Wikipedia

Antipatris

For the site near Haifa, seeTel Afek.
See also:Ras al-Ayn (disambiguation)

Antipatris/ænˈtɪpətrɪs/(Hebrew:אנטיפטריס,Ancient Greek:Αντιπατρίς)[2]was a city built during the first century BC byHerod the Great,who named it in honour of his father,Antipater.The site, now anational parkincentralIsrael,was inhabited from theChalcolithicPeriod to the lateRoman Period.[3]The remains of Antipatris are known today asTel Afek(תל אפק‎), although formerly asKŭlat Râs el 'Ain.It has been identified as either the tower ofAphekmentioned by Josephus,[4]or the biblicalAphek,best known from the story of theBattle of Aphek.During the Crusader Period the site was known asSurdi fontes,"Silent springs". TheOttomanfortress known asBinar BashiorRas al-Aynwas built there in the 16th century.

Antipatris
אנטיפטריס‎
Antipatris is located in Central Israel
Antipatris
Shown within Central Israel
Antipatris is located in Israel
Antipatris
Antipatris (Israel)
Alternative nameTel Afek, and Kŭlảt Râs el ’Ain,the castle of the spring-head[1]
LocationCentral District,Israel
RegionLevant
Coordinates32°06′18″N34°55′49.5″E/ 32.10500°N 34.930417°E/32.10500; 34.930417
Grid position144/167PAL
TypeSettlement
Site notes
ConditionIn ruins

Antipatris/Tel Afek lies at the strong perennial springs of theYarkon River,which throughout history has created an obstacle between the hill country to the east and the Mediterranean to the west, forcing travellers and armies to pass through the narrow pass between the springs and the foothills of Samaria. This gave the location of Antipatris/Tel Afek its strategic importance.

Antipatris was situated on the Roman road fromCaesarea MaritimatoJerusalem,north of the town ofLyddawhere the road turned eastwards towards Jerusalem.[5]During the British Mandate, a water pumping station was built there to channel water from the Yarkon to Jerusalem.[6]

Today the remains of Antipatris are located roughly betweenPetah Tikvaand the towns ofKafr QasimandRosh HaAyin(literally "headspring" ), south ofHod HaSharon.[7]

History

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Tel Afek

Aphek

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TheBronze Agesaw the construction of defensive walls, 2.5 metres (8.2 ft) to 3.5 metres (11 ft) wide, and a series of palaces. One of these is described as an Egyptian governor residence of the 15th century BC, and within, an array ofcuneiformtablets were found. Philistine ware is found in the site in 12th century BC layers.[3]

Most scholars agree that there were more than one Aphek. While Tel-Aphek (Antipatris) is one of them,C.R. Conderidentified the Aphek of Eben-Ezer[8]with a ruin (Khirbet) some 3.7 miles (6 km) distant fromDayr Aban(believed to be Eben-Ezer[9]), and known by the nameMarj al-Fikiya;the nameal-Fikiyabeing an Arabic corruption of Aphek.[10]Eusebius,when writing about Eben-ezer in hisOnomasticon,says that it is "the place from which the Gentiles seized the Ark, between Jerusalem and Ascalon, near the village of Bethsamys (Beit Shemesh),"[11]a locale that corresponds with Conder's identification.

The historianJosephusmentions a certain tower calledAphek,not far from Antipatris, and which was burnt by a contingent of Roman soldiers.[12]

Antipatris

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Antipatris was a city built byHerod the Great,and named in honor of his father,Antipater II of Judea.It lay betweenCaesarea MaritimaandLydda,on the great Roman road from Caesarea toJerusalem,[5]and figures prominently in Roman-era history. Today, the nearby river bears the town's old namesake in Arabic (Arabic:نهر أبو فطرس,romanized:Nahr Abī Fuṭrus).

