Tell el-Ajjul

This article is about an archaeological site near Gaza. For the Palestinian village in the West Bank, see Ajjul. For the tell in the Jezreel Valley, see Endor (village).

Tall al-Ajjul or Tell el-'Ajul is an archaeological mound or tell in the Gaza Strip. The fortified city excavated at the site dates as far back as ca. 2000–1800 BCE and was inhabited during the Bronze Age. It is located at the mouth of Wadi Ghazzah just south of the town of Gaza.^[1]

Tell el-Ajjul

Tell el-Ajjul in 1954
Shown within State of Palestine
Location	Palestine
Region	Gaza Strip
Coordinates	31.4677°N 34.4043°E / 31.4677; 34.4043
Type	Settlement
History
Periods	Bronze Age
Site notes
Excavation dates	1930–1934; 1999–2000
Archaeologists	Flinders Petrie Peter M. Fischer Moain Sadeq

Location

Tell el-Ajjul is about 1.8 kilometres (1.1 mi) inland from the modern coastline.^[2] It is close to the main land route between ancient Egypt and the Levant.^[3]

History

Archaeologists have excavated remains dated mainly to the Middle and Late Bronze Age.^[4]

Middle Bronze

Tell el-Ajjul was established about 500 metres (1,600 ft) south of Tell es-Sakan, which was abandoned in the 23rd century BCE. Archaeologists Pierre de Miroschedji and Moain Sadeq suggest that Tell el-Ajjul was established as a successor settlement to Tell es-Sakan.^[5] In the MBIIA, Tell el-Ajjul was an important city in the Southern Levant.

In the MB IIB, the population increased and many sites developed in the southern Levant. Tell el-Ajjul had the largest number of Egyptian Second Intermediate Period imports.^[6]

The settlement of al-Moghraqa was less than 1 kilometre (0.62 mi) from Tell el-Ajjul and was active in the Middle Bronze Age; it may have functioned as a satellite settlement of Tell el-Ajjul.^[7]

Late Bronze

Large quantities of pumice were deposited during the Late Bronze Age, which may have been caused by the Thera (Santorini) volcanic eruption.^[4] This was further investigated by the Austrian-Swedish archaeologist Peter M. Fischer, and this proved to be a good correlation and dating tool. Some samples of Chocolate-on-white ware were identified from the horizons dating to 1640-1410 BC. Also, some connections with Tell el-Dab'a in Egypt were found.^[8]

The settlement of Tell es-Sanam was established further downstream of the Wadi Ghazzah; archaeologists Joanna Clarke and Louise Steel suggest that it may have been intended as a replacement to Tell el-Ajjul as the wadi silted up.^[9]

Treaty of Tell Ajul (1229)

The Sixth Crusade came to an end with the so-called Treaty of Jaffa and Tell Ajul.^[10] These were in fact two different treaties, the first being the one signed at Tell Ajul by the competing Ayyubid rulers of Egypt, Syria and various smaller principalities. This treaty settled their territorial disputes and left Sultan Al-Kamil of Egypt in a very powerful position. The follow-up treaty was signed at Jaffa by Al-Kamil and the leader of the Sixth Crusade, Emperor Frederick II, thus removing the threat posed to Al-Kamil by the European armies.^[11][10]

Identification

Ajjul is one of the proposed sites for Sharuhen and for Beth Eglaim mentioned in Eusebius's Onomasticon, in contrast with Petrie's initial identification with ancient Gaza.^[4] Eusebius placed Beth Eglaim at eight Roman miles from Gaza.^[4] The name is absent from the Bible, and is given by Eusebius in Greek as Bethaglaim.^[12]

In the 1970s, the archaeologist Aharon Kempinski proposed identifying Tell el-Ajjul with Sharuhen, the last stronghold of the Hyksos c. 1550 BCE.^[13]

Investigations

In 1930–1934 Tell el-Ajjul was excavated by British archaeologists under the direction of Sir Flinders Petrie, who thought the site was ancient Gaza.^{[14][15][16][17][18]} He was accompanied by Olga Tufnell.^[19] One of Flinders Petrie's discoveries were three hoards of Bronze Age gold jewellery, considered to be among the greatest Bronze Age finds in the Levant.^[20][21] Scarab seals of the Egyptian pharaohs Apepi, Sheshi, Sekhaenre and 'Ammu were also uncovered.^[22] Most of the collection is preserved at the British Museum in London and the Rockefeller Museum in Jerusalem.^[20]

Plans for new investigations at Tell el-Ajjul began to be developed in 1998 as a joint collaboration between the recently formed Department of Antiquities of Palestine and the University of Gothenburg in Sweden.^[23] The department was established in 1994 and the work at Tell el-Ajjul was one of several international collaborations as the Palestinian people took on a greater role in fieldwork in the country.^[24] In 1999 and 2000 the archaeological fieldwork was led by Peter M. Fischer and Moain Sadeq because of a common interest in the protection and exploration of the site. The work was interrupted due to the outbreak of the Second Intifada.^[4][25]

A large amount of imported pottery from Cyprus has been discovered. These imports begin with Base-ring I, and White Slip I types of pottery. In particular, over 200 sherds of White Slip I have been found, which pottery is rarely found outside of Cyprus. The majority of the sherds, nevertheless, are of the later White Slip II and Base-ring II wares. There are also sherds of other kinds of Cypriot pottery, including Bichrome Wheel-made, Monochrome, Red Lustrous Wheel-made, and White Painted V/VI. Mycenean pottery and such from Upper Egypt were also found.^[4][26]

Conservation

A combination of erosion and human intervention in the form of bulldozing have left the tell smaller than it was in the first half of the 20th century.^[3] After the conclusion of excavations at Tell el-Ajjul in the early 21st century the site was buried and adapted to agriculture.^[27] The area underwent significant landscapes changes with clearances in the 2000s followed by the construction of new buildings nearby and infrastructure such as roads. Around the time of the 2014 Gaza War, craters and buildings demolitions were recorded at Tell el-Ajjul and in its vicinity through aerial photography.^[28] Though thousands of artefacts have been discovered at from Tell el-Ajjul, evidencing that the settlement was "an extremely rich and important trade hub", the finds were moved to other countries.^[27]

During the Israeli invasion of the Gaza Strip, hundreds of hundreds of cultural heritage sites in Gaza were damaged or destroyed.^[29] UNESCO began a damage assessment and included Tell el-Ajjul amongst the sites that were damaged during the conflict.^[30]

See also

• En Besor – an Egyptian settlement east of Tell el-Ajjul