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| Remains of Anthedon, also referred to as Al Balakhiyya, was a Hellenistic city near Gaza (Photo courtesy of EBAF) |
JORDAN TIMES
AMMAN — The international community does not know how long will last the most recent of Zionist's offensives on Gaza, nor it can predict how much damage will be inflicted on the Arab and non-Jewish cultural heritage in the Gaza Strip.
Because of that, relevant institutions, both local and international, should keep the record on artefacts, historical sites and cultural heritage that is under the constant threat.
In the early 12th century BC, groups probably originating in the Aegean established trading posts on the coastal plaine. They were known in historiography as "Sea people" and information on their ethnic origin varies.
Sea people seem to be heterogeneous conglomeration of different ethnic groups from the Asia Minor, Greece and northern Mediterranen. However, our focus this time won't be on them.
"Conquered by the Assyrians in 734 BC, Gaza pledged allegiance to Nineveh. Under Nebuchadnezzar II, Gaza became a Babylonian outpost on the empire's Western frontier. In 539 BC, the Persian Cyrus seized Babylon and founded the Achaemenid Empire. During the Persian period, Gaza was the pearl of the Mediteranean," said British-affiliated archaeologist Claudine Dauphin.
The archaeologist noted that all these historical periods have left their mark on an exceptional discovery in 1995: The ancient port and city of Anthedon at Tel Blakhiyyah, next to Shatteh refugee camp.
Founded in the early 8th century BC as one of the Neo-Assyrian citadels of the buffer zone against Egypt, it was founded anew by Greek immigrants, probably from Anthedon in Beotia who took advantage of the 6th century BC boom in seaborn trade and established the new trading port of Anthedon of Palestine around 520 BC, Dauphin continued.
She added that it was active until the 12th century AD. The defensive site has been silted in, but parts of the city wall are still standing.
The port structures used for fishing and shipbuilding and an aristocratic quarter with walls painted in Pompeii style (200 BC) were excavated by Franco-Palestinian expedition directed by Fr J.-B. Humbert, OP of EBAF, between 1995 and 2005, Dauphin underlined, adding that a Hellenistic city, Anthedon had an agora and temples.
It was governed by a council (boule) of 500 members and had its own army commanded by a strategos, according to the Jewish Roman historian, Flavius Josephus.
In the course of his conquest of Syria, Alexander the great besieged Gaza in 332 BC, perpetrating massacres, looting and destruction. Rebuilt, Gaza regained its importance under his successors, the Ptolemaic Lagids in Egypt (323-30 BC) and the Seleucids (323-64 BC) ruling from Anatolia to the Indus.
"In 97 BC, Gaza and Anthedon were conquered and devastated by the Jewish Hasmonean ruler, Alexander Janneus, and left deserted - a taste of what was intended but not fully achieved some 2000 years later, giving us as 21st century archaeologist hope for the renaissance of Gaza, since Anthedon was again important enough in the Byzantine province of Palaestina Prima (395–636) to become a suffragan bishopric of the metropolitan archbishopric of Caesarea Palaestinae," Dauphin underlined.
In the 4th century AD, the city became an episcopal see, though the worship of Venus and Astarte survived there until the 5th century according to Sozomenon. The first known bishop of Anthedon was Paul, who took part in the Councils of Ephesus (431) and Chalcedon (451).
Bishop Eustathius took part in the Council of Jerusalem (518), and Bishop Dorotheus in the Council of Jerusalem (536).
Roman and Byzantine Gaza... READ MORE https://jordantimes.com/news/local/gazas-endangered-heritage-5000-years-history-risk-amid-conflict
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