Tel Yarmuth

Tel Yarmuth

Tel Yarmuth (Khŭrbet el-Yarmûk)
Shown within Israel
Alternative name	Tel Yarmouth
Location	Israel
Coordinates	31°42′36″N 34°58′48″E / 31.71000°N 34.98000°E / 31.71000; 34.98000
Grid position	147/124 PAL
Type	settlement
Area	18 ha
History
Founded	circa 3000 BC
Abandoned	3rd millennium BC
Periods	Bronze Age
Cultures	Early Dynastic Period
Site notes
Excavation dates	1970. 1990-present
Archaeologists	Amnon Ben-Tor (1970), Pierre de Miroschedji (1980), Paz Yitzhak (2014), Mizrahi Sivan (2014), Adawi Zubair (2014), Haber Michal (2014), Radshkovsky Igal (2014), Zilberbod Irina (2014), Greenvald Roie (2014), Sapir Neria (2014), Yoav Tsur (2014), Eirikh-Rose Anna (2014)
Condition	Ruined
Ownership	Public
Public access	Yes

Tel Yarmuth (also Tel Yarmouth and Tel Yarmut; Hebrew name) or Khirbet Yarmuk (Arabic name) is an ancient Near East archaeological site in Israel located 25 kilometers southwest of Jerusalem and near modern Beit Shemesh. It is a large primarily single-period (EB II/III) site and has been suggested as possibly being the city of Jarmuth, being only a tentative identification, as it is based solely on the similarity of the Hebrew name with the Arabic name and its areal location.^[1][2]

Chronologically the city reached its peak at the same time as the Old Kingdom in Egypt and the Early Dynastic III period in Mesopotamia. After that the city was abandoned, with modest occupation in later periods.

Early Bronze period material from Tel Yarmuth has been radiocarbon dated and is being used to support the contention that EB III ended around 2500 BC. Samples tested were "3 from Final EB IB, 15 from EB II, and 19 from EB III". Results were Final EB IB to EB II transition between 3030 and 2960 BC, EB II to EB III transition between 2980 and 2910 BC.^[3][4][5]

The only notable EB IB find was a basalt spindle whorl.^[6]

The entire site including the lower town was heavily occupied in the Early Bronze (EB) II and III periods.^[7][8] The site was abandoned around 2400 BC, during EB III.^[6]

The EB II and III monumental construction includes the large "White Building", a plastered masonry broad-room temple with a side altar. In this period two large palaces were built with one, Palace B1, measuring 1750 square meters and the other, Palace B2, measuring 6000 square meters.^[9] At its peak the city had massive sophisticated fortifications and a large main city gate (Area E). The first city wall (Wall A) was made of stone, was 6 meters deep and is preserved to 4 meters in height. A larger wall (Wall B) was later added outside of that built of cyclopean construction. The fortifications were subsequently improved even further.^[7][8] A number of EB III flint Canaanite blades, believed to be used as sickle inserts or in threshing, were found.^[6]

The acropolis was lightly re-occupied, based on potsherd finds, in the Middle Bronze IIA.

The site saw some occupation in the Late Bronze II. It included 13th century BC Mycenaean and Cypriot sherds. The only other epigraphic find was a hoe with a partial hieroglyphic inscription in a hoard of bronze objects, mostly fragmentary. They were dated to the time of the 19th Dynasty (12th century BC) and may not be in their original context.^[6]

Somewhat more substantial building occurred on the acropolis in Iron I times. Finds from that period included a 2nd-century BC cooking pot with a yršlm (Jerusalem) stamp.^[10][11]

In the Hebrew Bible, Joshua 15:33–36, Yarmuth (Jarmuth) is mentioned along with the cities Adullam and Socho as occupying a place in the Land of Canaan, in the region geographically known as the Shefelah, or what is a place of transition between the mountainous region and the coastal plains. Also in the Hebrew Bible, Joshua 12:7–11, the king of Yarmuth (Jarmuth) was slain by Joshua and the Israelites during their conquest of the land of Canaan.

In the late 8th-century BC (ca. 700 BC), Yarmuth was in the territorial domain belonging to King Hezekiah. In the 14th-year of King Hezekiah's reign, Sennacherib embarked on his third military campaign, this time against the cities of the Levant, including against the king of Sidon and against Jerusalem in Judah, where King Hezekiah was besieged, based on 2 Kings 18:137 in the Hebrew Bible. Many of the king's important cities in Judah were at that time taken by Sennacherib and given over to other potentates faithful to Sennacherib. Although Yarmuth is not specifically named in the prism (Sennacherib's Annals) detailing Sennacherib's exploits, it can be assumed by the account that the city did not go unscathed:

"As for Hezekiah, the Jew, who did not submit to my yoke, forty-six of his strong, walled cities, as well as the small cities in their neighborhood, which were without number...I besieged and took. Two-hundred thousand, and one-hundred and fifty people, great and small, male and female, horses, mules, asses, camels, cattle and sheep, without number, I brought away from them and counted as spoil. Himself, like a caged bird, I shut up in Jerusalem his royal city... The cities of his, which I had despoiled, I cut off from his land and to Mitinti, king of Ashdod, [and to] Padi, king of Ekron, [and to] Silli-bel, king of Gaza, I gave. And (thus) I diminished his land."^[12]

The only possible record for Yarmuth for this time-period (c. 539–331 BC) is taken from the Hebrew Bible, specifically the account of Nehemiah who returned with the Jewish exiles from the Babylonian captivity, during the reign of Artaxerxes I. According to Ezra, the acclaimed author of the book, some of these returnees had settled in Jarmuth, as shown in Nehemiah 11:25–29 of the Hebrew Bible. The political entity that was established in Judea at the time was that of a vassal state, as Judea became a province of the Persian Empire, governed by a satrap.^[13]

During the Hellenistic and Roman periods, no records of events concerning Yarmuth have survived, although potsherds from the Roman period have been discerned.

