Horvat Maon/H. Ma'onVlada Nikolsky (07/07/2010)
"Horbat Ma‘on: Final Report"
In ''

HA-ESI The Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA, ; , before 1990, the Israel Department of Antiquities) is an independent Israeli governmental authority responsible for enforcing the 1978 Law of Antiquities. The IAA regulates excavation and conservatio ...

'' Volume 122 (2010). Accessed 8 Feb 2024. (

Hebrew Hebrew (; ''ʿÎbrit'') is a Northwest Semitic languages, Northwest Semitic language within the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family. A regional dialect of the Canaanite languages, it was natively spoken by the Israelites and ...

for 'Ma'on Ruins'),

Arabic Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...

: Khirbet Ma'in or Tell Máîn ( SWP map No. 25), i.e. 'Ma'in Ruins/ Tell of Ma'in', is an

archaeological site An archaeological site is a place (or group of physical sites) in which evidence of past activity is preserved (either prehistoric or recorded history, historic or contemporary), and which has been, or may be, investigated using the discipline ...

in the

Hebron Hills The Hebron Hills, also known as Mount Hebron (, ), are a mountain ridge, geographic region, and geologic formation, constituting the southern part of the Judaean Mountains, Judean Mountains. The Hebron Hills are located in the southern West Ban ...

West Bank The West Bank is located on the western bank of the Jordan River and is the larger of the two Palestinian territories (the other being the Gaza Strip) that make up the State of Palestine. A landlocked territory near the coast of the Mediter ...

, rising above sea level, where the remains of the ancient town of Ma'on () have been excavated. The town, now a ruin, is mentioned in the

Book of Joshua The Book of Joshua is the sixth book in the Hebrew Bible and the Old Testament, and is the first book of the Deuteronomistic history, the story of Israel from the conquest of Canaan to the Babylonian captivity, Babylonian exile. It tells of the ...

and the

Books of Samuel The Book of Samuel () is a book in the Hebrew Bible, found as two books (1–2 Samuel) in the Old Testament. The book is part of the Deuteronomistic history, a series of books (Book of Joshua, Joshua, Book of Judges, Judges, Samuel, and Books of ...

. It still had a Jewish population during the

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of Roman civilization *Epistle to the Romans, shortened to Romans, a letter w ...

and Byzantine periods, and a

synagogue A synagogue, also called a shul or a temple, is a place of worship for Jews and Samaritans. It is a place for prayer (the main sanctuary and sometimes smaller chapels) where Jews attend religious services or special ceremonies such as wed ...

was discovered there. The site was ultimately abandoned around the time of the

Muslim conquest The Muslim conquests, Muslim invasions, Islamic conquests, including Arab conquests, Arab Islamic conquests, also Iranian Muslim conquests, Turkic Muslim conquests etc. *Early Muslim conquests **Ridda Wars **Muslim conquest of Persia ***Muslim conq ...

. The site is located about southeast of Yatta. Immediately to the north lies the modern small Arab village of

Ma'in Ma'in (; ) was an ancient South Arabian kingdom in modern-day Yemen. It was located along the strip of desert called Ramlat al-Sab'atayn, Ṣayhad by medieval Arab geographers, which is now known as Ramlat al-Sab'atayn. Wadd was the national ...

Etymology

The Hebrew name is variously spelled as Horvat Ma'on, Horvat Maon, or Hurbat Ma'on. Tel Ma'on is sometimes also used. The Hebrew word ''ma'on'' means 'dwelling', 'habitation'. Horvat, horbat, hurbat, hurvat are transliteration variants of the Hebrew word for 'ruins' and direct equivalents of the Arabic khirbet. Tell is the transliteration of the Arabic word, tel of the Hebrew one, both meaning mound created by accumulation of settlement layers.

In ancient sources

Hebrew Bible

The site is first mentioned as one of the cities of Judah.Amit (1978–1980), pp. 222–223 Maon was the place of birth of

Nabal According to the 1st Book of Samuel Chapter 25, Nabal ( ''Nāḇāl'', "fool") was a rich Calebite, described as harsh and surly. He is featured in a story in which he is threatened by David over an insult, and ultimately killed by God. Biblica ...

the Carmelite. Guérin (1869), pp
170–172
/ref> In the

Book of Samuel The Book of Samuel () is a book in the Hebrew Bible, found as two books (1–2 Samuel) in the Old Testament. The book is part of the Deuteronomistic history, a series of books (Joshua, Judges, Samuel, and Kings) that constitute a theological ...

