 Aerial view of Tana et-Tahta | |
  Shown within the West Bank | |
| Alternative name | Tana et-Tahta |
|---|---|
| Region | West Bank |
| Coordinates | 32°09′09″N35°23′44″E / 32.152418°N 35.395459°E |
| Type | settlement |
| History | |
| Periods | Iron Age, Roman period, Byzantine period |
| Cultures | Israelites, Samaritans |
| Site notes | |
| Archaeologists | Manasseh Hill Country Survey |
| Condition | In ruins |
Khirbet Tana et-Tahta is an archeological site located in the West Bank. It lies near the Israeli settlement of Mekhora.
Khirbet Tana et-Tahta is identified with Taanath Shiloh (Hebrew : תַּאֲנַת שִׁלֹה), a place mentioned in the Hebrew Bible as one of the landmarks on the boundary of Tribe of Ephraim. [1] [2] Taanath Shiloh was previously identified with the nearby site of Khirbet Tana et-Foqa, but based on archeological evidence, Tana et-Tahta seems like the more probable candidate. [3] [4]
Yanun, believed by some archeologists to be the location of biblical Janohah, lies nearby.
The site was surveyed by the Manasseh Hill Country Survey and no orderly excavation was conducted. [3] The survey documented the remains of a multi-period settlement that was proposed to be identified with the biblical town of Taanath Shiloh and with Thena, a city mentioned in several sources from the Roman and Byzantine periods. [5]
In his Onomasticon , Eusebius mentions a place called Thena on the road to the Jordan river, around 10 milestones east of Neapolis. Ptolemy describes Thena, as a town in Samaria. [6]
The remains of the Roman-Byzantine city covered an area of over 100 dunams across the summit and also on the slope north of it. The ethnic identity of its residents remains unclear; it is believed that they were Samaritans or that it had a mixed population of Samaritans and other ethnicities.
Significant remains at the site include a public structure (maybe a Samaritan synagogue), several underground systems, burial caves and a water supply system which has its origins in the Ein al-Foqa spring. The remains of a Roman road have been also discovered near Khirbet Tana et-Tahta; the location of several Iron Age sites nearby suggests that the road dates back to biblical times. [4]
The Kingdom of Israel or the Kingdom of Samaria was an Israelite kingdom of the Southern Levant during the Iron Age. The kingdom controlled the regions of Samaria, Galilee and parts of the Transjordan. Its capital, for the most part, was Samaria. The other Israelite polity, the Kingdom of Judah, lay to the south.
Samaritans are an ethnoreligious group who originate from the ancient Israelites. They are native to the Levant and adhere to Samaritanism, an Abrahamic and ethnic religion.
Samaria is the ancient, historic, biblical name used for the central region of the Land of Israel, bordered by Judea to the south and Galilee to the north. The first-century historian Josephus set the Mediterranean Sea as its limit to the west, and the Jordan River as its limit to the east. Its territory largely corresponds to the biblical allotments of the tribe of Ephraim and the western half of Manasseh; after the death of Solomon and the splitting-up of his empire into the southern Kingdom of Judah and the northern Kingdom of Israel, this territory constituted the southern part of the Kingdom of Israel. The border between Samaria and Judea is set at the latitude of Ramallah.
Adummim is a place-name mentioned in the biblical Book of Joshua in connection with the ascent of Adummim.
Shechem, also spelled Sichem, was a Canaanite and Israelite city mentioned in the Amarna Letters, later appearing in the Hebrew Bible as the first capital of the Kingdom of Israel following the split of the United Monarchy. According to Joshua 21:20–21, it was located in the tribal territorial allotment of the tribe of Ephraim. Shechem declined after the fall of the northern Kingdom of Israel. The city later regained its importance as an prominent Samaritan center during the Hellenistic period.
Shiloh was an ancient city and sanctuary in Samaria. According to the Hebrew Bible, Shiloh was the central sanctuary of the Israelites during the pre-monarchic period, before the First Temple in Jerusalem was built. After the Israelite conquest of Canaan, the Tabernacle was moved to Shiloh, and remained there during the period of the biblical judges.
