Shikmona

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1906 map showing "Probable site of Sycaminum", just north of Haifa el-Atika Palestine and Syria with the chief routes through Mesopotamia and Babylonia; handbook for travellers; (1906) (14782272324).jpg
1906 map showing "Probable site of Sycaminum", just north of Haifa el-Atika

Shikmona was an ancient port town near modern Haifa, first mentioned by Josephus. [1] It may be named for the Sycamine tree. [1]

Contents

History

In the Periplus of Pseudo-Scylax it is mentioned the Sykaminon (Συκάμινον) as a city of the Tyrians, and also that there was a river of the same name. [2] Stephanus of Byzantium called it Sykaminon (Συκαμίνων) and called it a city of the Phoenicians. [3] Josephus in his Antiquities mentions Sycamine as being a place where ships could be brought to harbor, and where Ptolemy Lathyrus, during an incursion in the country, had brought his army ashore. [4] Strabo mentions the site (Sycaminopolis, Συκαμίνων πόλις) as being no more than a ruin in his own day. [5] The Mishnah (Demai 1:1), compiled in 189 CE, mentions the region of Shikmona as being renowned for its cultivated variety of jujubes. The Bordeaux pilgrim in 333 CE passed through Sycaminon while traveling through the Holy Land. [6]

In Edward Robinson's 1856 Later Biblical Researches in Palestine , he wrote: [7]

Haifa... is the Sycaminum of Greek and Roman writers. This is expressly affirmed by both Jerome and Eusebius, who lived in the country; the latter near by at Cæsarea; and the authority of these fathers, in such a case, is too great to be called in question. It is several times spoken of in the Talmudic writings under both names. The traveller Sæwulf mentions it; as also R. Benjamin and R. Parchi. In A. D. 1100, Tancred besieged it, and took it by storm. Arabian writers also often speak of it. In the times of the crusades, it was sometimes mistaken for the ancient Porphyreon; which, however, as we have seen, was at Neby Yûnas between Sidon and Beirût.

Bibliography

References

  1. 1 2 "Shikmona and its Treasures". Haifa Museums - Six Museums in One Frame. Retrieved 2025-11-29. The origin of the name "Shikmona" is not known, but may be derived from the sycamore tree. The meaning of the Greek "sycamina" is "the fruit of the mulberry tree" and may be connected with the Persian black mulberry which was imported much earlier from the Chinese mulberry. The first reference to Shikmona is in Flavius Josephus's (37-100 CE) "History of the Jews" (13: 332)
  2. ↑ Pseudo Scylax, Periplous, 104
  3. ↑ Stephanus of Byzantium, Ethnica, S591.7
  4. ↑ Josephus, Antiquities 13.12.3. Cf. Samuel Klein, Sefer Ha-Yishuv, vol. 1, Bialik Institute: Jerusalem 1939, p. 155, who identifies Sycamine with Shikmona near Old Haifa.
  5. ↑ Strabo's Geography 16.2.27.
  6. ↑ "Itinerary from Bordeaux to Jerusalem - 'The Bordeaux Pilgrim' (333 AD)", trans. by Aubrey Stewart, London 1887, pub. in: Palestine Pilgrim's Text Society, vol. 1, p. 43
  7. ↑ Robinson, Edward; Smith, Eli (1856). Later Biblical Researches in Palestine and the Adjacent Regions: A Journal of Travels in the Year 1852. J. Murray. p. 100. Retrieved 2025-11-29.
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