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|occupants=
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|archaeologists= [[James B. Pritchard]]
|condition = In ruins
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'''Gibeon''' ({{lang-he|{{Script/Hebrew|גִּבְעוֹן}}}}, ''Gīḇəʻōn''; {{lang-grc-gre|Γαβαων}}, ''Gabaōn'')<ref>[[Madaba Map]], 6th cent.</ref> was a [[Canaan|Canaanite]] and later an [[Israelite]] city, which was located north of [[Jerusalem]]. According to
==Biblical account==
[[File:1880 map of El Jib showing the well (marked Ain), cisterns (marked Cis) and Caves.png|thumb|left|A 1880 map of [[
===Canaanite city===
After the destruction of [[Jericho]] and [[Ai (Bible)|Ai]], the [[Hivite]] people of Gibeon sent ambassadors to trick [[Joshua]] and the Israelites into making a treaty with them. According to the
In retaliation for allying with the Israelites, the city was later besieged by a coalition of five other Amorite kings led by [[Adonizedek]], king of [[Jerusalem]], along with [[Hoham]] of [[Hebron]], [[Piram]] of [[Jarmuth]], [[Japhia]] of [[Lachish]], and [[Debir]] of [[Eglon, Canaan|Eglon]]. The Gibeonites appealed to Joshua, who led the subsequent victory over the Amorites amid miraculous circumstances, including deadly hailstones and the suspension of the movement of the
===Israelite city===
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Following the capture of the [[Ark of the Covenant]] by the Philistines, the remaining part of the [[Tabernacle]] was moved from [[Shiloh (biblical city)|Shiloh]] to the "great [[high place]]" in Gibeon ({{bibleverse|1|Samuel|4:1-22|NIV}}, {{bibleverse|1|Chronicles|21:29|HE}}).
{{bibleverse|2|Samuel|21:2|HE}} indicates that King [[Saul]] pursued the Gibeonites and sought to kill them off "in his zeal for the children of Israel and Judah" ({{bibleverse|2|Samuel|21:5|HE}}). His anger at the
David then became the king of the [[United Monarchy]]. Much later, after the death of his rebellious son [[Absalom]] and his restoration to the throne, the kingdom of Israel was visited by a three-year drought, which led David to ask God what was wrong. The drought was then revealed to be divine judgement against
On his accession to kingship, King David's son [[Solomon]] met with all of the kingdom of Israel's leaders at Gibeon and offered
[[Hananiah, son of Azzur]], came from this city ([[Jeremiah 28#Verse 1|Jeremiah 28:1]]).
After the exile of the Israelites to [[Babylon]], Gibeon belonged to [[Judea]].<ref>{{bibleverse||Nehemiah|3:7|HE}}</ref> Gibeon is mentioned in the [[Book of Nehemiah]] as one of the towns resettled by the Jewish exiles returning from the [[Babylonian captivity]] and who helped to construct the walls of Jerusalem during the reign of [[Artaxerxes I]] (Xerxes).<ref>{{bibleverse|Nehemiah|3:7|HE}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Josephus |author-link=Josephus |title=Josephus Complete Works |publisher=Kregel Publications |translator=William Whiston |translator-link=William Whiston |date=1981|location=Grand Rapids, Michigan |page=236 (''Antiquities'' 11.5.7.) |language=en|isbn=0-8254-2951-X }}</ref> Nehemiah further records that those returnees were the very descendants of the people who had formerly resided in the town before their banishment from the country, who had all returned to live in their former places of residence.<ref>{{bibleverse|Nehemiah|7:6|HE}}</ref>
====Significance====
{{bibleverse|1|Chronicles|16:39|HE}} suggests that worship before the tabernacle at Gibeon continued alongside worship in
== Later history ==
During the early phases of the [[First Jewish–Roman War]], the Roman governor of Syria, [[Gaius Cestius Gallus (governor of Syria)|Cestius Gallus]], camped in Gibeon while en route to Jerusalem and again during his retreat.<ref name=":6">{{Cite book |last=Rogers |first=Guy MacLean |title=For the Freedom of Zion: the Great Revolt of Jews against Romans, 66-74 CE |date=2021 |publisher=Yale University Press |isbn=978-0-300-24813-5 |location=New Haven |pages=537}}</ref>
==In Jewish law==
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===Early Bronze Age===
Gibeon was founded in the [[Early Bronze Age]] (EB, c. 3300– 2000 BCE),<ref>"The Biblical World. A dictionary of Biblical Archaeology", ed. Charles F. Pfeiffer, art. "Gibeon"</ref> for the excavators discovered 14 EB storage jars beneath the foundations of the Iron Age wall. Other EB remains were discovered at the top of the ''[[tell (archaeology)|tell]]'', but the stratigraphy had been destroyed by British gunfire during the [[First World War]]. It is probable that there was a defensive wall, but this has not yet been found. Tombs cut into the rock on the east site of the hill contained EB jars and bowls, formed first by hand and then finished on a slow wheel. The Early Bronze city was destroyed by fire, but no date has been determined for this destruction.
