Huqoq or Hukkok () was an ancient Jewish village, located 12.5 km north of

Tiberias Tiberias ( ; , ; ) is a city on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee in northern Israel. A major Jewish center during Late Antiquity, it has been considered since the 16th century one of Judaism's Four Holy Cities, along with Jerusalem, Heb ...

. The area had been settled since ancient times and is mentioned in the

Book of Joshua The Book of Joshua is the sixth book in the Hebrew Bible and the Old Testament, and is the first book of the Deuteronomistic history, the story of Israel from the conquest of Canaan to the Babylonian captivity, Babylonian exile. It tells of the ...

(). 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

Yaquq Yaquq () was a Palestinian people, Palestinian Arab village, which was depopulated during the 1947–1948 Civil War in Mandatory Palestine on May 1, 1948. It was located 12.5 km north of Tiberias and was built at the site of the ancient Jewis ...

later stood at Huqoq's location, and a fort named

Hukok Hukok () is a kibbutz in Israel. Located near the Sea of Galilee and the cities of Tiberias and Safed, it falls under the jurisdiction of Emek HaYarden Regional Council. In it had a population of . History In 1945, the Hukok fort was built by ...

was built near the site on 11 July 1945, later followed by a

kibbutz A kibbutz ( / , ; : kibbutzim / ) is an intentional community in Israel that was traditionally based on agriculture. The first kibbutz, established in 1910, was Degania Alef, Degania. Today, farming has been partly supplanted by other economi ...

History

Name evolution

The name Huqoq is mentioned in the bible (

Books of Chronicles The Book of Chronicles ( , "words of the days") is a book in the Hebrew Bible, found as two books (1–2 Chronicles) in the Christian Old Testament. Chronicles is the final book of the Hebrew Bible, concluding the third section of the Jewish Ta ...

) as a

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 ...

city that kept on existing during the

Roman period The Roman Empire ruled the Mediterranean and much of Europe, Western Asia and North Africa. The Roman people, Romans conquered most of this during the Roman Republic, Republic, and it was ruled by emperors following Octavian's assumption of ...

, it was also known then as Hucuca.Conder and Kitchener, 1881, SWP I,
420
/ref>Khalidi, 1992, p.546 During the

Ottoman period The Ottoman Empire (), also called the Turkish Empire, was an imperial realm that controlled much of Southeast Europe, West Asia, and North Africa from the 14th to early 20th centuries; it also controlled parts of southeastern Central Euro ...

there was an

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 ...

village named Yaquq. built on the ancient ruins

Archaeological and historical periods

Archaeological investigations at the site of the former village of Yaquq, located near the

Sea of Galilee The Sea of Galilee (, Judeo-Aramaic languages, Judeo-Aramaic: יַמּא דטבריא, גִּנֵּיסַר, ), also called Lake Tiberias, Genezareth Lake or Kinneret, is a freshwater lake in Israel. It is the lowest freshwater lake on Earth ...

, 12.5 km north of

, uphill from

Capernaum Capernaum ( ; ; ) was a fishing village established during the time of the Hasmoneans, located on the northern shore of the Sea of Galilee. It had a population of about 1,500 in the 1st century AD. Archaeological excavations have revealed tw ...

and

Magdala Magdala (; ; ) was an ancient Jews, Jewish city on the shore of the Sea of Galilee, north of Tiberias. In the Babylonian Talmud it is known as Magdala Nunayya (), and which some historical geographers think may refer to Tarichaea (). It is belie ...

,Kitchens on the Cutting Edge
", Paul V. M. Flesher, 28 June 2012, UW Religion Today Column for Week of 1 July suggest that the site was inhabited in 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 Persian may refer to: * People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language ** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples ** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...

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 ...

Abbasid The Abbasid Caliphate or Abbasid Empire (; ) was the third caliphate to succeed the prophets and messengers in Islam, Islamic prophet Muhammad. It was founded by a dynasty descended from Muhammad's uncle, Abbas ibn Abd al-Muttalib (566–653 C ...

