| The 1990 season of excavation at Tel Gezer, Israel yielded for the first time evidence for an earthquake during the middle of the eighth century B.C. This new evidence is described and correlated with other archaeological sites in Israel of the same time period as well as larger geological contexts of past and present seismic activity in that region. This correlation provides prime new data about the potential timing of the earthquake, its extent, and significance.;Literary support for a major earthquake is also investigated which indicates an earthquake during this general time period. A textual study of pertinent passages from the Hebrew Bible and chronological data from biblical and extra-biblical sources are brought into relation with the archaeoseismic evidence. These archaeological, geological, and literary evidences are correlates for a suggested earthquake paradigm. |