===Middle Bronze Age===
Permanent settlements in Gibeon appeared in Middle Bronze Age I-II. Many jar handles were stamped with the word gb ̨n(Gibeon). <ref>{{Cite book |last=Laughlin |first=John |url=https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9780203087657-34/gibeon-el-jib |title=Fifty Major Cities of the Bible |date=2007 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=9780203087657}}</ref>
===Late Bronze Age===
[[File:Gibeon oil press.jpg|thumb|oil press cave ]]
No trace of a Late Bronze age city has been found.<ref name=pritchard62p157>Pritchard (1962), pp. 157-158</ref> Only seven tombs are known from the period, but they nevertheless point to a degree of sophistication, as they contained imported [[Cypriot Bichrome ware|Cypriote ware]] and local potters attempted to copy [[Mycenaean pottery|Mycenaean]] and Cypriote pottery. It would appear that some, at least, of these tombs had been cut during earlier periods and were being reused.<ref name=newencyc/><ref name=pritchard65/> Pritchard suggested that somewhere in an area not touched by his four-year dig, remains of the Bronze Age "great city" from the Book of Joshua might still be found.<ref name=pritchard62/>
===Iron Age===
[[File:Gibeon well 01.jpg|thumb|upright|Gibeon well]]
Gibeon flourished during the late Iron Age II, when the city had large fortifications, a large wine industry and an advanced water system. To the east of the tell, a lavish cemetery of the same period was discovered.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Finkelstein |first=Israel |url=http://worldcat.org/oclc/1081371337 |title=Hasmonean realities behind Ezra, Nehemiah, and Chronicles |publisher=[[SBL Press]] |year=2018 |isbn=978-0-88414-307-9 |pages=32 |oclc=1081371337 |author-link=Israel Finkelstein}}</ref>
====Wall, pool, and spring tunnel====
[[File:Gibeon spring.jpg|thumb|The spring water at Gibeon]]
During the early [[Iron Age]], a massive wall was constructed around the crown of the hill and a huge pool was [[cut in the living rock]] just inside the wall. In a first phase it was cut with a diameter of 11.8 m to a depth of 10.8 m, with a spiral staircase of 79 steps cut into the walls of the pool, and in a second phase a tunnel was added that continues downwards to a water chamber 24 m below the level of the city. It is possible, but cannot be proven, that this structure is the "[[pool of Gibeon]]" of {{bibleverse|2 Samuel|2:13|KJV}}. Later in the Iron Age, another tunnel of 93 steps was constructed to a better water source{{dubious|Source = spring, right? A pool (the old water source) is not a spring; this one is, or so it seems.|date=March 2021}} below the city starting from a point near the pool. A second access point to this source from the base of the hill is still in use today.<ref name=pritchard62/><ref name=newencyc/>
====Wine industry====
[[File:Wine cellars at Gibeon.jpg|thumb|Rock-cut 2 meter deep wine cellars ]]
The flat and fertile land with many springs which surrounds it gave rise to a flourishing economy, attested to in the large number of ancient jars and wine cellars discovered there. The jars could hold 45 litres of wine each and 66 wine cellars two meters deep and dug out of rock have been unearthed in Jib.<ref name=Brooksp93>Brooks, 2005, p. 93-94.</ref>
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===Classical antiquity===
From the 6th to the beginning of the 1st century BCE, there is scant evidence of occupation. Potsherds and coinage from the Late [[Hellenistic period|Hellenistic]] and [[Hasmonean dynasty|Hasmonean]] periods, dating to [[Antiochus III the Great|Antiochus III]]'s and [[John Hyrcanus]]' reigns, were discovered at the site. During the Roman period there was considerable building, including [[mikveh|stepped baths]] and water conduits.<ref name=pritchard62/><ref name=newencyc/>
Gibeon was possibly a dependency of Jerusalem, and was probably not fortified at the time.