Fatimid The Fatimid Caliphate (; ), also known as the Fatimid Empire, was a caliphate extant from the tenth to the twelfth centuries CE under the rule of the Fatimid dynasty, Fatimids, an Isma'ili Shi'a dynasty. Spanning a large area of North Africa ...

Mamluk Mamluk or Mamaluk (; (singular), , ''mamālīk'' (plural); translated as "one who is owned", meaning "slave") were non-Arab, ethnically diverse (mostly Turkic, Caucasian, Eastern and Southeastern European) enslaved mercenaries, slave-so ...

and Ottoman periods.Settlement and History in Hellenistic, Roman, and Byzantine Galilee: An Archaeological Survey of the Eastern Galilee
Uzi Leibner, 2009, p. 151. The Arab village of Yakuk was abandoned during the

1948 war The 1948 Palestine war was fought in the territory of what had been, at the start of the war, British-ruled Mandatory Palestine. During the war, the British withdrew from Palestine, Zionist forces conquered territory and established the Stat ...

and was bulldozed in 1968.

In the Hebrew Bible (Book of Joshua)

Hukkok (Hebrew חקק) is mentioned in the

Hebrew Bible The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;"Tanach"
. '' The International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia considers the identification of Hukkok with Yakuk as plausible, although it might be too far from Aznoth-tabor (possibly Khirbet el-Jebeil, c. 3 miles north of

Mount Tabor Mount Tabor ( ; ; ), sometimes spelled Mount Thabor, is a large hill of biblical significance in Lower Galilee, Northern District (Israel), northern Israel, at the eastern end of the Jezreel Valley, west of the Sea of Galilee. In the Hebrew Bi ...

) to fit the description. International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia "Hukkok: huk’-ok (chuqqoq): A town on the border of Naphtali named with Aznoth-tabor (Jos 19:34). It is usually identified with the village of Yaquq, which stands on the West of Wady el-‘Amud, to the Northwest of Gennesaret, about 4 miles from the sea. This would fall on the boundary of Zebulun and Naphtali, between Tabor and Hannathon (). The identification may be correct; but it seems too far from Tabor."

Bronze Age

The village site was inhabited in the Early and Middle

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 ...

Roman and Byzantine periods

The Roman-period village was large and prosperous due to the presence of a constant spring. It is apparent from both the synagogue and the absence of pig bones that the Roman period village was Jewish. "The most extensive

hiding complex The Bar Kokhba hiding complexes are underground hideout systems built by Jewish rebels and their communities in Judaea and used during the Bar Kokhba revolt (132–136 CE) against the Roman Empire. The hiding complexes are believed to have play ...

discovered to date in the Galilee" has been announced in March 2024."Ancient Jewish revolt-era 'safe rooms' revealed in the Galilee"
Gavriel Fiske for ''

Times of Israel ''The Times of Israel'' (ToI) is an Israeli multi-language online newspaper that was launched in 2012 and has since become the largest English-language Jewish and Israeli news source by audience size. It was co-founded by Israeli journalist Dav ...

''. Posted and accessed 18 March 2024. There are some eight hiding cavities with more ramifications being discovered, connected by tunnels set at straight angles to slow down Roman soldiers hunting for Jewish rebels. The hiding complex dates back to the

First Jewish-Roman War First most commonly refers to: * First, the ordinal form of the number 1 First or 1st may also refer to: Acronyms * Faint Images of the Radio Sky at Twenty-Centimeters, an astronomical survey carried out by the Very Large Array * Far Infrared a ...

(66-70 CE) and the

Bar Kochba Revolt The Bar Kokhba revolt (132–136 AD) was a major uprising by the Jews of Judaea against the Roman Empire, marking the final and most devastating of the Jewish–Roman wars. Led by Simon bar Kokhba, the rebels succeeded in establishing an ind ...

