Archaeology
Archaeological excavation at Gezer has been going on since the early 1900s, and it has become one of the most excavated sites in Israel. In the modern era, the site was discovered by Charles Simon Clermont-Ganneau in 1871. R. A. Stewart Macalister dug in the site between 1902 and 1907 on behalf of the Palestine Exploration Fund. Macalister recovered several artifacts discovered several constructions and defenses. He also established Gezer's habitation strata, though they were later found to be mostly incorrect (as well as many of his theories). Other notable archaeological expeditions to the site were made by Alan Rowe (1934), G.E. Wright (1964-5, at the head of the Hebrew Union College expedition), William Dever, Yigael Yadin, as well as the Andrews University.
One of the best-known findings 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.
In 1957 Yigael Yadin identified a Solomonic wall and gateway identical in construction to the remains excavated at Megiddo and Hazor.
Excavations were renewed in June 2006 by a consortium of institutions under the direction of Steve Ortiz (Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary) and Sam Wolff (Israel Antiquities Authority). The Tel Gezer Excavation and Publication Project is a multi-disciplinary field project investigating the Iron Age history of the ancient biblical city of Tel Gezer.
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