Antipatris (, grc, Αντιπατρίς) was a city built during the first century BC by
Herod the Great
Herod I (; ; grc-gre, ; c. 72 – 4 or 1 BCE), also known as Herod the Great, was a Roman Jewish client king of Judea, referred to as the Herodian kingdom. He is known for his colossal building projects throughout Judea, including his renova ...
, who named it in honour of his father,
Antipater. The site, now a
national park in
central Israel
Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...
, was inhabited from the
Chalcolithic
The Copper Age, also called the Chalcolithic (; from grc-gre, χαλκός ''khalkós'', "copper" and ''líthos'', "stone") or (A)eneolithic (from Latin '' aeneus'' "of copper"), is an archaeological period characterized by regular ...
Period to the late
Roman Period.
[Kochavi, 1997, pp. 147-151] The remains of Antipatris are known today as Tel Afek (), although formerly as ''Kŭlat Râs el 'Ain''. It has been identified as either the tower of ''Aphek'' mentioned by Josephus, or the biblical
Aphek, best known from the story of the
Battle of Aphek
The Battle of Aphek is a biblical episode described in the First Book of Samuel of the Hebrew Bible. During this battle the Philistines defeated the Israelite army and captured the Ark of the Covenant. Among biblical scholars, the historicity of ...
. During the Crusader Period the site was known as Surdi fontes, "Silent springs". The
Ottoman fortress known as Binar Bashi or Ras al-Ayn was built there in the 16th century.
Antipatris/Tel Afek lies at the strong perennial springs of the
Yarkon River
The Yarkon River, also Yarqon River or Jarkon River ( he, נחל הירקון, ''Nahal HaYarkon'', ar, نهر العوجا, ''Nahr al-Auja''), is a river in central Israel. The source of the Yarkon ("Greenish" in Hebrew) is at Tel Afek (Antip ...
, which throughout history has created an obstacle between the hill country to the east and the Mediterranean to the west, forcing travellers and armies to pass through the narrow pass between the springs and the foothills of Samaria. This gave the location of Antipatris/Tel Afek its strategic importance.
Antipatris was situated on the Roman road from
Caesarea Maritima to
Jerusalem
Jerusalem (; he, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם ; ar, القُدس ) (combining the Biblical and common usage Arabic names); grc, Ἱερουσαλήμ/Ἰεροσόλυμα, Hierousalḗm/Hierosóluma; hy, Երուսաղեմ, Erusałēm. i ...
, north of the town of
Lydda
Lod ( he, לוד, or fully vocalized ; ar, اللد, al-Lidd or ), also known as Lydda ( grc, Λύδδα), is a city southeast of Tel Aviv and northwest of Jerusalem in the Central District of Israel. It is situated between the lower Sheph ...
where the road turned eastwards towards Jerusalem.
During the British Mandate, a water pumping station was built there to channel water from the Yarkon to Jerusalem.
Today the remains of Antipatris are located roughly between
Petah Tikva and the towns of
Kafr Qasim
Kafr Qasim ( ar, كفر قاسم, he, כַּפְר קָאסִם), also spelled as Kafr Qassem, Kufur Kassem, Kfar Kassem and Kafar Kassem, is a hill-top city in Israel with an Arab citizens of Israel, Arab population. It is located about east ...
and
Rosh HaAyin
Rosh HaAyin ( he, רֹאשׁ הָעַיִן, lit="fountainhead", , ar, روش هاعين) is a city in the Central District of Israel. To the west of Rosh HaAyin is the fortress of Antipatris and the source of the Yarkon River. To the southea ...
(literally "headspring"), south of
Hod HaSharon
Hod HaSharon ( he, הוֹד הַשָּׁרוֹן, lit. "Splendor of the Sharon plain") is a city in the Central District of Israel. The city is located approximately east of the Mediterranean coastline, south of Kfar Saba, southeast of Raanana, ...
.
History
Aphek
The
Bronze Age
The Bronze Age is a historic period, lasting approximately from 3300 BC to 1200 BC, characterized by the use of bronze, the presence of writing in some areas, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the second prin ...
saw the construction of defensive walls, to wide, and a series of palaces. One of these is described as an Egyptian governor residence of the 15th century BC, and within, an array of
cuneiform
Cuneiform is a logo-syllabic script that was used to write several languages of the Ancient Middle East. The script was in active use from the early Bronze Age until the beginning of the Common Era. It is named for the characteristic wedge-sh ...
tablets were found. Philistine ware is found in the site in 12th century BC layers.