(132-136 CE), and could only serve for short-term concealment from Roman patrols due to the small size of the chambers. Most of the numerous finds attest to the use of the underground system during the First Revolt, and while there is no proof yet for the Bar Kochba Revolt actually spreading out to Galilee, a small number of artifacts found in this complex show that it was "involved in the preparations" for the uprising. The refuge system was revealed through community excavations with the participation of local residents, students enrolled in archaeology and Land of Israel studies, volunteers from a cavers club, and soldiers from the IDF's Samur Unit for underground operations. The village is attested in Late Roman and Byzantine period rabbinic sources. Archaeological findings as well as the mention of Huqoq in both the Babylonian and

Jerusalem Talmud The Jerusalem Talmud (, often for short) or Palestinian Talmud, also known as the Talmud of the Land of Israel, is a collection of rabbinic notes on the second-century Jewish oral tradition known as the Mishnah. Naming this version of the Talm ...

prove that the Jewish village survived the Bar Kochba Revolt.

Ottoman period

The prosperity of the ancient village contrasts with the simplicity of the Ottoman-era settlement and can be seen by archaeologists in animal bones which were cut by professional butchers in the ancient Jewish village, and by farmers in the Muslim period.

Archaeology

A 2011 dig led by archaeologist

Jodi Magness Jodi Magness (born September 19, 1956) is an American archaeologist and scholar of religion. She serves as the Kenan Distinguished Professor for Teaching Excellence in Early Judaism at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She previousl ...

excavated several sections at the site of the former village.Magness, 2011
"Huqoq - Preliminary Report"
"The ancient village is surrounded by associated features, including

cist In archeology, a cist (; also kist ; ultimately from ; cognate to ) or cist grave is a small stone-built coffin-like box or ossuary used to hold the bodies of the dead. In some ways, it is similar to the deeper shaft tomb. Examples occur ac ...

graves,

rock-cut tomb A rock-cut tomb is a burial chamber that is cut into an existing, naturally occurring rock formation, so a type of rock-cut architecture. They are usually cut into a cliff or sloping rock face, but may go downward in fairly flat ground. It was a ...

s, a

mausoleum A mausoleum is an external free-standing building constructed as a monument enclosing the burial chamber of a deceased person or people. A mausoleum without the person's remains is called a cenotaph. A mausoleum may be considered a type o ...

, quarries, agricultural terraces and installations, a winepress and an olive press. Two large miqwa'ot (ritual baths) are hewn into bedrock on the eastern and southern periphery of the ancient village (see below)."

Ancient synagogue

Among the structures uncovered during the 2012 dig were the remains of an elaborate synagogue,Ancient shul, Samson mosaic found in Galilee
By Yonah Jeremy Bob, 7 February 2012,

Jerusalem Post ''The Jerusalem Post'' is an English-language Israeli broadsheet newspaper based in Jerusalem, Israel, founded in 1932 during the British Mandate of Palestine by Gershon Agron as ''The Palestine Post''. In 1950, it changed its name to ''The Je ...

dated to the 5th century. Findings include limestone carvings and an elaborate floor mosaic. The synagogue's walls and columns were painted in bright colors: plaster fragments show traces of pink, red, orange and white pigments. The artistry of the mosaic, which is composed of tiny tiles, together with the large stones used for the walls, attests to the prosperity of the village.

Mosaic iconography

The mosaic includes of the Biblical hero

Samson SAMSON (Software for Adaptive Modeling and Simulation Of Nanosystems) is a computer software platform for molecular design being developed bOneAngstromand previously by the NANO-D group at the French Institute for Research in Computer Science an ...

. The figure of Samson appears twice: carrying the gates of Gaza, and tying burning torches to the tails of foxes. Samson and the foxes is an episode from the

Book of Judges The Book of Judges is the seventh book of the Hebrew Bible and the Christian Old Testament. In the narrative of the Hebrew Bible, it covers the time between the conquest described in the Book of Joshua and the establishment of a kingdom in the ...

