade. Offset-inset walls were built in sections that alternately project and recede as the wall stretched around a city. Archaeologists suggest that this type of construction provided greater stability to the wall than a straight massive wall.

Casemate walls, requiring less materials and labor hours than solid walls, are two parallel solid walls connected in intervals by solid transverse walls, thereby creating rooms within the walls. There are also three types of casemate walls: freestanding, integrated, and filled. Freestanding casemate walls are separated from any other structures. Integrated casemate walls are walls whose rooms were used for a secondary purpose, such as a room for a house. Filled casemate walls are freestanding casemate walls whose rooms have been filled with soil or debris, thus creating a thick solid wall. The idea was to strengthen the wall against attack without the economic constraints of building a solid stone or mudbrick wall. Filled casemate walls could be built higher than empty casemate walls. However, the filled casemate wall was no more resistant to a battering ram than an empty wall. Once the solid wall frame was breeched, the fill either split out or could easily be removed by the invaders so that the inner wall could be breeched.

Siege walls, defensive walls built by an invading army, were erected around a city or fortress. These walls provided protection for the invading army and kept the inhabitants from escaping the besieged city. Ezekiel tells that the Babylonians built siege walls at Jerusalem (Ezek. 17:17). Remnants of a Roman siege wall, from the 68 c.e. Jewish Revolt, are still visible around the mountain fortress of Masada.

Evolution of City Walls

The wall and tower at Jericho, dating to ca. 7800 b.c.e., is the earliest known structure of this type. However, the Jericho wall may have been used to prevent flooding rather than for defense. The earliest city walls (for defense) in Palestine are of the massive type and date to the Early Bronze Age I (ca. 3000). Walls found at Tel ʿErani, composed of mudbrick with rectangular towers, were ca. 4.5 m. (15 ft.) thick. City walls at other sites from this time, such as Jericho, were generally thinner (1 m. [3 ft.] or so) and contain semicircular towers. Walls increased in thickness through EB so that they were 5-7 m. (16-23 ft.) thick by EB III (2650-2200). EB II walls surrounded the city of Arad with towers abutted to the walls at intervals of 25-40 m. (82-130 ft.).

City walls disappear at the end of EB III and do not reappear again until MB II. The first MB walls were relatively thin (ca. 2 m. [6.5 ft.] thick) and were of the offset-inset type (with towers), as at Megiddo, or the wall-with-towers type, as at Tell Beit Mirsim. Both types of walls were built of mudbrick on stone foundations. Late in MB II, walls became more complex, with the addition of a glacis (a sloping outer surface, made of beaten earth, stones, and mudbrick, placed against the lower part of a city wall for added strength and protection against attackers attempting to dig underneath the wall’s foundation). Casemate walls were introduced in MB and continued into LB, such as at Hazor. City gates began to be constructed of ashlar masonry (cut and dressed stones) and with chambers. An MB variant of a wall is the rampart. First appearing in MB II, a rampart is a mass earthen belt anchored by an inner core of stone or mudbrick. Ramparts measure 25-40 m. (82-130 ft.) wide, 10-15 m. (33-49 ft.) high, and have one or both sides sloped, often with a ditch or trench along the bottom edge. Sites with ramparts include Tel Dan, Akko, Hazor, Yavneh-Yam, and Tel Kabri.

Several sites that had offset-inset walls in the previous period have casemate walls in LB (as at Shechem). Although fortifications continued with little change between MB and LB, the LB walls decline in quality and thickness from MB walls.

Walls generally disappear in Iron I except the peripheral belt of houses; however, most types of walls are found in Iron II. Megiddo, Gezer, Lachish, and Tell en-Naṣbeh began Iron II with a peripheral belt of houses but quickly changed to freestanding walls. Casemate walls predominate in the 10th century, but solid walls quickly replaced them in the 9th century and beyond. Hazor stratum X (10th century) had freestanding casemate walls attributed to Solomon that were filled in stratum VIII (9th century). Beer-sheba stratum III (9th century) had integrated casemate walls. Megiddo stratum IVB (10th century) had casemate walls attributed to Solomon. However, in stratum IVA (9th century) solid offset-inset walls replace the casemate walls, which are attributed to Ahab. Associated with the Megiddo walls is a six-chambered gate complex built of cyclopean ashlar stones; however, a four-chamber gate in stratum IVA replaced this gate complex. Lachish (8th century) had two massive (parallel) walls with towers, according to Assyrian reliefs and on-site excavations (excavators found walls 6 m. [20 ft.] thick, built of mudbrick on a stone foundation). A regular massive wall made of mudbrick was found at Ashdod (10th-9th centuries). Archaeologists discovered a solid massive wall in Jerusalem that measures 7 m. (23 ft.) thick and dates to the early 7th century. City walls were not only large in Iron II but they also typically had glacis. The variety of fortifications from Iron II indicates that location, function, and administrative importance of a city determined the type of wall built instead of a uniform master plan.

Persian period walls basically are a continuation of walls from Iron II; however, many sites in the Persian period were unfortified. Massive walls at Tell Abu Hawan were built with a combination of field stones with ashlar pillars (one stretcher and two headers) every 2-3 m. (6.5-10 ft.), possibly to add strength. Tel Megadim had a casemate wall.

City walls in Greek and Roman times were typically solid, massive walls with towers. Hasmonean rulers built massive walls with towers around Jerusalem. Herod restored and enlarged sections of this wall along with its towers.

Biblical References

Rahab’s home was part of the Jericho city wall (Josh. 2:15), and Joshua and his army marched around the walls of Jericho that fell at the trumpets’ sound (ch. 6). According to 1 Kgs. 9:15 Solomon built walls around Jerusalem, Hazor, Megiddo, and Gezer. Rehoboam built defenses in several towns of Judah (2 Chr. 11:5-10), and Asa also fortified the towns of Judah (14:7[MT 6]). Jehoshaphat built fortifications in Judah (2 Chr. 17:12). Nehemiah, returning to a city that the Babylonians had decimated in 586, repaired the walls of Jerusalem (Neh. 2:11–4:23). Disciples lowered Saul in a basket from an opening in the Damascus city wall to avoid the Jews who sought to kill him (Acts 9:25). Rev. 21 describes the walls of the New Jerusalem.

Bibliography. A. Ben-Tor, ed., The Archaeology of Ancient Israel (New Haven, 1992); A. Kempinski and R. Reich, eds., The Architecture of Ancient Israel (Jerusalem, 1992); A. Mazar, Archaeology of the Land of the Bible, 10,000-586 b.c.e. (New York, 1990).

Terry W. Eddinger

Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

WALLS

Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible (2000)