A Persian Military Outpost Identified in Israel
Monday, December 24, 2018
ACRE, ISRAEL—Haaretz reports that archaeologists digging at the site of Tel Keisan ("hill of treachery" in Arabic) in northern Israel have unearthed the remains of a Persian military outpost that might have played a role in the succesful 525 B.C. Achaemenid invasion of Egypt. According to historians such as Diodurus Siculus and Strabo, King Cambyses II attacked Egypt after massing a huge army on the plains near the city of Acre. The team, led by Ben-Gurion University archaeologist Gunnar Lehmann and David Schloen of the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago, believe that Tel Keisan was probably one of several outposts that played a role in supporting the Persian expeditionary force during its build up. The Persian-period fortifications at Tel Keisan were later heavily damaged during Alexander the Great's fourth-century B.C. campaign to drive the Achaemenids out of the Levant. To read in-depth about the ancient Egyptian occupation of the region, go to “Egypt’s Final Redoubt in Canaan.”
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