Tell er-Rameh or Tall el-Rama is a small mound in

Jordan Jordan ( ar, الأردن; tr. ' ), officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan,; tr. ' is a country in Western Asia. It is situated at the crossroads of Asia, Africa, and Europe, within the Levant region, on the East Bank of the Jordan Rive ...

rising in the plain east of the

River Jordan The Jordan River or River Jordan ( ar, نَهْر الْأُرْدُنّ, ''Nahr al-ʾUrdunn'', he, נְהַר הַיַּרְדֵּן, ''Nəhar hayYardēn''; syc, ܢܗܪܐ ܕܝܘܪܕܢܢ ''Nahrāʾ Yurdnan''), also known as ''Nahr Al-Shariea ...

, about twelve miles from

Jericho Jericho ( ; ar, أريحا ; he, יְרִיחוֹ ) is a Palestinian city in the West Bank. It is located in the Jordan Valley, with the Jordan River to the east and Jerusalem to the west. It is the administrative seat of the Jericho Gove ...

. It presently has a Muslim cemetery on the

acropolis An acropolis was the settlement of an upper part of an ancient Greek city, especially a citadel, and frequently a hill with precipitous sides, mainly chosen for purposes of defense. The term is typically used to refer to the Acropolis of Athens, ...

that prevents it from being excavated. It has been traditionally identified as the location of

Livias Livias was a city in Transjordan in Classical Antiquity. In the writings of Josephus (English translation), the name is presented as Julias. Numerous authors have presented a chain of evidence connecting ''Beth-Haram'' from the Book of Joshua () ...

. The team recently excavating at

Tell el-Hammam Tell el-Hammam (also Tall al-Hammam) is an archaeological site in Jordan, in the eastern part of the lower Jordan Valley close to the mouth of the Jordan River. The site has substantial remains from the Chalcolithic, Early Bronze Age, Early, Int ...

however, is proposing that Tell er-Rameh was the commercial and residential centre of Livias, while the administrative centre was located at

Tall el-Hammam Tell el-Hammam (also Tall al-Hammam) is an archaeological site in Jordan, in the eastern part of the lower Jordan Valley close to the mouth of the Jordan River. The site has substantial remains from the Chalcolithic, Early, Intermediate and Mid ...

Etymology

According to and

Abel Abel ''Hábel''; ar, هابيل, Hābīl is a Biblical figure in the Book of Genesis within Abrahamic religions. He was the younger brother of Cain, and the younger son of Adam and Eve, the first couple in Biblical history. He was a shepher ...

the modern name ''er-Rameh'' may have derived from the ancient names of Βηθαραμθα (''Betharamtha''), which is what Josephus indicates was the name for Livias Dvorjetski believes that the modern name er-Rameh is derived from Wadi er-Rameh.

Identification

Regarding the name evolution from biblical Beth-haram through the Roman-period Livias/Julias to Arabic Tell er-Rameh,

Nelson Glueck Nelson Glueck (June 4, 1900 – February 12, 1971) was an American rabbi, academic and archaeologist. He served as president of Hebrew Union College from 1947 until his death, and his pioneering work in biblical archaeology resulted in the disco ...

states that:
:"the equation of Beth-haram, Beth-ramtha, Beit er-Ram, Beit Ramah, Tell er-Rameh with

(Julias), . . . is undoubtedly correct. It does not prove, however, that Tell er-Rameh is to be identified with the actual site of ancient Biblical Beth-haram. . . An examination of the pottery of Tell er-Rameh proves that this identification cannot possibly be correct." Graves & Stripling propose that, while Tell er-Rameh was the commercial and residential centre of Livias, the administrative centre was situated at nearby

. Tell er-Rameh had no natural water source, and some have argued that it received its water from the hot springs at Tall el-Hammam. Dvorjetski identified Tell er-Rameh with

based on the presence of "pottery or mosaic stone cubes from the Byzantine and early Islamic eras."Dvorjetski (2007), p
202

References

Archaeological sites in Jordan Biblical archaeology Balqa Governorate Livias {{NEast-archaeology-stub

Etymology

Identification

See also

References