The Judean Shephelah: Rimmon

chapter 4 The Judean Shephelah: Rimmon

is a 10–15 km (ׁשְ תפֵלַ יְהּודָ ה) The region known biblically as the Judean Shephelah strip of land running north-south between the Judean hill country to the east and the coastal plain to the west.1 The elevation of the Judean Shephelah is 100–150 m lower than that of the Hebron Hills to the east. The Hebron Hills are separated from the Judean Shephelah by the fertile Yaval valley (Biq‘at Yaval).2 Despite the biblical distinction, the climate and topography are similar to the southern Hebron Hills. The natural similarity is underscored by the Late Roman and Byzantine political map, according to which the sites of the Judean Shephelah belonged to the same city-territory—Eleutheropolis—as those of the southern Hebron Hills.3

Ḥ. Rimmon4

Location and Identification The site of Ḥ. Rimmon (henceforth simply Rimmon) is located in the southern Judean Shephelah, about 28 km southwest of Hebron and 54 km south- southwest of Jerusalem (NIG 187000/586000; 31°22′19″N; 34°51′55″). As with the synagogue sites in the southern Hebron Hills (see above), Rimmon was in the city-territory of Eleutheropolis (Beth Guvrin) to the north.5 The modern Arabic name for the site is Kh. Umm er-Ramamin (“the Mother of Pomegranates”).6 It was first identified with the biblical site of En-Rimmon

1 Orni and Efrat, Geography, p. 54; A. Kloner, “The Synagogue of Horvat Rimmon,” in Hachlili, Ancient Synagogues in Israel, p. 43; A. Kloner, “Rimmon, Ḥorvat,” in NEAEHL 4 (1993), p. 1284; Y. Aharoni, M. Avi-Yonah, A. F. Rainey, and Z. Safrai, The Macmillan Bible Atlas (3rd Rev. Ed.; Jerusalem: Carta, 1993), p. 14. 2 Kloner, “Rimmon,” p. 43. 3 On the extent of the territory of Eleutheropolis, see Avi-Yonah, The Holy Land, pp. 159–62. 4 In addition to the references below, see the following catalog entries: Hüttenmeister and Reeg, Die antiken Synagogen, pp. 376–77; Chiat, Handbook, pp. 228–30; Ilan, Ancient Synagogues, pp. 178–79; Dauphin, La Palestine byzantine, no. 14/24; Milson, Art and Architecture, pp. 395–99. 5 Avi-Yonah, The Holy Land, pp. 161–62. 6 Kloner, “Rimmon,” p. 43. Kloner notes that the site was misidentified as Kh. Umm er-Ramali on some of the maps of early explorers. Also, Ḥ. Rimmon should not be confused with the

(Neh. 11:20) and Rimmon (Jos. 15:32) by the Survey of Western Palestine.7 Since no Iron Age or Persian period remains have been found at the site, Kloner and others have suggested that biblical Rimmon should be identified with Tel Ḥalif, about 500 m to the north, and that the site’s name was transferred to Kh. Umm er-Ramamin sometime during the Second Temple period.8 Jos. 19:7) locates the village of ;עַ יִן רִ מֹון) Eusebius’ entry for En-Rimmon ’Ερεμμών sixteen Roman miles (about 24 km) from Eleutheropolis (Ono. 440/88:17–18). Like En-Gedi, the site is characterized as a “very large village of Jos. 19:4; 15:30) has ; חָ רְ מָ ה) Jews . . . in the Daroma.” Eusebius’ entry for Hormah also been identified with Ḥ. Rimmon, however, it is unclear what connection exists between the biblical site and the later village.9 In addition to Eusebius, Rimmon is fairly well-known from rabbinic literature, and the site is men- tioned once in the Bar-Kokhba documents.10 In the Byzantine period Rimmon was located in proximity to several Christian villages (fig. 128). About one kilometer to the north is Tel Ḥalif, on the slope of which was the village of Thella (Ḥ. Tilla), where Byzantine period remains have been found by the Lahav Research Project.11 Excavations at Kh. Abu Hoff to the southwest have uncovered two churches and domestic structures.12

Research History Excavations at Rimmon were first carried out by Amos Kloner over three sea- sons in 1978–1981 under the auspices of the IDAM. Although no final report of the work has been published, several short preliminary reports have appeared.13

site of er-Rimmon north of Jerusalem. The latter is a contemporary site known from rabbinic literature; see Schwartz, Jewish Settlement, p. 46. 7 Condor et al. 1882–89: III, 392. 8 Kloner, “Rimmon,” p. 47; J. D. Seger and O. Borowski, “Ḥalif, Tel,” NEAEHL 2 (1993), p. 558. 9 Notley and Safrai, Eusebius, Onomasticon, p. 85; Milson, Art and Architecture, p. 396. 10 Rabbinic references to Rimmon include: T. Ah. 16, 13; T. Miq. 6, 2; Lam. Rab. I; Gen. Rab. 64; Y. Hag. 3, 13, 2. For the Bar-Kokhba document, see P. Benoit, J. T. Milik, and R. de Vaux, Les Grottes de Murabbaat (DJD 2; Jerusalem and Oxford: Clarendon, 1961), pp. 139–40. 11 On Thella, see Avi-Yonah, The Holy Land, pp. 161–62. Thella was considered a Jewish site by Eusebius in the early fourth century (see Schwartz, Jewish Settlement, p. 98), however, the discovery of Byzantine period churches there complicates the picture. On the cemetery at Ḥ. Tilla, see A. Kloner, “Tilla, Ḥorvat,” in NEAEHL 4 (1993), p. 1474. 12 I thank Dr. Oded Borowski for bringing these finds to my attention. 13 See A. Kloner, “Ḥurvat Rimmon, 1979,” in IEJ 30 (1980), pp. 116–28; idem, “Ḥurvat Rimmon, 1980,” in IEJ 31 (1981), pp. 241–42; Kloner 1982; Kloner, “Rimmon”; idem, “Rimmon, Ḥorvat”; and Amos Kloner and T. Mindel, “Two Byzantine Hoards from the Ancient Synagogue of Horvat Rimmon,” in Israel Numismatic Journal 5 (1981), pp. 60–68, pls. 14–15. According