Tel Miqne-Ekron, an archaeological tel on the grounds of the kibbutz, is believed to be the site of the Biblical city of Ekron.
Ekron |
ba'-a-lath ba'alath; A, Baalon):between Shikkeron (Ekron) and Jabnoel unless, as seems probable, the suggestion of Charles Simon Clermont-Ganneau (Rev. Crit, 1897, 902) is correct that for har ( = "mount"), we should read nahar ("river").
The partly conserved text of a treaty with Tyre mentions the kings of Judah, Edom, Moab, Gaza, Ashkelon, Ekron, Byblos, Arvad, Samsi-muruna, Ammon, Ashdod, ten kings from the coast of the sea, and ten kings from the middle of the sea (usually identified with Cyprus), as Assyrian allies.
After the arrival of the Philistines, one of the Sea Peoples, Ekron became a fortified urban center that supplied Egypt and the Assyrian empire with 700 tons of olive oil a year, making it the largest olive oil industrial center in the ancient Middle East.
After the pogroms following the May Laws, he helped found the Hovevei Zion in Warsaw, and convinced Baron Edmond James de Rothschild to financially support a settlement called Ekron (now Qiryat Ekron).