According toJosephus,Antipatris was built on the site of an older town that was formerly calledChabarzaba(Hebrew:כפר סבא), a place so-named in classical Jewish literature and in theMosaic of Rehob.[13]During the outbreak of the Jewish war with Rome in 64 CE, the Roman army underCestiuswas routed as far as Antipatris.[14]

Paul the Apostlewas brought by night fromJerusalemto Antipatris and next day from there toCaesarea Maritima,to stand trial before the governorAntonius Felix.[15]

In 363, the city was badly damaged by an earthquake.[citation needed]Only one of the early bishops of the Christianbishopricof Antipatris, asuffraganof Caesarea, is mentioned by name in extant documentation: Polychronius, who was present both at theRobber Council of Ephesusin 449 and theCouncil of Chalcedonin 451.[16]No longer a residential bishopric, Antipatris is today listed by theCatholic Churchas atitular see.[17]

On 27 April 750, theAbbasidgeneralAbd Allah ibn Ali,uncle of Caliphal-Saffah(r. 750–754), marched to Antipatris ('Abu Futrus'). There, he summoned around eighty members of theUmayyad dynasty,whom the Abbasids had toppled earlier that year, with promises of fair surrender terms, only to have them massacred.[18][19]

Ottoman Ras al-Ayn

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Binar Bashi,the Ottoman fortress at the head of theYarkon River

Ottomanrecords indicate that aMamlukfortress may have stood on the site.[20]However, the Ottoman fortress was built following the publication of afirmanin AD 1573 (981 H.):

"You have sent a letter and have reported that four walls of the fortress Ras al-Ayn have been built, [..] I have commanded that when [this firman] arrives you shall [..have built] the above mentioned rooms andmosquewith itsminaretand have the guards remove the earth outside and clean and tidy [the place].[21]

The Turkish name of the place and fortress,pınar başı,means "fountain-head" or simply "head of the springs", much like the Arabic and Hebrew names (Ras al-Ayin and Rosh ha-Ayin, "head of the springs" ). Pronounced by Arabic-speakers, it became "Binar Bashi" (Arabic has no "p" ).

The fortress was built to protect a vulnerable stretch of the Cairo-Damascus highway (theVia Maris), and was provided with 100 horsemen and 30 foot soldiers. The fortress was also supposed to supply soldiers to protect thehajjroute.[22]The fortress is a massive rectangular enclosure with four corner towers and a gate at the centre of the west side. The south-west tower is octagonal, while the three other towers have a square ground plan.[23]

It appeared namedChateau de Ras el Ainon the map thatPierre Jacotincompiled in1799.[24]

The Arab peasants deserted the village in the 1920s.[25]

Antipatris fort. 1948
Ras al Ein 1941 1:20,000

Yarkon-Tel Afek national park

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Currently, the site of Antipatris is included in the national park "Yarkon-Tel Afek", under the jurisdiction of theIsrael Nature and Parks Authority,incorporating the area of the Ottoman fortress, the remains of the Roman city and the British water pumping station.

Excavation

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Area A

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The earliestwinepressesdiscovered to date in the Southern Levant were excavated adjoining the governor's residency at Tel Aphek, dated to the 13th century BC, the reign ofRamesses II.The two winepresses were plastered and possessed two treading floors (Hebrew:gat elyonah,“upper vat” ) in parallel configuration extending over 6 m². Beneath and next to these, the stone-lined plastered collection vats (Hebrew:gat tahtonah,“lower vat” ) could each store over 3 m³, or 3,000 litres, of pressed grape juice.Canaanite amphoraewere recovered still in situ at the bottom of each pit, while a midden of grape skins, seeds and other debris was discovered adjacent to the installations [Kochavi 1981:81]. The excavator has drawn attention to the proximity of these winepresses to the Residency, their large size and the fact that ancient winepresses were normally located outside settlements amongst the vineyards suggesting that the Egyptian administration supervised the viniculturists of theSharonclosely [Kochavi 1990:XXIII].

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It is clear that Tel Aphek was a site not only at the centre of imperial administration, but also well-connected to the international trade in luxury goods, as reflected in the abundant finds of Cypriot[26]and Mycenaean[27]ceramics.

