Lachish Tell was formed from different settlement layers during the Bronze Age.It ismentioned in the Amarna letters as Lakisha/Lakiša.Tell Lachish was occupied originaly during the Pottery Neolithic period (5500–4500 BC). During the Early Bronze Age (3300–3000 BC) Lachish developed into a large settlement. As Canaanite settlement Lachish became a major city in the Southern Levan duringthe Middle Bronze Age. Ca 1500 BC cityof Lachish was destroyed by fire but it was re-established and at theend of the LBA. it was a prosperous city. ca 1150 Lacish was once more destroyed by fire. After the abandonment site was resettled in the tenth-nine century. The unfortified settlement was destroyed c. 925 BC (by Egyptian Pharaoh Sheshonk). Rebuild and heavily fortified in the first half of the IX cent. became an important city in the Judahite kingdom. In 701 BC or 688 BC Sennacherib captured the city.
See:
- David Ussishkin eds. The Renewed Archaeological Excavations at Lachish (1973-1994), vol. I-V Tel Aviv, 2004
- Joshua 10:31–33