“Tell Jemmeh was the original suggestion for this site, a few kilometers south of Gaza and excavated by W. J. Pythian-Adams (1922) and W. F. Flinders Petrie five years later. The latter’s excavations penetrated to the sixteenth century B. C. The identification was challenged by D. Alon who named Tell Abu Hureirah a short distance further from Gaza to the southeast in Wadi Es-Sariah. The survey showed that the eminence was indeed a tell, occupied since Bronze Age times, and not a natural hill, as was originally thought. The community was prosperous in the Middle Bronze Age, the time of the patriarchs (cf. Gen 10:19; 20:1, 2; 26:6, 20). This would both confirm the story of the relations of Abraham and Isaac with Abimelech (probably a dynastic name) and also support the contention of Kelso that the patriarchs were desert sheiks of wealth, influence, and authority, with whom the communities of Palestine did well to come to terms.” (Edward M. Blaiklock. “Gerar.” The New International Dictionary of Biblical Archaeology. The Zondervan Corporation:
Grand Rapids, Mich., 1983)
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