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 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.