, "the wilderness of Maon" is mentioned as a place of refuge for

David David (; , "beloved one") was a king of ancient Israel and Judah and the third king of the United Monarchy, according to the Hebrew Bible and Old Testament. The Tel Dan stele, an Aramaic-inscribed stone erected by a king of Aram-Dam ...

when he fled from

king Saul Saul (; , ; , ; ) was a monarch of ancient Israel and Judah and, according to the Hebrew Bible and Old Testament, the first king of the United Monarchy, a polity of uncertain historicity. His reign, traditionally placed in the late elevent ...

. The site is not referred to again in biblical sources.

Late Roman (?) and Early Byzantine period

After the destruction of the

Second Temple The Second Temple () was the Temple in Jerusalem that replaced Solomon's Temple, which was destroyed during the Siege of Jerusalem (587 BC), Babylonian siege of Jerusalem in 587 BCE. It was constructed around 516 BCE and later enhanced by Herod ...

, there is again a reference to the site, when Rabban

Yohanan ben Zakkai Yohanan ben Zakkai (; 1st century CE), sometimes abbreviated as for Rabbi Yohanan ben Zakkai, was a tanna, an important Jewish sage during the late Second Temple period during the transformative post-destruction era. He was a primary cont ...

is said to have gone up to Maon of Judah. In the early 4th century CE, Maon was mentioned in

Eusebius Eusebius of Caesarea (30 May AD 339), also known as Eusebius Pamphilius, was a historian of Christianity, exegete, and Christian polemicist from the Roman province of Syria Palaestina. In about AD 314 he became the bishop of Caesarea Maritima. ...

' ''

Onomasticon Onomasticon may refer to: *Onomasticon (Eusebius) *Onomasticon of Amenope *Onomasticon of Joan Coromines *Onomasticon of Julius Pollux Julius Pollux (, ''Ioulios Polydeukes''; fl. 2nd century) was a Greeks, Greek scholar and rhetorician from Naucr ...

'' as being "in the tribe of Judah; in the east of

Daroma Daroma (Aramaic) or Darom (Hebrew), both meaning 'South', was the name of the southern Hebron Hills in the Late Roman and Byzantine periods. The term is used in Eusebius's ''Onomasticon'' (4th century) and in rabbinic literature. By the late ten ...

."Chapman & Taylor (2003), p. 72. During the Late Roman-Early Byzantine period, ''Darom'' or ''Daroma'' (Hebrew and

Aramaic Aramaic (; ) is a Northwest Semitic language that originated in the ancient region of Syria and quickly spread to Mesopotamia, the southern Levant, Sinai, southeastern Anatolia, and Eastern Arabia, where it has been continually written a ...

for "South") became a term used for the southern Hebron Hills in

rabbinic literature Rabbinic literature, in its broadest sense, is the entire corpus of works authored by rabbis throughout Jewish history. The term typically refers to literature from the Talmudic era (70–640 CE), as opposed to medieval and modern rabbinic ...

and in Eusebius' ''Onomasticon''. At the time, the Hebron Hills were demographically separated into two distinct districts, with only the southern one retaining a Jewish population along with a newer, Christian one. The site was eventually abandoned around the time of the

Archaeology

Occupation periods

Archaeologists have discovered at the site potsherds dating back to the

Early Bronze Age The Bronze Age () was a historical period characterised principally by the use of bronze tools and the development of complex urban societies, as well as the adoption of writing in some areas. The Bronze Age is the middle principal period of ...

, the

Iron Age The Iron Age () is the final epoch of the three historical Metal Ages, after the Chalcolithic and Bronze Age. It has also been considered as the final age of the three-age division starting with prehistory (before recorded history) and progre ...

( Israelite period) including jar handles bearing the palaeo-Hebrew inscription LMLK, 'for the king', and from the

Hellenistic period In classical antiquity, the Hellenistic period covers the time in Greek history after Classical Greece, between the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC and the death of Cleopatra VII in 30 BC, which was followed by the ascendancy of the R ...

