Continuing
from the previous post, in discussing the types of construction that was known
in Jerusalem and Israel in the centuries between David and Lehi, to show what
type of construction that Nephi, Sam and Zoram would have known and lived
around, an interesting defensive wall design called “casemate” was being used
more than two-and-a-half centuries before Nephi was born.
First
of all, before the monarchy (earlier than 1000 B.C.), walls were made of unbaked
bricks on a stone foundation. In the early days of the monarchy, casemate walls
were constructed. These were made of two parallel walls, the outer one thicker
than the inner, connected by a series of cross walls about 6 feet long which
gave the whole system the appearance of a series of rooms.
Around the time of David and especially Solomon (the Monarchy),
casemate walls were built some 400 years before Lehi’s time. These were double
walls cross-wise strengthened every six feet or so for added strength. This
very advanced and aggressive building technique would have been known to Nephi
The sections of the wall (these interior
rooms between the walls) were filled with earth so that in times of siege,
the walls were very strong and defeated attempts with battering rams and
similar siege engines to break through them. They also formed an inner ring
road circling the town, for in several Palestinian cities houses were built up
along it close to the inner wall. Later on, the casemate walls of a "royal
city" like those built in the 9th century B.C., more than 250
years before Lehi (1 Kings 16:24), supported imposing superstructures, shops
and a palace overlooking a paved courtyard. No attempt appears to have been
made to add buttresses to the these walls.
Yellow Arrows show the area between the walls that was
filled with dirt. When compacted, a battering ram would have no effect upon the
wall—an ingenious defense that also worked centuries later against cannon fire
Types
of fortification were improved during the monarchy and another very popular
form of city wall developed, made up of a massive "broken line" of
alternating recesses and salient, which meant that attackers approaching the
inside of the recess were exposed to the defenders standing on the salients on
either side.
In the
early days, walls of this kind were built without towers. The form was used in
the Megiddo of Jehu's dynasty, more than 200 years before Lehi left Jerusalem.
Recesses in the wall built by Solomon were blocked on the inside and
strengthened and the flanking salients enlarged to serve as the basis for a
tower. This made for more effective defense and also a simpler construction of
the massive gateway.
Top: Egypt was building “broken line” walls as early as the 2nd
millennium B.C., like this one at Memphis built by Ineb-Hedj, which means
“White Wall”; Bottom: It is interesting that when the Nephites built
Sacsayhuaman in Cuzco around 500 B.C., they used this same type of “broken
line” construction on their walls
When Mormon wrote of a Nephite
defense, “But
behold, how great was their disappointment; for behold, the Nephites had dug up
a ridge of earth round about them, which was so high that the Lamanites could
not cast their stones and their arrows at them that they might take effect,
neither could they come upon them save it was by their place of entrance”
(Alma 49:4), and “the Lamanites could not
get into their forts of security by any other way save by the entrance, because
of the highness of the bank which had been thrown up, and the depth of the
ditch which had been dug round about, save it were by the entrance” (Alma
49:18).
The
gate, of course, was the key to a fortress or city's defense and potentially
its weakest point. Walls were broken for gateways only very reluctantly and
then great care was given to their situation. As an example, Jerusalem had a
number of gates, all mentioned by name in the Bible, but most Israelite cities
had only two, one for wheeled traffic and the other, on the opposite side, for
pedestrians only.
The
road that led to the main gate was planned, wherever possible, with wartime
exigencies as well as peaceful uses in mind. An army marched to the attack with
the soldiers holding their weapons in their right hands and their shields in
the left. Wherever possible, accordingly, a city gate was placed so that anyone
coming up the road had the wall and its defenders on the vulnerable right-hand
side.
Where this
was physically impossible, a second outer gate would be built to protect the entrance
to the city. This bastion, guarding the approaches to the city, helped to
overcome the intrinsic weakness of a system which allowed enemy soldiers to
come up close to the walls, protected by their shields.
In the
Israelite period, city gates were part of a strong, massive tower, through
which the road ran, narrowed by two or three embrasures and closed during the
night or in time of war.
City and fortress of Megiddo. Blue
Arrow: Outside entrance or main gate; Yellow Arrow: Inside entrance, part of
main gate; White Arrows: Guardhouses where defenders of the main gate were
housed; Red Arrow: Inner gate leading into the city
Unlike Hollywood movies, the gate
was securely attached and nearly impregnable, with the door itself guarded
by two or more pairs of massive piers, forming the guardrooms between them.
Behind the first set of piers hung the door, with a huge vertical beam at each
side, strengthened by strips of bronze. It moved on hinges fitted into hollowed
out stone door sockets on either side of the piers, i.e. at each end of this
doorsill of the Lachish gate.
The
friction between the hinge and the socket (dotted line) naturally wore out the
stone so door sockets might be protected by bronze covers. The sockets for city
gates and the doors to other important buildings had to be replaced frequently.
For this reason, many more worn-out door sockets than city gates have been
unearthed in Israelite cities. Sometimes the socket stones were used in later
buildings.
Walls
and large buildings in the Israelite cities were made of hewn stone, with the stone
used for house building varied from common field stones or bigger roughly
shaped quarry stones held together with plenty of clay mortar, to carefully
wrought dressed quarry stone. A typical Israelite wall was made of a mixture of
hewn wrought and unhewn stones, the wrought stones being used for corners
(cornerstones) and as headers and stretchers at fixed intervals; the space
between them was filled by rough stones embedded in mortar. This was a quick
and cheap method of building.
Rough hewn stone used in two areas of ancient Israel
before the time of Lehi. Long before Lehi left Jerusalem, stones were also cut
and dressed, making them smooth and evenly joined
Another interesting stone
monument in the area of Palestine is the ancient massive foundation platform of
Baal Hadad, which is like no other structure in the world, with trilithon
composed of three stones each measuring 62 by 14 by 12 feet, weighing 870 tons
each. They have been raised to a height of 33 feet and have been
so accurately cut and placed that a razor's edge cannot be placed between them.
The
point of all this, o coure, is to show that before Lehi left Jerusalem, not only
that major city, but all Israelite cities around were built of hewn stone,
sometimes of huge proportions, and perfectly fitted. Nephi, Sam, Zoram, and
their wives would have been well familiar with such stonework and accepted it
as the way to build. When Nephi said, “I did cause my people to be industrious,
and to labor with their hands” (2 Nephi 5:17), it is doubtful that such labor
would have been of a lesser quality and material than what he had known
throughout his life at Jerusalem. Nor would massive, dressed and well-fitted
stones have been unusual to them.
Top: The massive foundation platform of Baal Hadad is 300 feet long and
200 feet wide and made of smooth hewn stone; Bottom: The Baalbek foundation
stone shown here is the largest piece of hewn rock on the face of the Earth
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