[[Eusebius of Caesarea|Eusebius]], in his ''[[Onomasticon (Eusebius)|Onomasticon]]'', mentions Gibeon (Gabaon) as formerly being inhabited by the Gibeonites, who were a [[Hivite]] nation, and that their village was located about 4 milestones to the west of Bethel, near Ramah.<ref>{{cite book |translator=G.S.P. Freeman-Grenville |editor-last1=Chapmann III |editor-first1=R.L. |editor-last2=Taylor |editor-first2=J.E. |editor-link2=Joan E. Taylor |title=Palestine in the Fourth Century A.D.: The Onomasticon by Eusebius of Caesarea |publisher=Carta |date=2003 |location=Jerusalem|page=41 (s.v. Gabaon) |language=en|isbn=965-220-500-1 |oclc=937002750}}</ref> The 10th-century lexicographer, [[David ben Abraham al-Fasi]] identified ''al-Ǧīb''" (now [[Jib (village)|al-Jib]]) with the ancient city Gibeon, which view was
At a nearby ruin, built on the southern slope of a ridge at the western side of the ''al-Jib'' highland, archaeologists discovered a [[Hellenistic]]-[[Second Temple period]] dwelling, in which were found a plastered [[Mikveh|ritual bath]] with three descending staircases and an industrial zone with [[Limepit|lime kilns]].<ref>Binyamin Har-Even, "Khirbet el-Jafir (West) – A Rural Settlement of the Second Temple Period in the El-Jib Highland", in: ''[https://web.archive.org/web/20181228024147/https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/7b9e/1a3543229298c8feb7c86ae6b11ca6ca578e.pdf Summaries (Part One): Bible, History and Archaeology]'', pp. 27 - 28</ref>
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==Sources==
{{sfn whitelist |CITEREFExecutive_Committee_of_the_Editorial_BoardJacobs1905}}
{{refbegin}}
*{{Cite book| title = Rebuilding the House of Israel: Architectures of Gender in Jewish Antiquity
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==External links==
*{{Commonscatinline|Gibeon}}
*[http://www.bibleplaces.com/gibeon.htm Gibeon (BiblePlaces.com)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151008084739/http://www.bibleplaces.com/gibeon.htm |date=2015-10-08 }} includes pictures
*[https://www.mad-in-israel.com/2018/04/05/visiting-tel-gibeon-water-system/ Visiting Tel Gibeon Water system], blog with photos and video (5 April 2018). Accessed March 2021.
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Gibeon (Ancient City)}}
[[Category:Gibeon (ancient city)| ]]
[[Category:Populated places established in the 4th millennium BC]]
[[Category:1956 archaeological discoveries]]
[[Category:Archaeological sites in the West Bank]]
[[Category:Canaanite cities]]
[[Category:Former populated places in
[[Category:Bronze Age sites in the State of Palestine]]
[[Category:Iron Age sites in Asia]]
[[Category:13 Kohanic cities]]
[[Category:
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