[
Most scholars agree that there were more than one Aphek. While Tel-Aphek (Antipatris) is one of them, C.R. Conder identified the Aphek of Eben-Ezer with a ruin (''Khirbet'') some distant from ]Dayr Aban
Dayr Aban (also spelled Deir Aban; ar, دير آبان) was a Palestinian Arab village in the Jerusalem Subdistrict, located on the lower slope of a high ridge that formed the western slope of a mountain, to the east of Beit Shemesh. It was fo ...
(believed to be Eben-Ezer), and known by the name ''Marj al-Fikiya''; the name ''al-Fikiya'' being an Arabic corruption of Aphek. Eusebius
Eusebius of Caesarea (; grc-gre, Εὐσέβιος ; 260/265 – 30 May 339), also known as Eusebius Pamphilus (from the grc-gre, Εὐσέβιος τοῦ Παμφίλου), was a Greek historian of Christianity, exegete, and Chris ...
, when writing about Eben-ezer in his ''Onomasticon'', says that it is "the place from which the Gentiles seized the Ark, between Jerusalem and Ascalon, near the village of Bethsamys (Beit Shemesh)," a locale that corresponds with Conder's identification.
The historian Josephus
Flavius Josephus (; grc-gre, Ἰώσηπος, ; 37 – 100) was a first-century Romano-Jewish historian and military leader, best known for '' The Jewish War'', who was born in Jerusalem—then part of Roman Judea—to a father of priestly ...
mentions a certain tower called ''Aphek'', not far from Antipatris, and which was burnt by a contingent of Roman soldiers.
Antipatris
Antipatris was a city built by Herod the Great
Herod I (; ; grc-gre, ; c. 72 – 4 or 1 BCE), also known as Herod the Great, was a Roman Jewish client king of Judea, referred to as the Herodian kingdom. He is known for his colossal building projects throughout Judea, including his renova ...
, and named in honor of his father, Antipater II of Judea. It lay between Caesarea Maritima and Lydda
Lod ( he, לוד, or fully vocalized ; ar, اللد, al-Lidd or ), also known as Lydda ( grc, Λύδδα), is a city southeast of Tel Aviv and northwest of Jerusalem in the Central District of Israel. It is situated between the lower Sheph ...
, on the great Roman road from Caesarea to Jerusalem
Jerusalem (; he, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם ; ar, القُدس ) (combining the Biblical and common usage Arabic names); grc, Ἱερουσαλήμ/Ἰεροσόλυμα, Hierousalḗm/Hierosóluma; hy, Երուսաղեմ, Erusałēm. i ...
,[ and figures prominently in Roman-era history. Today, the nearby river bears the town's old namesake in the Arabic tongue ( ar, نهر أبو فطرس, Nahr Abū Fuṭrus).
According to ]Josephus
Flavius Josephus (; grc-gre, Ἰώσηπος, ; 37 – 100) was a first-century Romano-Jewish historian and military leader, best known for '' The Jewish War'', who was born in Jerusalem—then part of Roman Judea—to a father of priestly ...
, Antipatris was built on the site of an older town that was formerly called ''Chabarzaba'' (), a place so-named in classical Jewish literature and in the Mosaic of Rehob
The Mosaic of Reḥob, also known as the Tel Rehov inscription and Baraita of the Boundaries, is a late 3rd–6th century CE mosaic discovered in 1973, inlaid in the floor of the foyer or narthex of an ancient synagogue near Tel Rehov, south ...
. During the outbreak of the Jewish war with Rome in 64 CE, the Roman army under Cestius was routed as far as Antipatris.
Paul the Apostle was brought by night from Jerusalem
Jerusalem (; he, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם ; ar, القُدس ) (combining the Biblical and common usage Arabic names); grc, Ἱερουσαλήμ/Ἰεροσόλυμα, Hierousalḗm/Hierosóluma; hy, Երուսաղեմ, Erusałēm. i ...
to Antipatris and next day from there to Caesarea Maritima, to stand trial before the governor Antonius Felix
Antonius Felix (possibly Tiberius Claudius Antonius Felix, in Greek: ὁ Φῆλιξ; born circa 5–10) was the 4th Roman procurator of Judea Province in 52–60, in succession to Ventidius Cumanus.
