Ancient Ekron (Tel Miqne)

Tell Miqne appears to be the site of biblical Ekron. It is located 35 kilometres southwest of Jerusalem. It is on the western edge of the inner coastal plain. Ekron is one of the larget Iron Age sites in Israel.

It is first mentioned in the bible in Joshua 13:2-3:

This is the land that still remains: all the regions of the Philistines and all those
Geshurites from Shihor which is east of Egypt northward to the boundary of Ekron ...

References to Ekron from other sources come from the eighth to seventh century BC. These sources are from a Neo-Assyrian king. The siege of Ekron in 712 BC is depicted on a wall relief in the palace of one of the Assyrian kings.

The city may have been destroyed by the Neo-Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzer in or around 603 BC. The site was settled [by the indigenous Canaanites] before the founding of Philistine Ekron at the beginning of the Iron Age (circa 1200 BC). The urban centre of Ekron evolved through a four stage process of growth, contraction, regeneration and partial abandonment, reflecting its changing role as a border city on the frontier separating Philistia and Judah ...

The History of the Ancient Near East Electronic Compendium