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4,500-Year-Old Bronze Age Settlement Flattened by Hamas Bulldozers

(AP-The National-Abu Dhabi) Palestinian and French archaeologists in Gaza unearthed a rare 4,500-year-old Bronze Age settlement 20 years ago. Now Hamas bulldozers are flattening the last remnants of the excavation - Tel Es-Sakan - the largest Canaanite city between Palestine and Egypt. Jean-Baptiste Humbert, a Jerusalem-based archaeologist at the Ecole Biblique, reported, "Today the complete southern facade of the Tel is erased." In previous years, faces and ramparts on other sides were also destroyed. "Now it is destroyed all around," he said. Humbert shared an aerial photo from 2000 showing patterns of walls from atop the mound. The area "was the first city of Palestine to have a city wall," he said. Now, "the field work you see in the photo is totally destroyed." In 2013, Hamas seized the 3,000-year-old Anthedon Harbor to build a military training camp, parts of which were bulldozed. In 2016, the remains of a Byzantine church were discovered in Gaza, but authorities are believed to have destroyed them.
2017-10-06 00:00:00
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