Selamin ()( gr, Σελάμην), also known as Tzalmon, Selame, Salamis / Salamin, Zalmon, and ''Khurbet es Salâmeh'' (the Ruin of Salameh), was a Jewish village in
Lower Galilee The Lower Galilee (; ar, الجليل الأسفل, translit=Al Jalil Al Asfal) is a region within the Northern District (Israel), Northern District of Israel. The Lower Galilee is bordered by the Jezreel Valley to the south; the Upper Galilee to t ...
during the
Second Temple
The Second Temple (, , ), later known as Herod's Temple, was the reconstructed Temple in Jerusalem between and 70 CE. It replaced Solomon's Temple, which had been built at the same location in the United Kingdom of Israel before being inherited ...
period, formerly fortified by
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 d ...
, and which was captured by the
Roman Imperial army
The Imperial Roman army was the military land force of the Roman Empire from about 30 BC to 476 AD, and the final incarnation in the long history of the Roman army. This period is sometimes split into the Principate (30 BC – 284 AD) and the Dom ...
in ''circa'' 64 CE. Today, the ruin is designated as a historical site and lies directly south of the
Wadi Zalmon National Park in
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 ...
's
Northern District.
German orientalist,
E.G. Schultz, was the first to identify the site in 1847. The site today is directly adjacent to the
Bedouin
The Bedouin, Beduin, or Bedu (; , singular ) are nomadic Arab tribes who have historically inhabited the desert regions in the Arabian Peninsula, North Africa, the Levant, and Mesopotamia. The Bedouin originated in the Syrian Desert and A ...
village (formerly a
Druze
The Druze (; ar, دَرْزِيٌّ, ' or ', , ') are an Arabic-speaking esoteric ethnoreligious group from Western Asia who adhere to the Druze faith, an Abrahamic, monotheistic, syncretic, and ethnic religion based on the teachings of ...
village),
Sallama
Sallama ( ar, سلامة; he, סלאמה) is a Bedouin village in northern Israel. Located in the Galilee near the Tzalmon Stream, it falls under the jurisdiction of Misgav Regional Council. In its population was . The village was recognized by ...
, towards the village's southeast, situated on a spur of a hill near Mount Salameh (now ''Har Tzalmon''), on the eastern bank of ''Wady es Salameh'' ("Valley of Salameh"), or what is known in Hebrew as ''Nahal Tzalmon''. The valley runs in a northerly-southerly direction, deriving its name from ''Khurbet es Salameh'', the said ruin of Selamin (Salamis) which formerly crowned a strong and extensive site. A road accessed by 4-wheel-drive vehicle passes by the site.
Background
The Jewish population of Selamin in the 1st century-CE consisted of a sacerdotal tribe linked to the
course of Dalaiah, mentioned in the apocryphal roster of Second Temple priests and their respective villages, and who were first named in a poem composed by
Killir (c. 570 – c. 640). Historical geographer,
Klein, thinks that one of the Jewish priests who died in the conflagration during the Second Temple's destruction, Joseph b. Dalaiah, hailed from this village. The Jewish villagers of the town were most-likely farmers, as the Mishnah mentions it being a place of vineyards interspersed between planted vegetables.
The village is also mentioned in the
Tosefta
The Tosefta (Jewish Babylonian Aramaic: תוספתא "supplement, addition") is a compilation of the Jewish oral law from the late 2nd century, the period of the Mishnah.
Overview
In many ways, the Tosefta acts as a supplement to the Mishnah ( ...
(''Parah'' 9:2), a sequel to the
Mishnah
The Mishnah or the Mishna (; he, מִשְׁנָה, "study by repetition", from the verb ''shanah'' , or "to study and review", also "secondary") is the first major written collection of the Jewish oral traditions which is known as the Oral Torah ...
(compiled in 189 CE), where it is said to have had a natural spring which ceased to flow during the Roman siege of the town. It was in Selamin where a man cried out that he had been bitten by a poisonous snake and that he was dying. When he died, his visage was so changed thereby that they could not recognise him. Even so, on the basis of his own testimony that he was dying from a snakebite, the rabbis permitted his widow to remarry - even though they could not discern the face of the dead, or what is known as "circumstantial evidence".
