Bersabe (; , or ), also known as Beersheba of Galilee, was a

Second Temple period The Second Temple period or post-exilic period in Jewish history denotes the approximately 600 years (516 BCE – 70 CE) during which the Second Temple stood in the city of Jerusalem. It began with the return to Zion and subsequent reconstructio ...

Jewish Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...

village located near the town of Kefar Hananya which marked the boundary between the

Upper Galilee The Upper Galilee (, ''HaGalil Ha'Elyon''; , ''Al Jaleel Al A'alaa'') is a geographical region located in northern Israel and southern Lebanon. Part of the larger Galilee region, it is characterized by its higher elevations and mountainous terra ...

and the

Lower Galilee The Lower Galilee (; ) is a region within the Northern District of Israel. The Lower Galilee is bordered by the Jezreel Valley to the south; the Upper Galilee to the north, from which it is separated by the Beit HaKerem Valley; the Jordan Rift ...

, as described by

Josephus Flavius Josephus (; , ; ), born Yosef ben Mattityahu (), was a Roman–Jewish historian and military leader. Best known for writing '' The Jewish War'', he was born in Jerusalem—then part of the Roman province of Judea—to a father of pr ...

, with Upper Galilee stretching from Bersabe in the Beit HaKerem Valley to Baca (Peki'in) in the north. Bersabe was one of several towns and villages of Galilee fortified by Josephus during the

First Jewish–Roman War The First Jewish–Roman War (66–74 CE), also known as the Great Jewish Revolt, the First Jewish Revolt, the War of Destruction, or the Jewish War, was the first of three major Jewish rebellions against the Roman Empire. Fought in the prov ...

, being one of the most defensible positions and where insurgents from across Galilee had taken up refuge against the

Imperial Roman army The Imperial Roman Army was the military land force of the Roman Empire from 27 BC to 476 AD, and the final incarnation in the long history of the Roman army. This period is sometimes split into the Principate (27 BC – 284 AD) and the Dominate ...

when the surrounding countryside was plundered. The ancient village has been identified with the present site of ''Khirbet es-Saba'', a hilltop ruin within a distance of less than a kilometer of the village Kafr 'Inan (Kefr ʿAnan), at the eastern fringe of the Beit HaKerem Valley, and rising some above sea-level. The same site has been rendered by other authors under the name ''Khirbet Abu esh-Shebaʿ'', a little northwest of Kefr ʿAnan and closely adjoining Farradiyya/ Parod to their southwest. The site lies eastward of the Arab town of er-Rameh, along Route 85, and about southwest of

Safed Safed (), also known as Tzfat (), is a city in the Northern District (Israel), Northern District of Israel. Located at an elevation of up to , Safed is the highest city in the Galilee and in Israel. Safed has been identified with (), a fortif ...

. In 1873, Kitchener and Conder, on a surveying mission with 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 and mentioned it as being "a large ruin, which stands upon the terraced hill top." A survey later conducted at the site reveal that the village had occupied an area of about 70 dunams (17.3 acres).Aviam (2008), p. 41 From a prospect on Mount Kefir in the Mount Meron range, as one looks out over the hilltop ruin of Bersabe, the square layout or lines where once stood the walls of the town can still be distinguished.Aviam, M. (1983), p. 38 The line of the ancient wall extended over an area comprising the upper third of the hill. The thickness of the northernmost wall, where the hill was easily accessible, is measured at , and was built with three semi-circular watch towers. The easternmost wall was built in a zig-zag configuration. The walls were constructed of

fieldstone Fieldstone is a naturally occurring type of stone, which lies at or near the surface of the Earth. Fieldstone is a nuisance for farmers seeking to expand their land under cultivation, but at some point it began to be used as a construction mate ...

Fate of town's defenders

There are no surviving written records on the fate of the town's defenders, although Josephus alludes to it in his ''Life's Autobiography'' (§ 65) where he writes: “...I was in the power of the Romans before Jerusalem was besieged, and before the same time, Jotapata was taken by force, ''as well as many other fortresses'', and a great many of the Galileans fell in the war.” Elsewhere, Josephus writes (''The Jewish War'' 4.7) that after the fall of Tarichaea, all but two of the rebel fortresses and strongholds surrendered to the Roman army. This would have happened in the second year of the war, in the 13th year of

Nero Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus ( ; born Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus; 15 December AD 37 – 9 June AD 68) was a Roman emperor and the final emperor of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, reigning from AD 54 until his ...