Timnath or Timnah was a Philistine city in Canaan that is mentioned in the Hebrew Bible in Judges 14 and in connection with Samson. Modern archaeologists identify the ancient site with a tell lying on a flat, alluvial plain, located in the Sorek Valley ca. 7 kilometres (4.3 mi) north-west of Beit Shemesh, near moshav Tal Shahar in Israel, known in Hebrew as Tel Batash or Teluliot Batashi (plural), and in Arabic as Tell Butashi or Teleilat Batashi (plural). The site is not to be confused with neither the as yet unidentified Timna from the hill country of Judah, nor with the southern copper-smelting site of Timna in the Arabah near Eilat.
Mount Ebal is one of the two mountains in the immediate vicinity of the city of Nablus in the West Bank, and forms the northern side of the valley in which Nablus is situated, the southern side being formed by Mount Gerizim. The mountain is one of the highest peaks in the West Bank and rises to 940 m (3,080 ft) above sea level, some 60 m (200 ft) higher than Mount Gerizim. Mount Ebal is approximately 17 km2 (6.6 sq mi) in area, and is composed primarily of limestone. The slopes of the mountain contain several large caverns which were probably originally quarries, and at the base towards the north are several tombs.
Tell el-Hammeh is a medium-size archaeological tell (mound) in the West Bank, at the southern fringe of the Beit She'an valley. It has been identified with the Canaanite city state of Hammath, mentioned in a late-13th century BCE Egyptian inscription.
Khirbet Kefireh, also Khirbet Kefire, Khirbet el-Kefirah, is an archeological site just north of the Palestinian town of Qatanna, West Bank. It is situated atop a hill covering about 4-5 acres. It appears in the Survey of Western Palestine map compiled in the 1870s, and most Bible dictionaries identify it with the ancient town of Chephirah.
At-Tayba is a Palestinian village in the West Bank, located 18 km northwest of the city of Jenin in the northern West Bank, and 2 km east of Umm el-Fahm in Israel. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, the town had a population of 2,386 inhabitants in mid-year 2006.
Jaba' is a Palestinian village in the northern West Bank, located 8 kilometres (5.0 mi) southwest of the city of Jenin. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, the town had a population of 8,942 in the 2007 census. The village's name translates as "hill" and it is situated on the slopes of the Jabal Dabrun mountain. The village and its immediate vicinity contain a number of archaeological sites, including a tomb for a certain Neby Yarub. During the Ottoman era, Jaba' served as a throne village of the powerful Jarrar family. The town is administered by a municipal council, currently headed by Bassam Jarrar.
Many place names in Palestine were Arabized forms of ancient Hebrew and Canaanite place-names used in biblical times or later Aramaic formations. Most of these names have been handed down for thousands of years though their meaning was understood by only a few. The cultural interchange fostered by the various successive empires to have ruled the region is apparent in its place names. Any particular place can be known by the different names used in the past, with each of these corresponding to a historical period. For example, the city of Beit Shean, today in Israel, was known during the Israelite period as Beth-shean, under Hellenistic rule and Roman rule as Scythopolis, and under Arab and Islamic rule as Beisan.
Adam Zertal was an Israeli archaeologist.
Salhab is a small Palestinian village in the Tubas Governorate in the northeastern West Bank, located four kilometers north of Tubas. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS) census, it had a population of 45 living in five households in 2007. As of 2007, its mayor was Fawze Sawafta.
Khirbet Ibziq, Kh. Ibzîk, the ruin of Ibzîk, p.n. is the name of a village with two ruins in the West Bank, separated by one kilometer and referred to in the Manasseh Hill Country Survey as Khirbet Ibziq and Khirbet Ibziq. They are about twenty kilometers northeast of Nablus. The "Lower" site is to the northeast of the "Upper" site.
Khirbet el-Mastarah is an archaeological site that includes the largest of the complex oval compound type habitation sites located in the middle Jordan Valley in the West Bank.
Khirbet Samara is an archeological site located in the West Bank. It lies near the Israeli settlement of Einav, 9 km east of Taibe.
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The Iron Age I Structure on Mt. Ebal, also known as the Mount Ebal site, Mount Ebal's Altar, Joshua's Altar and Northernel-Burnat, is an archeological site on Mount Ebal, West Bank. The site, dating from the Iron Age I, is located a few kilometers east of Asira ash-Shamaliya, northeast of Nablus and north of Tell Balata.