Israeli historian
Bezalel Bar-Kochva
Bezalel Bar-Kochva (born January 1, 1941) is a professor emeritus in the Department of Jewish History at Tel Aviv University. He is a historian of the Hellenistic period, the three centuries after the conquests of Alexander the Great, and the Sec ...
thinks that the strategic importance of the site was in its geographical location, where it blocked one of the routes leading from the Phoenician territory to the eastern plateau of Lower Galilee. However, its choice as a defensive location for a fortress would scarcely make sense, seeing, in his view, it had an exposed and inferior position. In 1875,
Victor Guérin
Victor Guérin (15 September 1821 – 21 Septembe 1890) was a French intellectual, explorer and amateur archaeologist. He published books describing the geography, archeology and history of the areas he explored, which included Greece, Asia Mino ...
visited the site where he found the remains of a rectangular enclosure, 80 x 50 paces in circumference, as well as two presses cut in the rock. The site today is fenced-off and primarily used to keep cattle. A pool made of old masonry is still shown by locals on the ancient ruin.
The inhabitants of Selamin who fought against the Imperial Roman army during the
First Jewish Revolt
First or 1st is the ordinal form of the number one (#1).
First or 1st may also refer to:
*World record, specifically the first instance of a particular achievement
Arts and media Music
* 1$T, American rapper, singer-songwriter, DJ, and rec ...
are believed to have capitulated to the Roman army after the fall of
Tarichaea
Tarichaea ( gr, Ταριχαία or Ταριχέα), alternative spellings Taricheæ/Tarichaeae/Tarichee; Tarichese; Tarichess, is the Greek place name for a historic site of disputed location. It was situated along the shore of the Sea of Gali ...
.
Archaeology
The site has yet to be excavated. According to Mordechai Aviam of the Institute for Galilean Archaeology at the University of Rochester who surveyed the site, "There is only a narrow saddle connecting the hill to the north-west, and it is clearly cut by a moat. On the western slope, one can see a segment of a wide wall, perhaps the remains of a defending wall."
[Aviam, Mordechai (n.d.), p. 4] Pottery and coins were found ''in situ''.
Gallery
File:Mughar as seen from Selamin ruin.jpg, Selamin ruin, and adjacent dale
File:Cave in Selamin.jpg, Cave in ruin of Selamin
File:Selamin ruin in blossom, looking northward across dale.jpg, Dale directly below the site of Selamin
References
Bibliography
* (Hebrew)
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* (Hebrew)
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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 d ...
, ''
De Bello Judaico
''The Jewish War'' or ''Judean War'' (in full ''Flavius Josephus' Books of the History of the Jewish War against the Romans'', el, Φλαυίου Ἰωσήπου ἱστορία Ἰουδαϊκοῦ πολέμου πρὸς Ῥωμαίους ...
'' (The Jewish War)
*
*
* (via
JSTOR
JSTOR (; short for ''Journal Storage'') is a digital library founded in 1995 in New York City. Originally containing digitized back issues of academic journals, it now encompasses books and other primary sources as well as current issues of j ...
)
*
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External links
*''Kh. Sellâmeh'', shown in
Survey of Western Palestine
The PEF Survey of Palestine was a series of surveys carried out by the Palestine Exploration Fund (PEF) between 1872 and 1877 for the Survey of Western Palestine and in 1880 for the Survey of Eastern Palestine. The survey was carried out after the ...
, Map 6
IAAWikimedia commons
{{DEFAULTSORT:Selamin
Ancient villages in Israel
Former populated places in Israel
Ancient Jewish history
Judea (Roman province)
Historic Jewish communities
60s disestablishments in the Roman Empire
Tells (archaeology)
Ancient Jewish settlements of Galilee
Fortifications in Israel
Historic sites in Israel
Geography of Northern District (Israel)