Life
Felix was the younger brother of t ...
.
Only one of the early bishops of the Christian bishopric
In church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop.
History
In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided provinces were administratively associate ...
of Antipatris, a suffragan of Caesarea, is mentioned by name in extant documentation: Polychronius, who was present both at the Robber Council of Ephesus
The Second Council of Ephesus was a Christological church synod in 449 AD convened by Emperor Theodosius II under the presidency of Pope Dioscorus I of Alexandria. It was intended to be an ecumenical council, and it is accepted as such by the mi ...
in 449 and the Council of Chalcedon
The Council of Chalcedon (; la, Concilium Chalcedonense), ''Synodos tēs Chalkēdonos'' was the fourth ecumenical council of the Christian Church. It was convoked by the Roman emperor Marcian. The council convened in the city of Chalcedon, Bi ...
in 451. No longer a residential bishopric, Antipatris is today listed by the Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
as a titular see
A titular see in various churches is an episcopal see of a former diocese that no longer functions, sometimes called a "dead diocese". The ordinary or hierarch of such a see may be styled a "titular metropolitan" (highest rank), "titular archbis ...
.
In 363, the city was badly damaged by an earthquake.
Ottoman Ras al-Ayn
Ottoman records indicate that a Mamluk
Mamluk ( ar, مملوك, mamlūk (singular), , ''mamālīk'' (plural), translated as "one who is owned", meaning " slave", also transliterated as ''Mameluke'', ''mamluq'', ''mamluke'', ''mameluk'', ''mameluke'', ''mamaluke'', or ''marmeluke'') ...
fortress may have stood on the site. However, the Ottoman fortress was built following the publication of a firman in AD 1573 (981 H.):"You have sent a letter and have reported that four walls of the fortress Ras al-Ayn have been built, .I have commanded that when his firmanarrives you shall .have builtthe above mentioned rooms and mosque
A mosque (; from ar, مَسْجِد, masjid, ; literally "place of ritual prostration"), also called masjid, is a place of prayer for Muslims. Mosques are usually covered buildings, but can be any place where prayers ( sujud) are performed, ...
with its minaret and have the guards remove the earth outside and clean and tidy he place
The Turkish name of the place and fortress, ''pınar başı'', means "fountain-head" or simply "head of the springs", much like the Arabic and Hebrew names (Ras al-Ayin and Rosh ha-Ayin, "head of the springs"). Pronounced by Arabic-speakers, it became "Binar Bashi" (Arabic has no "p").
The fortress was built to protect a vulnerable stretch of the Cairo-Damascus highway (the Via Maris
Via Maris is one modern name for an ancient trade route, dating from the early Bronze Age, linking Egypt with the northern empires of Syria, Anatolia and Mesopotamia — along the Mediterranean coast of modern-day Egypt, Israel, Turkey and Syr ...
), and was provided with 100 horsemen and 30 foot soldiers. The fortress was also supposed to supply soldiers to protect the hajj route. The fortress is a massive rectangular enclosure with four corner towers and a gate at the centre of the west side. The south-west tower is octagonal, while the three other towers have a square ground plan.
It appeared named ''Chateau de Ras el Ain'' on the map that Pierre Jacotin
Pierre Jacotin (1765–1827) was the director of the survey for the '' Carte de l'Égypte (Description de l'Égypte)'', the first triangulation-based map of Egypt, Syria and Palestine.
The maps were surveyed in 1799-1800 during the campaign in E ...
compiled in 1799
Events
January–June
* January 9 – British Prime Minister William Pitt the Younger introduces an income tax of two shillings to the pound, to raise funds for Great Britain's war effort in the French Revolutionary Wars.
* Janu ...
.
The Arab peasants deserted the village in the 1920s.
Yarkon-Tel Afek national park
Currently, the site of Antipatris is included in the national park "Yarkon-Tel Afek", under the jurisdiction of the Israel Nature and Parks Authority
The Israel Nature and Parks Authority ( he, רשות הטבע והגנים ''Rashut Hateva Vehaganim''; ar, سلطة الطبيعة والحدائق) is an Israeli government organization that manages nature reserves and national parks in Israel, ...
