Wadi al-Far'a ( ar, وادي الفارعه) or Tirzah Stream ( he, נַחַל תִּרְצָה, Nahal Tirzah) is a stream in the northern

West Bank The West Bank ( ar, الضفة الغربية, translit=aḍ-Ḍiffah al-Ġarbiyyah; he, הגדה המערבית, translit=HaGadah HaMaʽaravit, also referred to by some Israelis as ) is a landlocked territory near the coast of the Mediter ...

that empties into the Jordan River south of

Damia Bridge Jisr ed-Damiye ( ar, جسر الدامية , Jisr ed-Damieh, Bridge of ed-Damieh), known in English as Damiyah Bridge, as Prince Muhammad Bridge in Jordan, and as Gesher Adam ( he, גשר אדם, , Adam Bridge) in Israel, stretches over the Jorda ...

. It is the largest stream in the West Bank. Wadi al-Far'a is located in the rugged area of the West Bank and cuts east through the

Jordan Valley The Jordan Valley ( ar, غور الأردن, ''Ghor al-Urdun''; he, עֵמֶק הַיַרְדֵּן, ''Emek HaYarden'') forms part of the larger Jordan Rift Valley. Unlike most other river valleys, the term "Jordan Valley" often applies just to ...

, passing through the

Palestinian Palestinians ( ar, الفلسطينيون, ; he, פָלַסְטִינִים, ) or Palestinian people ( ar, الشعب الفلسطيني, label=none, ), also referred to as Palestinian Arabs ( ar, الفلسطينيين العرب, label=non ...

village of

Wadi al-Far'a Wadi al-Far'a ( ar, وادي الفارعة) is a Palestinian village in the Tubas Governorate in the northeastern West Bank located five kilometers southwest of Tubas. It has a land area of 12,000 dunams, of which 337 is built-up and 10,500 are ...

. The Tirzah Reservoir is used to collect the floodwater of Wadi al-Far'a before it flows into the Jordan River.

Name spelling

The Arabic name of Wadi al-Far'a is transliterated in

Roman script The Latin script, also known as Roman script, is an alphabetic writing system based on the letters of the classical Latin alphabet, derived from a form of the Greek alphabet which was in use in the ancient Greek city of Cumae, in southern Ital ...

in many ways. The definite article can be written as ''al''-, ''el''-, without hyphen, or it can be left out altogether. The name of the wadi can be spelled Far'a, Fa'ra, Far'ah, Fa'rah, Farah, Fari'a, or Fari'ah. With diacritics it is Wādī al-Fāri`ah. The Hebrew name also has a variety of transliterations to Roman script. The word for valley or stream: ''Nahal'' or ''Nachal''. The main part of the name: Tirza, Tirzah, Tirtza and Tirtsa.

In ancient sources

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 ...

names a place of crossing near the confluence of the watercourse '' Naḥal Yabok'' with the Jordan River, not far from Wadi al-Far'a, known in classical antiquity as ''Coreae'' ( gr, Κορέας), and where is now the "Old Roman Bridge" (

Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walter ...

: ''Mukatta' Damieh''), which once marked, in Josephus' words, "the first entrance into Judea when one passes over the midland countries." The site is listed in the 6th century Madaba map, and whose location agrees with the modern identification of ''Tell el-Mazar''.

Bypassing
Pella Pella ( el, Πέλλα) is an ancient city located in Central Macedonia, Greece. It is best-known for serving as the capital city of the ancient Greek kingdom of Macedon, and was the birthplace of Alexander the Great. On site of the ancient cit ...
and Scythopolis he came to ''Coreae'', where travelers from the interior cross into Judaea.

Archaeology

Heavy Neolithic sites

The village of Wadi al-Far'a is close to a number of

Heavy Neolithic Heavy Neolithic (alternatively, Gigantolithic) is a style of large stone and flint tools (or industry) associated primarily with the Qaraoun culture in the Beqaa Valley, Lebanon, dating to the Epipaleolithic or early Pre-Pottery Neolithic at t ...

archaeological sites of the

Qaraoun culture The Qaraoun culture is a culture of the Lebanese Stone Age around Qaraoun in the Beqaa Valley. The Gigantolithic or Heavy Neolithic flint tool industry of this culture was recognized as a particular Neolithic variant of the Lebanese highlands ...

. Three such sites were discovered there by

Francis Turville-Petre Francis Adrian Joseph Turville-Petre (4 March 1901 – 16 August 1942) was a British archaeologist, famous for the discovery of the ''Homo heidelbergensis'' fossil Galilee Man in 1926, and for his work at Mount Carmel, in what was then the Briti ...

between 1925 and 1926. These are Wadi Farah, Shemouniyeh, and an occupational site at Wadi Sallah. The site at Wadi Farah was identified as a

flint Flint, occasionally flintstone, is a sedimentary cryptocrystalline form of the mineral quartz, categorized as the variety of chert that occurs in chalk or marly limestone. Flint was widely used historically to make stone tools and sta ...

factory A factory, manufacturing plant or a production plant is an industrial facility, often a complex consisting of several buildings filled with machinery, where workers manufacture items or operate machines which process each item into another. ...

on a high terrace at the meeting point with the Wadi Salhah. Large numbers of massive flint tools and debris were found and linked to this little known culture. Tools found included picks,

adze An adze (; alternative spelling: adz) is an ancient and versatile cutting tool similar to an axe but with the cutting edge perpendicular to the handle rather than parallel. Adzes have been used since the Stone Age. They are used for smoothing ...

s, borers and flake scrapers.

Tell el-Far'ah (North)

An archaeological mound situated near the village of Wadi al-Far'a, Tell el-Far'ah (North), has been identified as the location of biblical Tirzah. The tell has occupation layers from the

Neolithic The Neolithic period, or New Stone Age, is an Old World archaeological period and the final division of the Stone Age. It saw the Neolithic Revolution, a wide-ranging set of developments that appear to have arisen independently in several p ...

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 ...

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 ...

, and

Iron Age The Iron Age is the final epoch of the three-age division of the prehistory and protohistory of humanity. It was preceded by the Stone Age ( Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic) and the Bronze Age ( Chalcolithic). The concept has been mostl ...

. It is called Tell el-Far'ah (North) in order to distinguish it from Tell el-Far'ah (South), an archaeological site south of Gaza.

References

Bibliography

* * *

External links

*Survey of Western Palestine, Map 15
IAAWikimedia commons
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fara, Wadi Rivers of the State of Palestine Rivers of the West Bank Neolithic settlements Neolithic Heavy Neolithic sites Archaeological sites in the West Bank Tributaries of the Jordan River