Tel Afek

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For the site near Rosh HaAyin in central Israel, see Antipatris.
For other uses, see Afek (disambiguation).
Tel Afek
תל אפק
Afek Crusader mill and fortified tower
Tel Afek is located in Israel
Tel Afek
Shown within Israel
Alternative nameApheq,
Recordane (Crusader);
Kerdanah (Mamluk);
Kufrdani, Kurdany, Kh. Khurdaneh (Ottoman);
Kordaneh, Mathanat Kurdani (British Mandate);
LocationIsrael
Coordinates32°50′46″N 35°06′43″E / 32.846072°N 35.111969°E / 32.846072; 35.111969
Grid position160/250 PAL
History
PeriodsMiddle Bronze Age - Crusader period
General view of Ein Afek Crusader's dam and ponds

Tel Afek, (Hebrew: תל אפק), also spelled Aphek and Afeq, is an archaeological site located in the coastal hinterland of the Ein Afek Nature Reserve, east of Kiryat Bialik, Israel. It is also known as Tel Kurdani.[1]

History[edit]

Chalcolithic[edit]

The site has remains dating back to the Chalcolithic age.[citation needed]

Bronze Age[edit]

Tombs from the Middle Bronze Age and Late Bronze Ages have been excavated here.[2]

A number of burial caves cut into chalk-like bedrock are dated to Middle Bronze Age IIA and are believed to have been reused during Late Bronze Age II. The pottery assemblage consists of vessel types from the Early, Middle and Late Bronze periods, with the later pottery finds presenting both local types and imports, such as Cypriot ‘milk bowls’ and bilbils as well as a few Mycenaean vessels.[3]

Classical Age[edit]

The site is what remains of the biblical town of Aphik, which is mentioned in the Joshua 19:30 and Judges 1:31 as belonging to the Tribe of Asher.[4][5] According to Biblical history, this area was part of Cabul and was given to Hiram I by Solomon as a reward for various services rendered to him in building the First Temple. 1 Kings 9:12.[6]

Pottery from the Persian,[7] Hellenistic[2][7] Roman,[7] and the Byzantine eras have been found here.[7]

Crusader/Mamluk era[edit]

Pottery from the Crusader times have been found here.[7] In the Crusader era, it was known as Recordane, and in 1154, the mill and village was acquired the Hospitalliers.[8] The Hospitalliers owned the water mills here for a number of years.[9] Between 1235 and 1262 the Hospitalliers had a dispute with the Templars about water rights.[10]

Two aqueducts, dating from this era, have been excavated.[2]

In 1283 it was still part of the Crusader states, as it was mentioned as part of their domain in the hudna between the Crusaders based in Acre and the Mamluk sultan Qalawun.[11][12]

According to al-Maqrizi, it had come under Mamluk rule in 1291, when it was mentioned under the name of Kerdanah when sultan al-Ashraf Khalil allocated the village's income to a waqf in Cairo.[13][14]

A two-story fortress still stands. A water-powered flour mill operated on the lower floor.[15]

Tel Afek fortress 1926

Ottoman era[edit]

Incorporated into the Ottoman Empire in 1517, it appeared under the name Kufrdani in the census of 1596, located in the Nahiya of Acca of the Liwa of Safad. The village was noted as "hali" (empty), but taxes were paid, a total of 1,800 akçe. All of the revenues went to a waqf.[16][17] The stair to the tower roof of the mill, and two more wheel-chambers in the southern part of the mill was added in the Ottoman period.[15]

In 1856 it was named Kurdany on Kiepert's map of Palestine published that year.[18]

In 1875 Victor Guérin visited, and noted about Tell el-Kerdaneh: "To the north and bottom of this tell, along the marsh, we observe the remains of an enclosure which measured 54 steps long by 40 wide, and which seems to have been that of a fortified khan. All the walls have been removed; the inner blockage alone partly remained."[19] About the surrounding march, and mill, he noted that it was the origin of the Nahr Na'min, and "These springs, at their origin, are immediately abundant enough to form a considerable river and to turn the millstones of a millstone. Near this mill, we note the lower foundations of an old bridge and the remains of a tower pierced with loopholes and ogival vaults. It had two floors, and was built with ashlars on which many crosses were traced, and some at a height that the hand cannot reach. Therefore, these crosses could not be engraved there by passing travelers, who would have needed a ladder to place them so high, but they must go back to the time when this tower was occupied by Christians, and most likely date from the time of the Crusades. Above the front door was a mâchecoulis balcony, the trace of which is very visible."[20]

In 1881, the PEF's Survey of Western Palestine (SWP) found at Kh. Khurdaneh (east of the mill) only heaps of stones.[21] The name, Kh. Kurdâneh was taken to mean the ruin of Kurdâneh, p.n. [22]

In 1900, Gottlieb Schumacher found here markings on the mill which he took to be Phoenician.[23]

British Mandate era[edit]

The area was acquired by the Jewish community under the Sursock Purchase. In 1925 a Zionist organisation purchased 1,500 dunums in Kordaneh, from Alfred Sursuk, of the Sursuk family of Beirut. At the time, there were 20 families living there.[24]

In the 1931 census of Palestine, Mathanat Kurdani was counted under Shefa-'Amr.[25]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ Avner Kessler and Uri Kafri (2007). "Application of a cell model for operational management of the Na'aman groundwater basin, Israel". Israel Journal of Earth Sciences. 56: 29–46. doi:10.1560/ijes.56.1.29.
  2. ^ a b c Porat, 2010, Tel Afeq (East)
  3. ^ Atiqot 2008
  4. ^ Oxford Bible Atlas By Adrian Curtis, page 206
  5. ^ The Land of the Bible: A Historical Geography, By Yohanan Aharoni, page 430
  6. ^ "Ein Afek nature reserve" (PDF). Israel Parks and Nature Authority. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2016-08-03. Retrieved 2017-01-25.
  7. ^ a b c d e Abu Raya and Porat, 2012, Tel Afeq (Northeast)
  8. ^ Röhricht, 1893, RRH No 293; cited in Pringle, 1997, p. 64
  9. ^ Röhricht, 1893, RRH No 293; RRH No 1062; RRH Ad No 1319a; RRH No 1322; all cited in Frankel, 1988, p. 261
  10. ^ Pringle, 1997, p. 64
  11. ^ The al-Qalqashandi version of the hudna, referred in Barag, 1979, p. 205, #28
  12. ^ Khamisy, 2013, p. 94, #37
  13. ^ al-Maqrizi, 1845, vol 2, p. 131
  14. ^ Barag, 1979, p. 203
  15. ^ a b Pringle, 1997, pp. 62-64
  16. ^ Hütteroth and Abdulfattah, 1977, p. 192
  17. ^ Note that Rhode, 1979, p. 6 Archived 2019-04-20 at the Wayback Machine writes that the Safad register that Hütteroth and Abdulfattah studied was not from 1595/6, but from 1548/9.
  18. ^ Kiepert, 1856, Map of Southern Palestine
  19. ^ Guérin, 1880, p. 430
  20. ^ Guérin, 1880, p. 428
  21. ^ Conder and Kitchener, 1881, SWP I, p. 314
  22. ^ Palmer, 1881, p. 112
  23. ^ Schumacher, 1900, p. 360
  24. ^ List of villages sold by Sursocks and their partners to the Zionists since British occupation of Palestine, evidence to the Shaw Commission, 1930
  25. ^ Mills, 1932, p. 96 (PDF)

Bibliography[edit]

External links[edit]

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