Azor
AZOR
AZOR (Heb. אָזוֹר), a place southeast of Tel Aviv-Jaffa on the road to Jerusalem.
Ancient Period
Azor is not mentioned in the masoretic text of the Bible but the Septuagint adds the name to the list of cities in Danite territory together with Jehud, *Bene-Berak, and *Gath-Rimon (Josh. 19:45). It also appears in the Annals of Sennacherib as one of the cities he conquered on his march south against Egypt together with Beth-Dagon, Jaffa, and Bene-Berak. The name has been preserved at Yāzūr where remains from the Canaanite and Israelite periods have been discovered.
A collective burial tomb from the Late Chalcolithic period (c. 3500–3100 b.c.e.) was accidentally discovered at Azor in 1957. The tomb consisted of an egg-shaped chamber 36 ft. (11 m.) long and 26 ft. (8 m.) wide cut deeply into the hard sandstone layers; access was through a circular shaft on the side. Inside, clay ossuaries had been deposited containing the desiccated bones of the dead in a secondary type of burial. The Azor *ossuaries belong to a culture remains of which were found at Teleilat Ghassl, in the Jordan Valley, and at Beer-Sheba.
Four groups of ossuaries were distinguished: (1) simple chests; (2) jar-shaped ossuaries, with rounded tops and openings on the shoulders; (3) clay chests in the shape of animals (sheep or dogs) or monsters; (4) house-shaped receptacles, the most prevalent type. The normal type of this group is a box-like clay chest, approximately 2 ft. (60 cm.) long, 1 ft. (30 cm.) wide, and 2 ft. (50 cm.) high, with a rounded top and projecting front and back walls at each end. A square opening in the upper part of the facade, sometimes closed by a door, served to introduce the skull. Above this entrance is often found a schematic human or owl-like figure, which could have had some prophylactic purpose. Some of the ossuaries resemble models of houses, with gabled roofs, walls pierced by windows, and imitations of protruding wooden beams used in a decorative way. Some of the "houses" are mounted on an imitation of piles. The painted ornamentation on the walls and roofs utilizes motifs (palms, lattices) which recall vegetal materials used in buildings. In the Crusader period Richard Coeur-de-Lion built at Azor (Yāzūr) a small fort, Casal des Plains (1191), which served as a meeting place with Muslim representatives. The remains of this tower are still visible inside the old village.
[Jean Perrot]
Modern Period
Modern Azor is a small town 3 mi. (5 km.) southeast of Tel Aviv. Before 1948 this was an Arab village (Yāzūr, ﻳﺎور) which enjoyed prosperity thanks to Tel Aviv's growth, but during the 1936–39 riots, Arabs in Yāzūr repeatedly attacked adjoining *Mikveh Israel as well as traffic on the highway which passes through it to Jerusalem and the South. In the 1948 War of Independence, the highway was blocked by Arabs who killed a detachment of seven Jews (who were commemorated in the neighboring moshav, Mishmar ha-Shivah, "Guard of the Seven," founded in 1949). In the ensuing battles the Arabs fled, and after the end of 1949 the place was settled by Jewish immigrants. In 1951 Azor received municipal council status, forming part of the Tel Aviv conurbation, whose largest industrial zone, Ḥolon-Azor, bordered on it. The town's area was 1.1 sq. mi. (2.9 sq. km.). By 1968 its population had reached 5,100 and in 2002 it was 9,670.
[Efraim Orni /
Shaked Gilboa (2nd ed.)]
bibliography:
ancient period: Aharoni, Land, index; Abel, Geog, 2 (1938), 258; Perrot, in: Attiqot, 3 (1961), 1–83. add. bibliography: S.S. Ahituv, Joshua (1995), 322.