(). During a battle with the

Philistines Philistines (; LXX: ; ) were ancient people who lived on the south coast of Canaan during the Iron Age in a confederation of city-states generally referred to as Philistia. There is compelling evidence to suggest that the Philistines origi ...

, Samson catches 300 wild foxes, ties burning torches to their tails and sets them loose to set fire to Philistine grain fields.Ancient synagogue and mosaic unearthed in Galilee
, Matti Friedman, Times of Israel, 2 July 2012 According to archaeologist Jodi Magness, the discovery is significant because "only a small number of ancient (Late Roman) synagogue buildings are decorated with mosaics showing biblical scenes, and only two others have scenes with Samson (one is at another site just a couple of miles from Huqoq)."Monumental synagogue building discovered in excavations in Galilee (July 2012), Israel Antiquities Authority
/ref> The mosaic also shows two human faces, apparently female, flanking a

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 ...

inscription promising a reward to those who perform good deeds.Monumental synagogue uncovered in Galilee
Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs2 August 2012, accessed 18 July 2019 In 2018, photographs of newly discovered mosaics were published in conjunction with a 70-page interim report of the excavations from 2014–2017. The new publication shows that the floor mosaic also depicts Noah's Ark, the twelve Israelite spies (), and

Moses In Abrahamic religions, Moses was the Hebrews, Hebrew prophet who led the Israelites out of slavery in the The Exodus, Exodus from ancient Egypt, Egypt. He is considered the most important Prophets in Judaism, prophet in Judaism and Samaritani ...

parting of the Red Sea The Parting of the Red Sea or Crossing of the Red Sea (, lit. "parting of the sea of reeds") is an episode in The Exodus, a foundational story in the Hebrew Bible. It tells of the escape of the Israelites, led by Moses, from the pursuing Egypt ...

, themes that are rarely, if ever, found in synagogues of the time. Other images show

Jonah Jonah the son of Amittai or Jonas ( , ) is a Jewish prophet from Gath-hepher in the Northern Kingdom of Israel around the 8th century BCE according to the Hebrew Bible. He is the central figure of the Book of Jonah, one of the minor proph ...

being swallowed by the fish and the building of the

Tower of Babel The Tower of Babel is an origin myth and parable in the Book of Genesis (chapter 11) meant to explain the existence of different languages and cultures. According to the story, a united human race speaking a single language migrates to Shin ...

. The mosaic also incorporates pagan Hellenistic images such as

cupid In classical mythology, Cupid ( , meaning "passionate desire") is the god of desire, erotic love, attraction and affection. He is often portrayed as the son of the love goddess Venus and the god of war Mars. He is also known as Amor (Latin: ...

s and theatre masks, and an obscure cluster of important looking men, one of whom may be Alexander the Great, next to soldiers and

war elephant A war elephant is an elephant that is Animal training, trained and guided by humans for combat purposes. Historically, the war elephant's main use was to charge (warfare), charge the enemy, break their ranks, and instill terror and fear. Elep ...

s. If Magness' theory is correct, this would be the only case of a synagogue being decorated with non-Biblical imagery. Another theory is that the two groups, one dressed in armour and the other in white robes, represent the alliance between the

Seleucids The Seleucid Empire ( ) was a Greek state in West Asia during the Hellenistic period. It was founded in 312 BC by the Macedonian general Seleucus I Nicator, following the division of the Macedonian Empire founded by Alexander the Great, ...

and the

high priest The term "high priest" usually refers either to an individual who holds the office of ruler-priest, or to one who is the head of a religious organisation. Ancient Egypt In ancient Egypt, a high priest was the chief priest of any of the many god ...

