Gezer is a relatively large mound, almost 10 hectares in size. The strategically located ancient city commanded the coastal plain, the Valley of Aijalon and the road that led to the highlands north of Jerusalem. The site is mentioned in quite a large number of Egyptian, Assyrian, biblical and Hellenistic sources spanning from the Late Bronze Age through to the Hellenistic period. According to the biblical text, it was located on the southwestern outskirts of the Northern Kingdom, facing Judah and the Philistine territories a location that undoubtedly influenced its demography and material culture. All this makes it one of the most important archaeological sites in Israel. Gezer was first excavated between 1902 and 1909 by R.A.S. Macalister on behalf of the Palestine Exploration Fund. Macalister exposed large parts of the mound in a series of parallel trenches and uncovered almost all of the famous Gezer monuments (Macalister I-III). A second dig, limited in scope, was conducted at the site by A. Rowe in 1934. The third expedition worked at Gezer from 1964 to 1974 on behalf of the Hue Biblical and Archaeological School in Jerusalem (Gezer I-V). It was led by G.E. Wright (1964-1965), W.G. Dever (1966-1971) and J.D. Seger (1972-1974). Dever returned to Gezer on a limited scale in 1984 and 1990 to tackle questions raised by critics of the Hue excavations. Though the HUe expedition was led by three directors, it was Dever who became the prominent figure. Dever directed eight of the 13 seasons carried out at the site, was involved in three of the five final reports and played a major role in most of the Gezer disputes. The ultimate goal of an excavation is to decipher the political and/or social history of a site. This is usually accomplished by one of two methods: excavation of large areas and exposure of major monuments the strategy undertaken by Macalister (see Aharoni 1973a) or excavation of smaller areas in meticulous, well-controlled sections the method chosen by the HUe excavators (Dever 1973a). Needless to say, a combination of the two is preferable (Ussishkin forthcoming). Gezer, as well as other sites in Israel such as Megiddo, Beth Shean and Lachish, presented the modem excavator with a golden opportunity the opportunity of reexamining these sites, which yielded an exceptional number of monuments from all periods at a time when archaeology was taking its first steps, using modem methods. In short, Gezer could have been expected to become a key site, both historically and archaeologically.
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