, incorporating the area of the Ottoman fortress, the remains of the Roman city and the British water pumping station.
Excavation
Area A
The earliest winepress
A winepress is a device used to extract juice from crushed grapes during wine making. There are a number of different styles of presses that are used by wine makers but their overall functionality is the same. Each style of press exerts control ...
es discovered to date in the Southern Levant were excavated adjoining the governor's residency at Tel Aphek, dated to the 13th century BC, the reign of Ramesses II
Ramesses II ( egy, rꜥ-ms-sw ''Rīʿa-məsī-sū'', , meaning "Ra is the one who bore him"; ), commonly known as Ramesses the Great, was the third pharaoh of the Nineteenth Dynasty of Egypt. Along with Thutmose III he is often regarded as ...
. The two winepresses were plastered and possessed two treading floors (Hebrew: ''gat elyonah'', “upper vat”) in parallel configuration extending over 6 m². Beneath and next to these, the stone-lined plastered collection vats (Hebrew: ''gat tahtonah'', “lower vat”) could each store over 3 m³, or 3,000 litres, of pressed grape juice. Canaanite amphorae were recovered still in situ at the bottom of each pit, while a midden of grape skins, seeds and other debris was discovered adjacent to the installations ochavi 1981:81 The excavator has drawn attention to the proximity of these winepresses to the Residency, their large size and the fact that ancient winepresses were normally located outside settlements amongst the vineyards suggesting that the Egyptian administration supervised the viniculturists of the Sharon closely ochavi 1990:XXIII
Trade links and relations
It is clear that Tel Aphek was a site not only at the centre of imperial administration, but also well-connected to the international trade in luxury goods, as reflected in the abundant finds of Cypriot and Mycenaean ceramics.
Illustrative of Cypro-Canaanite trade especially is a fragmentary amphora handle phek 5/29277 clearly inscribed ''after firing'' with Sign 38 of the Cypro-Minoan
The Cypro-Minoan syllabary (CM) is an undeciphered syllabary used on the island of Cyprus during the late Bronze Age (c. 1550–1050 BC). The term "Cypro-Minoan" was coined by Arthur Evans in 1909 based on its visual similarity to Linear A on M ...
Linear Script asur-Landau and Goren 2004 The handle was excavated from secondary deposition in Aphek Area X, Locus 2953, belonging to the very meagre Stratum X11 built over the Governor's Residency. An extreme likelihood exists, therefore, that the object belonged to the earlier, more prosperous Stratum XI2 of the Residency itself. Given the as-yet-undeciphered nature of the script, the precise significance of the post-firing addition of a Cypro-Minoan sign must remain uncertain.[cf. Yasur-Landau and Goren 2004:24 for various interpretations, whether an ownership mark, unit of measurement or a phonetic syllable.] At minimum the sign indicates that individuals employing Cypro-Minoan script handled the vessel from which the handle derived. Combined with petrographic analysis of the clay employed in manufacturing the amphora—pointing to an origin in or within the vicinity of Akko—the readiest reconstruction from the evidence must be that the vessel (and any companions) was manufactured in the Akko region before shipping, ''either'' to such redistribution points as Tell Abu Hawam
Tell Abu Hawam is the site of a small city established in the Late Bronze Age (14th century BCE) in the area of modern-day Haifa, Israel. The sixth century BCE geographer Scylax described the city as being located "between the bay and the promon ...
or Tel Nami, ''or'' (more likely) to Cyprus
Cyprus ; tr, Kıbrıs (), officially the Republic of Cyprus,, , lit: Republic of Cyprus is an island country located south of the Anatolian Peninsula in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Its continental position is disputed; while it is ge ...
itself (perhaps ''via'' one of these ports), where it was likely emptied of its original contents—certainly marked—''before'' being shipped back to the Levant (now probably containing Cypriot product) and achieving final deposition at Aphek.
See also
*Archaeology of Israel
The archaeology of Israel is the study of the archaeology of the present-day Israel, stretching from prehistory through three millennia of documented history. The ancient Land of Israel was a geographical bridge between the political and cultu ...
