Tell ed Duweir

(ancient Lachish), a Bronze Age and early Iron Age settlement located 40 km southwest of Jerusalem. Finds excavated between 1932 and 1938 testify to the origin and evolution of an ancient urban culture in Palestine.

Crafts had developed in Tell ed Duweir by the late third millennium B.C. Fortifications appeared in the 18th century B.C., and a temple was erected in the 16th century B.C. Tell ed Duweir was one of the fortified cities of Canaan and was often part of the kingdom of Egypt, whose culture influenced that of Tell ed Duweir. Of special interest are the discoveries of inscriptions dating from the 18th to the 12th century B.C. and of later Hebrew inscriptions dating from the sixth century B.C. Tell ed Duweir was destroyed in the early sixth century B.C. by the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar II.