Some Early Byzantine era terraces and potsherds were found in the lower town area.^[14]

The site is about 18 hectares (44 acres) in extent. The high point, 1.8 hectares (4.4 acres) in area, lies on the eastern side with a lower town extending to the west. The site is roughly 640 by 420 meters.^[15]

The mound, then known as Khirbet Yarmuk, was visited by French archaeologist Victor Guérin in 1863.^[15] American archaeologist Frederick J. Bliss, who visited the site at the start of the 20th-century, remarked seeing interior walls of a building that were 4 feet and 6 inches thick in diameter, and that early Roman and Arab potsherds could be seen there.^[16] A survey of the site was conducted by Adam Druks in 1963.^[17] A. Ben-Tor conducted a sounding there in 1970 on behalf of the Hebrew University.^[18]

Tel Yarmuth has been scientifically excavated since 1980 by Pierre de Miroschedji under the auspices of the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS).^{[19][20][21][22][23][24][25]}

In 2014, extensive excavations were conducted at the site by the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA). After 2016 the site was declared a national park and since then excavations have been conducted, under the auspices of the Israel Antiquities Authority, in preparation for public access.^[26][27] An extensive geophysical survey of the lower town was also completed.

• Cities of the ancient Near East
• Tell es-Sakan

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  Base of column from ancient structure
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  Ramp leading to the gateway
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  Dressed stone at Tel Yarmuth
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  Fieldstones embedded in mortar at Tel Yarmuth
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  Foundation of house showing three bases of columns
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  Foundations of large house
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  General view of stone walls at Tel Yarmuth
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  Jambs of doorway
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  General layout of excavated ruin
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  Remains of column base
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  Ruins of Yarmuth
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  Thick stone wall at Tel Yarmuth
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  View of archaeological site
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  General view of ruins
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  Defensive wall of Tel Yarmuth
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  Walled city of Yarmuth (Jarmuth)
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  Walled structures

• Connan, Jacques, et al., "Bitumens from Tell Yarmuth (Israel) from 2800 BCE to 1100 BCE: A unique case history for the study of degradation effects on the Dead Sea bitumen.", Organic Geochemistry 168, 2022
• Jasmin, M., "L’étude de la transition du Bronze récent II au Fer I en Palestine méridionale", Oxford: BAR Publishing, 2006
• Jasmin, M., "The Political Organization of the City-States in Southwestern Palestine in the Late Bronze Age IIB (13th Century bc)", in “I Will Speak the Riddles of AncientTimes”: Archaeological and Historical Studies in Honor of Amihai Mazar on the Occasion of His Sixtieth Birthday, eds. A. M. Maeir, and P. D. Miroschedji, Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns, pp. 161–91, 2006
• Levy-Reifer, Ayelet and Paz, Itzhak, "Tel Yarmouth, its Environs and their Reflection on the Urban Landscape of the Shephelah in the Early Bronze Age III", Tell it in Gath. Studies in the History and Archaeology of Israel. Essays in Honor of Aren M. Maeir on the Occasion of his Sixtieth Birthday, hrsg. v. Itzhaq Shai (Ägypten und Altes Testament 90)., pp. 77-99, 2018
• Manclossi Francesca, Rosen Steve A., De Miroschedji Pierre, "The Canaanean Blades from Tel Yarmuth, Israel: A technological analysis", Paléorient, vol. 42, n°1. pp. 49–74, 2016 DOI : https://doi.org/10.3406/paleo.2016.5693
• Miroschedji P. de, "Yarmouth 1: Rapport sur les trois Premières campagnes de fouilles à Tel Yarmouth (Israël) (1980–1982)", Editions Recherche sur les Civilisations, Mémoire 76, Paris, 1988
• de Miroschedji, Pierre, "Tell Yarmouth, un site du Bronze ancien en Israel", Paléorient, vol. 6, pp. 281–86, 1980 doi:10.3406/PALEO.1980.4282
• Paz, Y., Mizrahi, S., and Grossman, L., "Ancient Fields: An EB III Case Study from Tel Yarmuth", New Studies in the Archaeology of Jerusalem and Its Region, 9, pp. 91–98, 2015
• Salavert, Aurélie. "Olive Cultivation and Oil Production in Palestine during the Early Bronze Age (3500—2000 B.C.): The Case of Tel Yarmouth, Israel.", Vegetation History and Archaeobotany, vol. 17, pp. S53–61, 2008

• Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA), Guided Tour at Tel Yarmuth on YouTube (in Hebrew)