GEZER

modern Tel Gezer ancient royal Canaanite city, near present-day Ramla, Israel. Gezer is often mentioned in the Old Testament and in the Egyptian records of the New Kingdom, from Thutmose III (147926 BC) to Merneptah (121304 BC). Gezer was abandoned about 900 BC and was little occupied thereafter. The excavations at Gezer sponsored by the Palestine Exploration Fund during 190205 and 190709 disclosed strata covering most periods from the Neolithic Period to the time of the Maccabees. Excavations were resumed in 1923 and have continued intermittently. In 1957 Yigael Yadin identified a Solomonic wall and gateway; these fortifications are identical in construction with the corresponding Solomonic remains excavated at Megiddo and Hazor.