Ashdod (Philistine: 𐤀𐤔𐤃𐤃 *ʾašdūd; Hebrew: אַשְׁדּוֹד, romanized: ʾašdōḏ; Arabic: أسدود, romanized: ʾasdūd) or Azotus (Koinē Greek: Ἄζωτος, romanized: azōtos) was an ancient Levantine metropolis situated at Tel Ashdod, 'Mound of Ashdod', an archaeological site located a few kilometers south of the modern Ashdod in present-day Israel.
In the Ottoman-era, this was the site of the former and now depopulated Palestinian village of Isdud.[4][5] There was ongoing habitation at the site in the early modern period through to the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, when the then village of Isdud was depopulated when its inhabitants fled or were expelled. Today, the site is an archaeological site that is open to the public, with visible remains of Isdud and earlier historical ruins, thought to date back to the Philistine period.[6]
Name evolution
The ancient Levantine settlement of Ashdod had many names. Its first attestation comes in the form of 11th century BCE Egyptian lists, where is it transcribed as "ísdd", which scholars have determined is derived from the Late Bronze Age Canaanite "’aṯdādu".[7] This became "asdudu" or "asdūdu" in Assyrian records,[7][8] "ašdudu" in Babylonian cuneiform and "ášdadi" in Ugaritic. The Hebrew "’ašdōd", or "Ashdod", is likewise believed to be derived from the Canaanite form.[7][8]
In the Hellenistic period, the name of the settlement became "Azotus" in Greek and sometimes specifically "Azotus Mesogaias", literally "Inland Azotus", in contrast to Azotus Paralios, literally "Azotus-by-the-sea", or Ashdod-Yam in Hebrew. In the Early Muslim period, the geographer Ibn Khordadbeh referred to the city in the 9th century as "Azdud", echoing the pre-Hellenistic name.[9] By the 16th century, it had lost its initial vowel to become just "Sdud",[10] before regaining it by the 19th century as "Esdud"[11] – a form of the settlement's name that changed little through to the 20th century "Isdud".[12]
History
Bronze Age
Middle Bronze
The earliest major habitation in Ashdod dates to the 17th century BCE. Ashdod was fortified in MBIIC with a two-entryway city gate (similar to Shechem).[13]
Late Bronze
Ashdod is first mentioned in written documents from Late Bronze AgeUgarit, which indicate that the city was a center of export for dyed woolen purple fabric and garments. At the end of the 13th century BCE, the Sea Peoples conquered and destroyed Ashdod. By the beginning of the 12th century BCE, the Philistines, generally thought to have been one of the Sea Peoples, ruled the city. During their reign, the city prospered and was a member of the Philistine Pentapolis ('five cities'),[14] which included Ashkelon and Gaza on the coast and Ekron and Gath farther inland, in addition to Ashdod.
Iron Age through Persian period
In 950 BCE, Ashdod was destroyed during Pharaoh Siamun's conquest of the region. The city was not rebuilt until at least 815 BCE.
Overall, the city remained independent of Judean and Israelite rule up until the Hellenistic period.[15]
Asdûdu led the revolt of Philistines, Judeans, Edomites, and Moabites against Assyria after expulsion of king Ahi-Miti, whom Sargon had installed instead of his brother Azuri. Gath (Gimtu) belonged to the kingdom of Ashdod at that time.[16] Assyrian king Sargon II's commander-in-chief (turtanu), whom the King James Bible calls simply "Tartan" (Isaiah 20:1), regained control of Ashdod in 712/711 BCE[17][18] and forced the usurper Yamani to flee. Sargon's general[19] destroyed the city and exiled its residents, including some Israelites who were subsequently settled in Media and Elam.[20]
Mitinti (Akkadian: 𒈪𒋾𒅔𒋾 mi-ti-in-ti; Philistine: 𐤌𐤕𐤕 *Mītīt or *Matīt)[21] was king at the time of Sargon's son Sennacherib (r. 705–681 BCE), and Akhimilki in the reign of Sennacherib's son Esarhaddon (r. 681–669 BCE).
