Stratigraphy of tel 'en gev, Israel: Correlation among three archaeological missions

Archaeological excavations have been conducted at Tel 'En Gev, Israel, by three archaeological missions: a group of Israeli archaeologists headed by B. Mazar (1961), the Japanese Archaeological Project in the Biblical Land (1990-2004) and Keio University Japan (2009-2011). Mazar and others detected five Iron Age strata in the 'lower city' and four in the 'upper city'. On the other hand, the Japanese mission found only two strata from the Iron Age and one each for Persian, Hellenistic, and Early Roman periods, while Keio University uncovered three Iron Age strata and one Persian-Hellenistic stratum. Therefore, until date, no coherent timeframe has been established for the site. In this paper, the evidence gathered by the three groups will be examined and compared to reconstruct a coherent picture of the historical development of Tel 'En Gev.