Et-Tell

Et-Tell is an archaeological site in the West Bank that is popularly thought to be the Biblical city of Ai.

Location

The site of et-Tell (Arabic for "the ruin-heap") is about 3 km east of the modern village of Beitin (Bethel), atop a watershed plateau overlooking the Jordan Valley and the city of Jericho 14 km east.

Excavation history

The first archaeological exploration of et-Tell was undertaken in September 1928 under the supervision of John Garstang. Eight trenches were dug, five against the outer side of the southern city wall and three within the city itself. The outcome of this excavation was never formally published, and the only report known is a three-page summary filed by Garstang at the end of the work. In a later book, Garstang claimed that Late Bronze Age pottery, dating to ca. 1400 BC, was found in this excavation, but this pottery was not mentioned in his earlier summary of the work and cannot now be located.

The next excavation at et-Tell took place during three seasons between 1933 and 1935 and was led by Judith Marquet-Krause, with backing from Baron Edmond de Rothschild. A fourth season of excavation was cut short by Marquet-Krause's untimely death in July 1936; however, her husband compiled a catalog of objects found in the excavation and published it in 1949. This campaign concentrated on the upper region of the mound and exposed regions of the acropolis and a village dating to the Iron Age.