's reign, sometime between the capture of Jotapata (in the lunar month of Tammuz) and the capture of Tarichaea (in the month of

Elul Elul (Hebrew language, Hebrew: , Hebrew language#Modern Hebrew, Standard , Tiberian vocalization, Tiberian ) is the twelfth month of the civil year and the sixth month of the Jewish religious year, religious year in the Hebrew calendar. It is a m ...

that same year), and which effectually brought an end to the war in Galilee. The usual Roman procedure in cases involving open rebellion was to kill the able-bodied men who rose up in rebellion, but to sell into slavery all captive women and children.

Archaeological finds

Potsherds from 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 ...

, Persian,

Hellenistic 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 ...

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 ...

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also known as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire centred on Constantinople during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Having survived the events that caused the fall of the Western Roman E ...

and

Arab Arabs (, , ; , , ) are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in West Asia and North Africa. A significant Arab diaspora is present in various parts of the world. Arabs have been in the Fertile Crescent for thousands of years ...

periods have been found on the site. Only one square near the ancient wall has been excavated. Mordechai Aviam who excavated the site has noted that the ancient ruin has yielded large quantities of "Galilean Coarse Ware" (GCW) and other Hellenistic and Early Roman shards and coins. Coins found at the site date from the fourth century BCE to the second century CE.Aviam (2004), p. 95 Unidentified razed structures and rock-cut cisterns are scattered across the hilltop. The site also abounds with

karst Karst () is a topography formed from the dissolution of soluble carbonate rocks such as limestone and Dolomite (rock), dolomite. It is characterized by features like poljes above and drainage systems with sinkholes and caves underground. Ther ...

ic caves. Another discovery consists of a fragmented bronze base along with the preserved foot of a statuette depicting the

Egyptian ''Egyptian'' describes something of, from, or related to Egypt. Egyptian or Egyptians may refer to: Nations and ethnic groups * Egyptians, a national group in North Africa ** Egyptian culture, a complex and stable culture with thousands of year ...

bull deity Apis. The base features a trilingual inscription in

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 ...

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 ...

Hieroglyphic Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs ( ) were the formal writing system used in Ancient Egypt for writing the Egyptian language. Hieroglyphs combined ideographic, logographic, syllabic and alphabetic elements, with more than 1,000 distinct characters. ...

, and

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

. Pottery found at the site proves the continuation of the settlement deep into the 3rd century CE.

Gallery

File:Hill of Bersabe as seen from West side.jpg, The hill of Bersabe (''Kh. Abu esh-Sheba'') from western side File:Hill of Bersabe - from the north.jpg, ''Khirbet Abu esh-Sheba'' (Bersabe) seen from northern side File:General view as seen from Kh. Abu esh-Sheba (Bersabe).jpg, View from Bersabe in Galilee File:Slope of Hill Bersabe (Kh. Abu esh-Sheba).jpg, Steep ascent to ''Khirbet Abu esh-Sheba'' (Bersabe) File:Cave at Bersabe (Kh. Abu Sheba).jpg, Cave at Bersabe (''Kh. Abu esh-Sheba'') File:Stone Wall - Bersabe.jpg, Old wall in Bersabe File:Stone wall at Bersabe.jpg, Ruins of Bersabe File:Tomb at Bersabe.jpg, Tomb carved from rock at Bersabe File:Pit at Bersabe (Kh. Abu Sheba).jpg, Pit at Bersabe (''Khirbet Abu esh-Sheba'') File:Khirbet Abu Sheba (Bersabe).jpg, Ruins at Bersabe File:House in Farradiyya with Kh. Abu Sheba in background.jpg, Hilltop ruin of ''Khirbet Abu esh-Sheba'' as seen from Farradiyya File:Earthenware relic from Bersabe.jpg, Loom weight discovered in ''Khirbet Abu esh-Sheba'' File:Bersabe seen from Old Kefar Hananiah.jpg, Hilltop ruin of Bersabe as seen from Kafr 'Inan

References

Bibliography

* * * Aviam, Mordechai (2008). ''The Great Revolt in Galilee'' (Exhibition Catalogue 28),

Hecht Museum The Reuben and Edith Hecht Museum is a museum located on the grounds of the University of Haifa, Israel. History The Hecht Museum was established in 1984 by Reuben Hecht, director of Dagon Silos and a founding member of the University of Ha ...

University of Haifa The University of Haifa (, ) is a public research university located on Mount Carmel in Haifa, Israel. Founded in 1963 as a branch of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, the University of Haifa received full academic accreditation as an inde ...

: Haifa, pp. 39–52 * * * * * (Leipzig 1907)

External links