Researchers uncovered the remains of an impressive ancient metropolis in northern Israel. The En Esur archeological site near present-day Harish in Haifa district is about 5,000 years old, and the largest and most central one ever discovered in the Middle East region, the Israeli Antiquities Authority said Sunday. "This is the New York of the Early Bronze Age in our region," enthused the archaeologists in a statement.
Cosmopolitan and planned was the city, which according to their estimates had about 6000 inhabitants. The work on the archaeological site of En Esur therefore exposed a fortified city wall, residential areas, public squares and streets and alleys. Aerial imagery made by drones shows the amazing dimensions of the facility.
The researchers also made the location of a temple with a stone basin, which was probably used for religious rituals in their excavations.
Yoli Schwartz / Israel Antiquities Authority / dpa
Stone water basin on the site of the excavation site En Esur
There found animal and human bone remains to draw conclusions about the cultural habits of the inhabitants.
In addition, the archaeologists found traces of a presumably 2000 years older settlement from the Copper Age - directly under the housing remains of the Bronze Age metropolis.
As the Bronze Age, we refer to the period in human history in which weapons and tools were mainly made of bronze - an alloy of copper and tin. In Central Europe, this era covered the period from about 2200 to 800 BC. The Early Bronze Age began again a thousand years earlier.
