Tels and Ancient Artifacts Tell Us All About the Past in Israel and Turkey, Where the Tigris River Lie

Nadene Goldfoot                                       

          A hill can turn into a tel, an encyclopedia from the past. 
At the beginning of the 8th century BCE, Beit Shemesh became strategically important, as it controlled the western approaches of the Kingdom of Judah, and the road to its capital, Jerusalem. It was here that the battle between Amaziyah, King of Judah and Jehoash, King of Israel, took place. (II Kings 14:11-13) Shortly thereafter, Beit Shemesh passed into Philistine control, but was restored to the Kingdom of Judah under Hezekiah. 

The biblical town of Beit Shemesh had been part of the territory allotted to the Levites,  and  was settled by Israelites in the 11th or 10th century B.C.E. There were already Jews living there when, during a battle with the Israelites,   the Philistines captured the Ark of the Covenant. But when they realized that the ark brought them nothing but trouble, the Philistines decided to return it to the Israelites and sent it to Beit Shemesh.
The town was destroyed by Sennacherib in 701 BCE.   
                                                  

The Bible mentions Beit Shemesh in the description of the northern border of the Tribe of Judah (Joshua 15:10-11) and as a Levitical city in the territory of Judah. (Joshua 21:16) Beit Shemesh is also mentioned in connection with the return of the Ark of the Covenant by the Philistines, who had captured it in the battle of Eben-Ezer. The ark was placed on a cattle-drawn cart in the Philistine town of Ekron and sent via Nahal Sorek to Beit Shemesh:

Then the cows headed straight for the road to Beit Shemesh and went along the highway, lowing as they went, and did not turn aside to the right or the left. And the lords of the Philistines went after them to the border of Beit Shemesh. -- (I Samuel 6:12-13)

The name Beit Shemesh (House of the Sun) is suggestive of the deity that was worshipped by the Canaanite inhabitants of the ancient city. Identification of the mound with biblical Beit Shemesh is based on its geographical description in the Bible, on the Onomasticon of Eusebius (4th century CE) and on the name of the Arab village Ein Shams, which preserves the ancient name. 

Road building threatens the site of Tel Beit Shemesh, dating to at least the seventh century BCE or 600 BCE. Credit: Dr Z. Lederman, Tel Beth-Shemesh.  This would be from the time after the Assyrians attacked in 721 BCE and before Nebuchadnezzar attacked and carted off the best in 586 CE.
In the coming years, the expedition plans to expose the remains of the Canaanite city that preceded the Israelite one.                                                        

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The Tigris River follows a Southeastern route through Turkey to the city of Cizre, where it forms the border between Syria and Turkey for 32 kilometers before entering Iraq.  It joins the Euphrates River in Qurna and continues as

the Shatt al-Arab until it reaches the Persian Gulf.  The Tigris is the second

longest river in Southwest Asia with a length of 1,840 kilometers long.  The

Tigris is widely known for its numerous, immense floods.  In Southern Iraq,

cities are regularly flooded, levees and many other things often collapse, and

everything must be built on a very high piece of land to withstand all of the

floods.                                              

                            This is the Tigris River.
In Turkey,  the 12,000-year-old town of Hasankeyf: During the Middle Bronze Age the area around Hasankeyf was likely part of the Hurrian kingdoms. The Akkadian and Northwest Semitic texts of the Mari Tablets (1800–1750 BC) refer to Ilānṣurā, an important walled city on a large river. Ilānṣurā has been tentatively identified with Hasankeyf, although several locations in northeast 
Syria have also been proposed.    A monumental site on the Tigris river, has slowly been submerged beneath  the new Ilısu dam.
                                                    

      View of the Upper Town, also called the Citadel/Castle

Hasankeyf is rich in history throughout the ages and aside from the sites below, thousands of caves exist in the cliffs that surround the city. Many of the caves are multi-storied and have their own water supply. Churches and mosques were also carved into the cliffs and numerous ancient cemeteries exist throughout the area.

• The Old Tigris Bridge – Built in 1116 by the Artuqid Sultan Fahrettin Karaaslan, it replaced an older bridge. The bridge over the Tigris River is considered to be the largest from the Medieval Period. Support for the bridge was built with wood in case the bridge had to be removed in order to prevent an attack. Because of this, two piles and some foundation work are all that exist of the bridge today 

                                                           

                    View of the Tigris River in Hasankeyf, 
        seen from the Citadel. Reed covered restaurants 
     serve fresh river fish along other regional specialties

                                                          

Resource:
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-01811-https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/biblical-city-of-beit-shemesh