m Wolff (Israel Antiquities Authority). The Tel Gezer Excavation and Publication Project is a multi-disciplinary field project investigating the Iron Age history of Gezer.
The first season of the Gezer excavations concluded successfully and revealed some interesting details. Among other things, is a discovery of thick destruction layer that may be dated to the destruction of Siamun (1 Kings 9:16).[dubious ]
One of the best-known finds is the Gezer calendar. This is a plaque containing a text appearing to be either a schoolboy's memory exercises, or something designated for the collection of taxes from farmers. Another possibility is that the text was a popular folk song, or child's song, listing the months of the year according to the agricultural seasons. It has proved to be of value by informing modern researchers of ancient Middle Eastern script and language, as well as the agricultural seasons.
Canaanite city gate, wall
In 2013 the NOBTS team launched a side effort to preserve the ancient Canaanite mudbrick gate and complex near the water system.
Israelite city gate, wall
In 1957 Yigael Yadin identified a wall and gateway identical in construction to remains excavated at Megiddo and Hazor as Solomonic; they have since been identified as dating from the early Israelite kingdom, some centuries later.
Canaanite water tunnel
In 2010 a team from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary ("NOBTS") launched an effort to clear a massive water tunnel, discovered first by Macalister over a hundred years earlier. Macalister never fully excavated the tunnel because a strong storm blew debris back into the tunnel and he considered it too expensive and time-consuming to re-excavate the site. The NOBTS effort to re-clear and examine the tunnel has been chronicled in multiple sources including the Biblical Archaeology Review and the Baptist Press. In 2011 professor Dennis Cole, archaeologist Dan Warner and engineer Jim Parker from NOBTS, led another team in an attempt to finish the effort. In just two years the teams removed approximately 299 tons of debris from the ancient water system.
In 2010, the team removed approximately 1,040 cubic feet (39 cubic yards – 29 cubic meters) of debris (approximately 50 percent rock and 50 percent dirt), equating to approximately 68 tons. In 2011 the team removed approximately 3,560 cubic feet (132 cubic yards- 101 cubic meters), equating to approximately 231 tons.
In 2012 the Gezer team uncovered a large open cavern at the bottom of the water system. Said Dr. Warner "Opening the cave is something we have been working toward for three summers wondering if it even existed...It gave me a rush. Once inside it gave us a sense of accomplishment and satisfaction, but we are not done by a long shot."
In 2013 the team launched a side effort to preserve the ancient Canaanite mudbrick gate and complex near the water system. In the water system: "[m]ost of the first two weeks of the dig were spent searching for the bottom step and cleaning Macalister's causeway. Tons of debris and rocks were removed in the process. When the bottom step was located and the causeway area clear, the team excavated three probes in the pool area. Each of the pool probes reached a depth of more than six feet before the end of the season and the bottom of the pool was discovered in only one probe (Eastern probe) — the one just below the bottom step of the water shaft."
13 boundary stones have been identified at the site, probably dating from the Late Hellenistic period (1st century BCE), the most recent having been found by archaeologists from SWBTS. See also Gezer#Location.
Temple of Amun
One fragmentary but well-known surviving triumphal relief scene from the Temple of Amun at Tanis believed to be related to the sack of Gezer depicts an Egyptian pharaoh smiting his enemies with a mace. There can be no doubt that the person shown on this relief was Siamun as the eminent British Egyptologist, Kenneth Kitchen, stresses in his book, On the Reliability of the Old Testament. Siamun appears here "in typical pose brandishing a mace to str