Bible Dictionaries
Fort, Fortification

Holman Bible Dictionary

Walled structures built defense against enemy armies. Cities of the ancient world were fortified for defensive purposes as far back as archaeological records exist. The oldest fortifications in Israel are at Jericho, where a Neolithic stone tower and part of a wall have been dated to 7,000 B.C. No other examples exist until 3,000 B.C., the Chalcolithic Period (about 4,000-3,000 B.C.) being one of open villages without fortification. Beginning in the Early Bronze Age mudbrick walls, towers, and gates were built on stone foundations at Ai, Arad, Beth Yerah, Gezer, Jericho, Megiddo, and elsewhere. From this time until the Roman Period (the time of Christ), cities were almost always surrounded by walls. The stone foundations and those portions of wall above the ground which utilized stone construction were made of uncut field stone. In the time of Solomon, however, well-dressed ashlars (carefully trimmed limestone blocks) began to be used in the construction of unique fortification systems. These included casemate walls (that is, two parallel stone walls with dividing partitions connecting them) and huge six-chambered gates allowing easy entrance and exit for his chariots (a gate plan introduced much earlier by the Hyksos invaders, around 1700 B.C., who also used chariots). Similar, but smaller four-chambered gates were used later in the time of Ahab and Jeroboam II, attached to offsets-insets solid walls. A glacis was sometimes built against the outside wall for added protection against the battering ram. A glacis was a sloping embankment of beaten earth, clay, gravel and stones, sometimes covered with plaster. Examples of huge, dressed stone walls and gate towers of the Hellenistic/Roman Periods may be seen today at Samaria, Caesarea Maritima, and Tiberias. Citadels were often built on the acropolis of the enclosed city.

John McRay