The upcoming holiday of Purim is celebrated on the fourteenth day of the Hebrew month of Adar—unless one lives in a city that was surrounded by a wall in biblical times, in which case it is celebrated the following day. This particular point of Jewish law makes clear the importance of fortifications to ancient cites. Examining the evolution of these defensive structures, Oded Borowski writes:
In biblical times, the primary fortification was the city wall, which surrounded the city on all sides. During the period preceding the Israelite conquest and settlement of Canaan (before 1200 BCE), cities were surrounded by thick, solid walls. In most cases, these walls had stone foundations with mudbrick superstructures.
During the period of the united monarchy, in the days of David and Solomon (about 1000–920 BCE), the solid wall gave way to the casemate wall: two walls running parallel to each other. Short dividing walls at right angles to the parallel walls created elongated rooms between the long parallel walls. These rooms served as living quarters or storage areas and could be entered through openings in the inner walls. Some archaeologists suggest that in times of special danger, the casemate rooms could have been filled with rubble to strengthen them. In many cities, private houses attached to the wall incorporated these casemate rooms as living and storage space.
After the Northern and Southern Kingdoms split apart following Solomon’s death (about 920 BCE), the Northern Kingdom (called “Israel”) returned to the older method of defense by [what] are called offset-inset walls, a descriptive term indicating that a section of the wall protruded forward, outside the main line of the wall, then the next section was recessed, followed by another section jutting out. This building method gave the defenders a better view and more control of the wall line. . . . Offset-inset walls helped protect against approaching battering rams, soldiers with ladders, and wall-undermining activities.
Unfortunately, history teaches us only one lesson about fortifications: that every fortification system had its vulnerability. In the end, few ancient cities escaped violent destruction.