Sherd This page is a glossary of archaeology, the study of the human past from material remains. A B C D E F ...

s have also been found ''in situ'' from the

and Byzantine periods, as well as from the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and ...

Wine Wine is an alcoholic drink made from Fermentation in winemaking, fermented fruit. Yeast in winemaking, Yeast consumes the sugar in the fruit and converts it to ethanol and carbon dioxide, releasing heat in the process. Wine is most often made f ...

and

olive press Olive oil extraction is the process of extracting the olive oil present in olive drupes. Olive oil is produced in the mesocarp cells, and stored in a particular type of vacuole called a lipo vacuole, i.e., every cell contains a tiny oliv ...

es from the Roman and Byzantine periods were discovered on the west slope of the tell. Magness, Jodi (2003). ''The Archaeology of the Early Islamic Settlement in Palestine''. Eisenbrauns, Vol.1, pp
96

97
Accessed 8 Feb 2024. The ancient synagogue of Ma'on is dated to the Byzantune period (see below). The absence of material traces from the late 7th-early 8th century are an indication of the abandonement of the village at that time.

Byzantine-period synagogue

A synagogue dating back to the Byzantine/

Talmud The Talmud (; ) is the central text of Rabbinic Judaism and the primary source of Jewish religious law (''halakha'') and Jewish theology. Until the advent of Haskalah#Effects, modernity, in nearly all Jewish communities, the Talmud was the cen ...

ic period was discovered at Hurvat (Horbat) Ma'on. Two occupation phases were discerned, covering the 4th/5th through the 7th century.

19th-century observations

In 1863,

Victor Guérin Victor Guérin (; 15 September 1821 – 21 September 1890) was a French people, French intellectual, explorer and amateur archaeologist. He published books describing the geography, archeology and history of the areas he explored, which included ...

visited. C.R. Conder of the

Palestine Exploration Fund The Palestine Exploration Fund is a British society based in London. It was founded in 1865, shortly after the completion of the Ordnance Survey of Jerusalem by Royal Engineers of the War Department. The Fund is the oldest known organization i ...

visited the site in 1874, during which time a brief description was written of the site:

Tell Maʻîn –– A mound some 100 feet high. On the west are foundations, caves, and cisterns, and foundations of a tower about 20 feet square. The masonry in this tower is large, with a broad irregular draft and a rustic boss. One stone was 3 feet 8 inches long, 2 feet 9 inches high, the draft about 3 inches wide. There is also a round well-mouth, 5 feet diameter, cut out of a single stone.

20th century

Horbat Maon is situated SE of the Arab town of Yatta, on the north side of regional

highway A highway is any public or private road or other public way on land. It includes not just major roads, but also other public roads and rights of way. In the United States, it is also used as an equivalent term to controlled-access highway, or ...

317. By the 1970s, a few Arab families from Yatta had settled on the northern slope of the tell, who work in subsistence farming and graze their flocks of sheep.Amit (1978–1980), p. 223

Gallery

File:Tel-Maon-183.jpg, The ancient hill of Tel Ma'on, South Hebron Hills File:Tel-Maon-195.jpg, Tel/Horvat Ma'on near Hebron File:Tel-Maon-569.jpg, Stone troughs at the well of Ma'on File:Tel-Maon-216.jpg, Staircase File:Tel-Maon-194.jpg, Ancient remains File:Tel-Maon-210.jpg, Ancient structures File:Tel-Maon-227.jpg, Ancient wall File:Tel-Maon-574.jpg, Remnants of Byzantine fort at Horvat Ma'on File:Tel-Maon-199.jpg, Detail File:Tel-Maon-196.jpg, Ancient stones

References

Bibliography

* * * * * * * * * *

External links

*Survey of Western Palestine, Map 25:
IAAWikimedia commons
(''Tell Máîn'' shown on upper part of map) {{Ancient synagogues, state=expanded Populated places disestablished in the 8th century Book of Joshua Books of Samuel Hebrew Bible cities District of Hebron Judea (Roman province) Ancient Jewish settlements of Judaea Biblical geography Ancient Jewish history Archaeological sites in the West Bank Ancient synagogues in the Land of Israel Hebron Hills