Tel Yizreel

Everyone knows that King Solomon was a wise ol' soul. But, it seems that all those women (according to the bible 700 wives and 300 concubines) were his downfall. He eventually turned to idolatry to keep them off his back. According to the book, his sinning apparently caused the split of the kingdom, under his son Rehoboam, into Judah in the South and Israel in the North. Yizreel (there are a million ways to spell this) was one of the cities build in the Kingdom of Israel by the dynasties that followed (mainly during the Omride dynasty by Omri and Ahab, 882-852BCE). Tel Yizreel lies on high ground, slap bang in the middle of the Yizreel valley, between Beit Shean and Megiddo.

The site was dug between 1990-95 by David Ussishkin of Tel Aviv University (a nice clear report can be found here). The story of the horrid Jezebel took place here. Basically Jezebel and Ahab (the King and Queen) wanted to buy the vineyard of Naboth here in Yizreel. He refused. She "forged a libel" about the poor chap and he was stoned to death. According to 1 Kings they were eventually punished and Jezebel was thrown over the walls of Yizreel where she was eaten by dogs.

I like this picture. The eaely morning sun makes great shadows. See I'm wearing the hat. It makes me feel so Indiana Jonesish.
The whole Tel was surrounded by a vicious barbed wire fence that looked surprisingly new (the only new thing out there). The boy and I rolled underneath with no problem. Nothing stands in the way of the blacko family and their archaeology. We figured the Kibbutz (Kibbutz Yizreel is well known for it's ex-South-Africans and their rugby) has fenced this off. Based on the mounds of poop the Tel is now being used as a cow pasture.
The Tell is completely overgrown. Clearly not much work has happened here since the big dig in the 90's. There are a whole lot of open pits, just waiting for someone to fall in. You can see the various levels in the exposed side.
This was a large city. There are many remains of dwellings and city walls.
I think these are part of the very walls that Jezebel was tossed over.
The largest remains are what is left of the Crusader period church and small fort. The site was occupied from the Early Bronze Age (4K BCE) till today where it's just outside the Kibbutz. The fertile land and excellent view of the surrounding valley clearly makes this a desirable site.
We fought our way through the bush and cow patties. We climbed walls and jumped over pits and basically had a great time. There are no signs or explanations and my skills are not yet at the point where I can tell you what's from what period, but I will improve. We had fun.
We actually found some others out at the crack of dawn. It seems the cactus' that grow all over the site are packed with ripe sabras. There were a few locals slinking around with their sabra pickers (a long pole with a round metal cylinder on the end). They did not seem to want us to take their pictures. I guess that's possibly the real reason there is a barbed wire fence.