Wadi al-Far'a () or Tirzah Stream () is a stream in the northern

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 ...

that empties into the

Jordan River The Jordan River or River Jordan (, ''Nahr al-ʾUrdunn''; , ''Nəhar hayYardēn''), also known as ''Nahr Al-Sharieat'' (), is a endorheic river in the Levant that flows roughly north to south through the Sea of Galilee and drains to the Dead ...

south of Damia Bridge. It is the largest stream in the West Bank. Wadi al-Far'a is located in the rugged area of the West Bank and cuts east through the Jordan Valley, passing through the

Palestinian Palestinians () are an Arab ethnonational group native to the Levantine region of Palestine. *: "Palestine was part of the first wave of conquest following Muhammad's death in 632 CE; Jerusalem fell to the Caliph Umar in 638. The indigenous p ...

village of

Wadi al-Far'a Wadi al-Far'a () is a Palestinian village in the Tubas Governorate of the State of Palestine, in the northeastern West Bank, located five kilometers southwest of Tubas. It has a land area of 12,000 dunams, of which 337 is built-up and 10,500 are ...

. The Tirzah Reservoir is used to collect the floodwater of Wadi al-Far'a before it flows into the Jordan River.

Name spelling

The Arabic name of Wadi al-Far'a is transliterated in

Roman script The Latin script, also known as the Roman script, is a writing system based on the letters of the classical Latin alphabet, derived from a form of the Greek alphabet which was in use in the ancient Greek city of Cumae in Magna Graecia. The Gree ...

in many ways. The definite article can be written as ''al''-, ''el''-, without hyphen, or it can be left out altogether. The name of the wadi can be spelled Far'a, Fa'ra, Far'ah, Fa'rah, Farah, Fari'a, or Fari'ah. With diacritics it is Wādī al-Fāri`ah. The Hebrew name also has a variety of transliterations to Roman script. The word for valley or stream: ''Nahal'' or ''Nachal''. The main part of the name: Tirza, Tirzah, Tirtza and Tirtsa.

In ancient sources

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 ...

names a place of crossing near the confluence of the watercourse '' Naḥal Yabok'' with the

, not far from Wadi al-Far'a, known in classical antiquity as ''Coreae'' (), and where is now the "Old Roman Bridge" (

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 ...

: ''Mukatta' Damieh''), which once marked, in Josephus' words, "the first entrance into Judea when one passes over the midland countries." The site is listed in the 6th century

Madaba map The Madaba Map, also known as the Madaba Mosaic Map, is part of a floor mosaic in the early Byzantine church of Saint George in Madaba, Jordan. The mosaic map depicts an area from Lebanon in the north to the Nile Delta in the south, and fro ...

, and whose location agrees with the modern identification of ''Tell el-Mazar''.

Bypassing
Pella Pella () is an ancient city located in Central Macedonia, Greece. It served as the capital of the Ancient Greece, ancient Greek kingdom of Macedonia (ancient kingdom), Macedon. Currently, it is located 1 km outside the modern town of Pella ...
and Scythopolis he came to ''Coreae'', where travelers from the interior cross into Judaea.

Archaeology

Heavy Neolithic sites

The village of Wadi al-Far'a is close to a number of

Heavy Neolithic Heavy Neolithic (alternatively, Gigantolithic) is a style of large stone and flint tools (or industry) associated primarily with the Qaraoun culture in the Beqaa Valley, Lebanon, dating to the Epipaleolithic or early Pre-Pottery Neolithic at ...

archaeological sites of the

Qaraoun culture The Qaraoun culture is a culture of the Lebanese Stone Age around Qaraoun in the Beqaa Valley. The Gigantolithic or Heavy Neolithic flint tool industry of this culture was recognized as a particular Neolithic variant of the Lebanese highland ...

. Three such sites were discovered there by

Francis Turville-Petre Francis Adrian Joseph Turville-Petre (4 March 1901 – 16 August 1942) was a British archaeologist, famous for the discovery of the ''Homo heidelbergensis'' fossil Galilee Man in 1926, and for his work at Mount Carmel, in what was then the Brit ...

between 1925 and 1926. These are Wadi Farah,

Shemouniyeh Shemouniyeh is a Heavy Neolithic archaeological site of the Qaraoun culture in the Palestinian Tubas Governorate in the northeastern West Bank, located five kilometers southwest of Tubas. It is located on a plateau over the north of the Wadi Fa ...

, and an occupational site at

Wadi Sallah Wadi Sallah is a branch of the Wadi Fa'rah where a small cave is located in the Palestinian Tubas Governorate in the northeastern West Bank, located five kilometers southwest of Tubas. The cave was discovered and excavated by Francis Turville- ...

. The site at Wadi Farah was identified as a

flint Flint, occasionally flintstone, is a sedimentary cryptocrystalline form of the mineral quartz, categorized as the variety of chert that occurs in chalk or marly limestone. Historically, flint was widely used to make stone tools and start ...

factory A factory, manufacturing plant or production plant is an industrial facility, often a complex consisting of several buildings filled with machinery, where workers manufacture items or operate machines which process each item into another. Th ...

on a high terrace at the meeting point with the Wadi Salhah. Large numbers of massive flint tools and debris were found and linked to this little known culture. Tools found included picks,

adze An adze () or adz is an ancient and versatile cutting tool similar to an axe but with the cutting edge perpendicular to the handle rather than parallel. Adzes have been used since the Stone Age. They are used for smoothing or carving wood in ha ...

s, borers and flake scrapers.

Tell el-Far'ah (North)

An archaeological mound situated near the village of Wadi al-Far'a, Tell el-Far'ah (North), has been identified as the location of

biblical The Bible is a collection of religious texts that are central to Christianity and Judaism, and esteemed in other Abrahamic religions such as Islam. The Bible is an anthology (a compilation of texts of a variety of forms) biblical languages ...

Tirzah. The tell has occupation layers from the

Neolithic The Neolithic or New Stone Age (from Ancient Greek, Greek 'new' and 'stone') is an archaeological period, the final division of the Stone Age in Mesopotamia, Asia, Europe and Africa (c. 10,000 BCE to c. 2,000 BCE). It saw the Neolithic Revo ...

Chalcolithic The Chalcolithic ( ) (also called the Copper Age and Eneolithic) was an archaeological period characterized by the increasing use of smelted copper. It followed the Neolithic and preceded the Bronze Age. It occurred at different periods in di ...

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 ...

, and

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 ...

. It is called Tell el-Far'ah (North) in order to distinguish it from Tell el-Far'ah (South), an archaeological site south of

Gaza Gaza may refer to: Places Palestine * Gaza Strip, a Palestinian territory on the eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea ** Gaza City, a city in the Gaza Strip ** Gaza Governorate, a governorate in the Gaza Strip Mandatory Palestine * Gaza Sub ...

References

Bibliography

* * *

External links

*Survey of Western Palestine, Map 15
IAAWikimedia commons
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fara, Wadi Rivers of Palestine Rivers of the West Bank Neolithic settlements Neolithic Heavy Neolithic sites Archaeological sites in the West Bank Tributaries of the Jordan River