*Barid The ''barīd'' ( ar, بريد, often translated as "the postal service") was the state-run courier service of the Umayyad and later Abbasid Caliphates. A major institution in the early Islamic states, the ''barid'' was not only responsible for the o ...
, Muslim postal network strengthened in Palestine during the Mamluk period (roads, bridges, khans)
*Tourism in Israel
Tourism in Israel is one of Israel's major sources of income, with a record 4.55 million tourist arrivals in 2019, and, in 2017, contributed NIS 20 billion to the Israeli economy making it an all-time record. Israel offers a plethora of historica ...
*Water supply and sanitation in Israel
Water supply and sanitation in Israel are intricately linked to the historical development of Israel. Because rain falls only in the winter, and largely in the northern part of the country, irrigation and water engineering are considered vital to ...
References
Bibliography
*
*Beck, Pirhya and Kochavi, M. (1985), ''A Dated Assemblage of the Late 13th Century BCE from the Egyptian Residency at Aphek,'' in: ''Tel Aviv'' 12 (1985), pp. 29–42.
* (pp
266
267)
*Gadot, Yuval (2003), ''Continuity and Change: Cultural Processes in the Late Bronze and Early Iron Ages in Israel's Central Coastal Plain'', unpublished PhD Disserattion, Tel Aviv University, 2003. (Hebrew with English summary)
*Gadot, Yuval (2006), ''Aphek in the Sharon and the Philistine Northern Frontier,'' in: ''BASOR
The Basor or Bansor or Vanskaar are a Hindu caste found in the state of Uttar Pradesh & Madhya Pradesh, India. They have scheduled caste status and also belongs to kshatriya status because they also used to make bamboo based weapons for soldier ...
'' 341 (2006), pp. 21–36.
*
*Goren, Yuval; Naʾaman, Nadav; Mommsen, Hans and Finkelstein, I. (2006), ''Provenance Study and Re-evaluation of the Cuneiform Documents from the Egyptian Residency at Tel Aphek,'' in: '' Ä&L'' 16 (2006), pp. 161–171.
*Heyd, Uriel (1960), ''Ottoman Documents on Palestine, 1552-1615'', Oxford University Press, Oxford. Cited in Petersen (2002)
*
*
*
* Kochavi, M. (1981), ''The History and Archaeology of Aphek-Antipatris,'' in: ''The Biblical Archaeologist'' 44 (1981), pp. 75–86.
* Kochavi, M. (1990), ''Aphek in Canaan: The Egyptian Governor's Residence and Its Finds'', Catalogue 312, Jerusalem: Israel Museum, 1990.
* Kochavi, M. and Beit Arieh, I. (1994), ''Map of Rosh Ha-ʿAyin'', Jerusalem: Israel Antiquities Authority
The Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA, he, רשות העתיקות ; ar, داﺌرة الآثار, before 1990, the Israel Department of Antiquities) is an independent Israeli governmental authority responsible for enforcing the 1978 Law of ...
, 1994.
*
*
p.472
Also Cited in Petersen (2002)
*Mahler-Slasky, Y. and Kislev, M. E. (in press), ''Food Remains from Area X,'' in: Kochavi, Moshe, Gadot, Yuval and Yadin, Esther (eds.), ''Aphek II: The Remains of the Acropolis'', Tel Aviv: Institute of Archaeology (Monograph Series of the Institute of Archaeology, Tel Aviv University, vol. 27), Tel Aviv University, 2009, pp.?-?.
*
*
*
*Yasur-Landau, Assaf and Goren, Yuval (2004), ''A Cypro-Minoan Potmark from Aphek,'' ''TA'' 31.1 (2004), pp. 22–31.
External links
Israel Nature and Parks Authority
*Survey of Western Palestine, Map 13
IAA
Wikimedia commons
Antipatris in Antiquity
Archaeological Survey of Israel
Aphek - Pictures from the Holyland
{{Towns depopulated during the First Jewish–Roman War
Classical sites in Israel
Medieval sites in Israel
Castles in Israel
Former populated places in Southwest Asia
Protected areas of Central District (Israel)
Buildings and structures in Central District (Israel)
Tells (archaeology)
Ancient Jewish settlements of Judaea