Psamtik I of Egypt (r. 664 – 610 BCE) is reported to have besieged the great city of "Azotus" for twenty-nine years (Herodotus, ii. 157); the biblical references to the remnant of Ashdod (Jeremiah 25:20; cf. Zephaniah 2:4) are interpreted as allusions to this event.
The city absorbed another blow in 605 BCE, when Nebuchadnezzar of Babylonia conquered it.[22] Under Babylonian rule it was a province.[15]
During the Hellenistic period through to the late medieval period, the city was known to the Greeks as Αzotus (Greek: Άζωτος) or Azotus Mesogaios (literally "inland Azotus").[23] It was also known as Hippinos (literally "of the horsemen"), to the Romans.[23]
Despite its location four miles (6 km) from the coast, Ptolemy (c. 90 – c. 168 CE) described the Hellenized city as a maritime city, as did Josephus in Antiquities.[24][non-primary source needed] Josephus also describes Ashdod as "in the inland parts".[24][non-primary source needed] This curious contradiction may refer to Ashdod's control of a separate harbor, called "Azotus Paralios", or Ashdod-on-the-Sea (παράλιος - "paralios", Greek for "on the coast").[25][26]
Pompey restored the independence of Azotus, as he did with all Hellenising coastal cities.[24][non-primary source needed] A few years later, in 55 BCE, after more fighting, Roman general Gabinius helped rebuild Ashdod and several other cities left without protective walls.[24][23] In 30 BCE Ashdod came under the rule of King Herod, who then bequeathed it to his sister Salome.[24][23] This was later confirmed by Augustus.[2] By the time of the First Jewish–Roman War (66-70), there was evidently a significant Jewish presence in Ashdod, prompting Vespasian to station a garrison in the city in the spring of 68.[23][2]
Byzantine period
During the Byzantine period, Azotus Paralios overshadowed its inland counterpart in size and importance. The 6th-century Madaba Map shows both under their respective names.[28]
The prominence of Hellenised, then Christian Azotus continued until the 7th century.
During the Ottoman period, the site was the location of a village, whose position on the Via Maris contributed to its importance. In 1596 CE, administered by nahiya ("subdistrict") of Gaza under the liwa' ("district") of Gaza, the population of Ashdod (named Sdud) numbered 75 households, about 413 persons, all Muslims. The villagers paid a fixed tax rate of 33,3% on wheat, barley, sesame and fruit crops, as well as goats and beehives; a total of 14,000 Akçe.[30][10]
In the late nineteenth century, Isdud was described as a village spread across the eastern slope of a low hill, covered with gardens. A ruined khan stood southwest of the village. Its houses were one-storey high with walls and enclosures built of adobe brick. There were two main sources of water: a pond and a masonry well. Both were surrounded by groves of date-palm and fig-trees.[31]
British Mandate
In the 1922 census of Palestine, conducted by the British Mandate authorities, Isdud had a population of 2,566 inhabitants; 2,555 Muslims and 11 Christians,[12] where the Christians were all Catholics.[32] The population increased in the 1931 census to 3,240; 3,238 Muslims and 2 Christians, in a total of 764 houses.[33]
1948 Arab-Israeli War
The village of Isdud was occupied by the Egyptian army on May 29, 1948, and became the Egyptians' northernmost position during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. While the Israelis failed to capture territory, and suffered heavy casualties, Egypt changed its strategy from offensive to defensive, thus halting their northward advance.[34] Egyptian and Israeli forces clashed in the surrounding area, with the Egyptians being unable to hold the Ad Halom bridge over the Lachish River. Israeli forces surrounded the town during Operation Pleshet, and shelled and bombed it from the air.[35] For three nights from 18 October the Israeli Air Force bombed Isdud and several other locations.[36] Fearing encirclement, Egyptian forces retreated on October 28, 1948, and the majority of the residents fled.[37] The 300 townspeople who remained were driven southwards by the Israel Defense Forces.[38][39] The village was part of territory that was granted to Israel in the 1949 Armistice Agreements following the end of the war.