John Hyrcanus John Hyrcanus (; ; ) was a Hasmonean (Maccabee, Maccabean) leader and Jewish High Priest of Israel of the 2nd century BCE (born 164 BCE, reigned from 134 BCE until he died in 104 BCE). In rabbinic literature he is often referred to as ''Yoḥana ...

. File:Huqoq Inscription and face.jpg, Huqoq mosaic inscription and face File:פסיפס מהתקופה.jpg, Mosaic

Tomb of Habakkuk

Jewish, Christian,

Druze The Druze ( ; , ' or ', , '), who Endonym and exonym, call themselves al-Muwaḥḥidūn (), are an Arabs, Arab Eastern esotericism, esoteric Religious denomination, religious group from West Asia who adhere to the Druze faith, an Abrahamic ...

and Muslim tradition located the tomb of the prophet

Habakkuk Habakkuk or Habacuc is the main figure described in the Book of Habakkuk, the eighth of the Twelve Minor Prophets in the Hebrew Bible. He is traditionally regarded as a prophet active around 612 BCE. Almost all information about Habakkuk is dr ...

in Huqoq and it has been a site of pilgrimage since the twelfth century.Lissovsky, Nurit (2008).
Hukkok, Yaquq and Habakkuk's Tomb: Changes over Time and Space
., Palestine Exploration Quarterly 140 (2): 103–118. The earliest mention of the tomb is a letter written by Rabbi

Samuel ben Samson Samuel ben Samson (also Samuel ben Shimshon) was a rabbi who lived in France and made a pilgrimage to Palestine in 1210, visiting a number of villages and cities there, including Jerusalem. Amongst his companions were Jonathan ben David ha-Cohen, ...

in 1210: "On our way back from Tiberias we went on to Kefar Hanan. In journeying there we came across the tomb of Habakkuk in Kefar Hukkok." In 1215 Menahem ben Perez of

Hebron Hebron (; , or ; , ) is a Palestinian city in the southern West Bank, south of Jerusalem. Hebron is capital of the Hebron Governorate, the largest Governorates of Palestine, governorate in the West Bank. With a population of 201,063 in ...

visited the site and wrote: "And I went from there, and saw the tomb of the prophet Habakkuk near a spring." The earliest detailed description appears in the book "These are the Travels" (1270–1291): "From there one goes to Ya‘aquq, where is the grave of the prophet Habakkuk, upon which there is a fine monument between four party walls." An Englishmen named John Sanderson visited the tomb in 1601 and wrote "Then we passed by a little village where dwelt and is buried the prophet Abicoke; so said the Jews, and that the town was called Yeacoke." A description from the 1930s states that "The tombstone. . . is built of basalt stones, about two metres wide and 1.5 metres long, covered in white plaster". In 1981 the old tombstone was replaced by a new one, over which a small building was erected, along with a pool filled by spring water and meant to be used as a ritual bath. Jewish and Druze pilgrims continue to visit the tomb. Seffi Ben Yosef, a local tour guide, questioned the tradition in an editorial in

Ynet News Ynet (stylized in all lowercase) is an Israeli news and general-content website, and the online outlet for the ''Yedioth Ahronoth'' newspaper. History Ynet launched on June 6, 2000, in Hebrew, following other Hebrew outlet's website launches in ...

, arguing that the tradition was only based on the similar-sounding name between the village and the prophet.Ein Hokuk and the story of Habakkuk
Ynetnews, 21 March 2007

References

Bibliography

* * * * * *Magness, Jodi: “Samson in the Synagogue,” Biblical Archaeology Review 39.1 (2013), pp. 32–39, 66-67. * Magness, Jodi: October 2013
Scholar’s Update: New Mosaics from the Huqoq Synagogue
BAS LIBRARY

External links

Huqoq Excavation Project
Official site {{Authority control Archaeological sites in Israel Ancient Jewish settlements of Galilee Hebrew Bible places Israeli mosaics Bar Kokhba hiding complexes