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 Brief History of Gate Structures.
Gates have probably been in existence since defensive walls
first appeared. If walls are necessary to protect a town, a
gate to protect the entrance is shortly to follow. The two
developments probably coincided. In the ancient Near East, we
have uncovered town gate plans dating back at least to the
Early Bronze Age (3300-2200 B.C.E.), and we have a fully
preserved gate complex (all but the uppermost part) from the
Middle Age (ca. 1800 B.C.E.) at Tel Dan [see below]. Earlier
during the Chalcolithic period (4500-3300) at Ein Gedi we have
remains of a temple and
temenos area with two entrances. One entrance
leading to Nahal David has the clear foundations of a two
chamber gate.
 Let us begin with a
description of various gate structures found in the ancient Near
East, and then discuss the Mudaybi` monumental gate structure.
From the earliest phase at Early Bronze Ai, north of Jerusalem
and east of Bethel, we find several
posterns (or postern gates), simply openings
in the wall.
 One would assume these openings were blocked by
wooden or metal doors, or perhaps blocked by stones in times of
imminent attack. We also find during the Early Bronze the gate
tower at a gate. One example has been excavated at Tell el-Farah
(north). The tower usually consisted of massive projections
outward flanking the gate opening on either side. Again one
would assume just at the gateway, a thick door would have stood,
either wooden or metal. And still in Early Bronze Age, we find
the two chamber gate, with an outer door, two chambers or rooms,
and a second door opening into the town proper (the Ein Gedi
illustration above is a two chamber gate).
 In
the Middle Bronze Age, both two chamber and four chamber gates
are found. The Tel Dan [
Photos] gate mentioned above, and depicted to the
left and below, is a four chamber gate. It has three doors or
narrowed entry ways with four chambers or rooms. The Tel Dan
gate was constructed of mud brick. It was used for a relatively
short time, perhaps less than fifty years, then it was
completely covered up by the people at Tel Dan as part of a
rampart and a new structure was built on top of it. It lay
buried in the rampart until it was excavated in the 1980s by Avram Biran. This gate structure is remarkable, in part because
it is intact, and in part because it demonstrated that the
Canaanites in the Middle Bronze Age, about 1800 B.C., used a
true arch. (As an aside, I was previously taught, and still see
in some textbooks, that the Romans developed the full arch many
centuries later.) The drawing and photo to the left show the Tel
Dan Middle Bronze gate. Another less completely preserved gate
structure with a true arch has been excavated at Ashkelon by
Lawrence Stager of Harvard University. He dates that gate and
arch structure to about 1850 B.C.
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