BARlines

BAR’s Preservation Money for Gezer Languishes in Bank; Dever Reports Site “Badly Neglected”

During the summer of 1984, William G. Dever, the excavator of Gezer,^a returned to the site after more than a decade’s absence for a check-up probe. Dever claims to have laid to rest dating questions relating to the great outer wall—based on materials uncovered in the final hours of the season. The excavation, not surprisingly, provides further support for a conclusion previously reached by the excavator—that the wall dates to the Late Bronze Age (c. 1400 B.C. to 1375 B.C.). Whether the numerous Israeli archaeologists who date the wall to the Iron Age II (c. ninth century B.C.) will be convinced remains to be seen.^b

During the excavations, Dever also did some preservation work.^c He placed a steel I-beam under the threshold of the Solomonic gate, which was in danger of collapse. But he did not have equipment to replace a large boulder that has come out of the gate.

Field VII, Dever reported, has collapsed “rather badly,” but he did not have the means to undertake its reconstruction.