Biblical references
The Book of Nehemiah, referring to events in the 5th century BCE, mentions the Ashdodites[40] and the speech of Ashdod, which half of the children from mixed families are described as adopting. Hugo Winckler explains the use of that name by the fact that Ashdod was the nearest of the Philistine cities to Jerusalem.[41]
In I Samuel 6:17 Ashdod is mentioned among the principal Philistine cities. After capturing the Ark of the covenant from the Israelites, the Philistines took it to Ashdod and placed it in the temple of Dagon. The next morning Dagon was found prostrate before the Ark; on being restored to his place, he was on the following morning again found prostrate and broken. The people of Ashdod were smitten with boils; a plague of mice was sent over the land (1 Samuel 6:5).[42]
^Moshe Dothan (1990). Ashdod – Seven levels of excavations (in Hebrew). Israel: Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel, Ashdod branch. p. 91. ULI Sysno. 005093624.
^ abcdRogers, Guy MacLean (2021). For the Freedom of Zion: the Great Revolt of Jews against Romans, 66-74 CE. New Haven: Yale University Press. pp. 44, 281, 293. ISBN978-0-300-24813-5.
^Jacobs, D.; Eber, S.; Silvani, F. (1998). Israel and the Palestinian Territories. Music rough guide. Rough Guides. p. 113. ISBN978-1-85828-248-0. Retrieved 2022-12-22. Four kilometres out of town and just west of Route 4, Tel Ashdod was the centre of the village of Isdud - ancient Ashdod - and site of the Philistine port. Get off the bus if you like old mounds, derelict Palestinian homes...
^ abSeymour Gitin, 'Philistines in the Book of Kings,' in André Lemaire, Baruch Halpern, Matthew Joel Adams (eds.)The Books of Kings: Sources, Composition, Historiography and Reception, BRILL, 2010 pp.301–363, for the Neo-Assyrian sources p.312: The four city-states of the late Philistine period (Iron Age II) are Amqarrūna (Ekron), Asdūdu (Ashdod), Hāzat (Gaza), and Isqalūna (Ashkelon), with the former fifth capital, Gath, having been abandoned at this late phase.
^B.Frenkel (1990). The Philistines (in Hebrew). Israel: Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel, Ashdod branch. p. 119. ULI Sysno. 005093624.
^ abcLemche, Niels Peter (2004). "Ashdod". Historical dictionary of ancient Israel. Historical dictionaries of ancient civilizations and historical eras. Lanham, Md.: Scarecrow Press. pp. 61–62. ISBN978-0-8108-4848-1.
^J. Kaplan (1990). Yamani stronghold in Ashdod-Yam (in Hebrew). Israel: Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel, Ashdod branch. p. 125. ULI Sysno. 005093624.
^"Introducing Ashdod-Yam: History and Excavations". Ashdod-Yam Archaeological Project, website of. The Institute of Archaeology of Tel Aviv University & Institut für Alttestamentliche Wissenschaft, Universität Leipzig. 2014. Archived from the original on 21 May 2015. Retrieved 24 May 2015.
^H. Tadmor (1966). "Philistia under Assyrian Rule". The Biblical Archaeologist. 29 (3). The American Schools of Oriental Research: 86–102. doi:10.2307/3211004. JSTOR3211004. S2CID165315779.
^Cogan, Mordechai (1993). "Judah under Assyrian Hegemony: A Reexamination of Imperialism and Religion". Journal of Biblical Literature. 112 (3). The Society of Biblical Literature: 403–414. doi:10.2307/3267741. JSTOR3267741.
^O. Kolani; B. Raanan; M. Brosh; S. Pipano (1990). Events calendar in Israel and Ashdod (in Hebrew). Israel: Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel, Ashdod branch. p. 79. ULI Sysno. 005093624.
^S. Piphano (1990). Ashdod-Yam in the Byzantine period (in Hebrew). Israel: Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel, Ashdod branch. p. 143. ULI Sysno. 005093624.
^S.Shapira (1990). Battle of Ashdod (147BC) (in Hebrew). Israel: Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel, Ashdod branch. p. 135. ULI Sysno. 005093624.