Illustrative of Cypro-Canaanite trade especially is a fragmentary amphora handle [Aphek 5/29277], clearly inscribedafter firingwith Sign 38 of theCypro-MinoanLinear Script [Yasur-Landau and Goren 2004]. The handle was excavated from secondary deposition in Aphek Area X, Locus 2953, belonging to the very meagre Stratum X11 built over the Governor's Residency. An extreme likelihood exists, therefore, that the object belonged to the earlier, more prosperous Stratum XI2 of the Residency itself. Given the as-yet-undeciphered nature of the script, the precise significance of the post-firing addition of a Cypro-Minoan sign[28]must remain uncertain.[29]At minimum the sign indicates that individuals employing Cypro-Minoan script handled the vessel from which the handle derived. Combined with petrographic analysis of the clay employed in manufacturing the amphora—pointing to an origin in or within the vicinity of Akko—the readiest reconstruction from the evidence must be that the vessel (and any companions) was manufactured in the Akko region before shipping,eitherto such redistribution points asTell Abu HawamorTel Nami,or(more likely) toCyprusitself (perhapsviaone of these ports), where it was likely emptied of its original contents—certainly marked—beforebeing shipped back to the Levant (now probably containing Cypriot product) and achieving final deposition at Aphek.

See also

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References

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  1. ^Palmer, 1881, p.216
  2. ^Hebrew spelling based onTosefta(Demai1:11), although in theMishnah(Gittin7:7,et al.) it is often speltאנטיפרס‎.
  3. ^abKochavi, 1997, pp. 147-151
  4. ^Josephus,The Jewish War2.19.1
  5. ^abEaston, Matthew George(1897).Easton's Bible Dictionary(New and revised ed.). T. Nelson and Sons.{{cite encyclopedia}}:Missing or empty|title=(help)
  6. ^Yarkon and Tel Afek National ParkArchived2016-04-25 at theWayback Machine
  7. ^"Aphek | Pictures from the Holyland".
  8. ^The account in 1 Samuel 4:1 of the battle at Aphek and Eben-ezer
  9. ^C.R. Conder,Notes from the Memoir,Palestine Exploration Quarterly,vol. 18, London 1876, p. 149; Conder & Kitchener,The Survey of Western Palestine,vol. iii (Judaea), London 1883, p. 24
  10. ^North, Robert (1960). "Ap(h)eq(a) and 'Azeqa".Biblica.41(1): 61–63.JSTOR42637769.
  11. ^Eusebius Werke,Erich Klostermann(ed.), Leipig 1904, p. 33,24.
  12. ^Josephus,The Jewish War2.19.1
  13. ^Josephus,Antiquities of the Jewsxvi.v.§2; xiii.xv.§1; cf. Jerusalem Talmud,Demai2:1 (8a). In theMosaic of Rehob,the variant spelling isכפר סבה;Conder and Kitchener, SWP II, London 1881,pp. 258-ff..
  14. ^Josephus,Wars of the Jews(book ii, chapter xix); (Bell. Jud.ii. 14-20)
  15. ^Acts of the Apostles 23:31–32.
  16. ^Michel Lequien,Oriens christianus in quatuor Patriarchatus digestus,Paris 1740, Vol. III, coll. 579-582
  17. ^Annuario Pontificio 2013(Libreria Editrice Vaticana 2013ISBN978-88-209-9070-1), p. 834
  18. ^Le Strange (1890), pp.55-56.
  19. ^Gil (1997), p.88.
  20. ^Heyd, 1960, p.108. Cited in Petersen, 2001, p.257
  21. ^Heyd, 1960, pp. 107-108. Cited in Petersen, 2001, p.257
  22. ^Heyd, 1960, p. 106. Cited in Petersen, 2001, p.257
  23. ^Petersen, 2002, p.255
  24. ^Karmon, 1960, p.171Archived2019-12-22 at theWayback Machine
  25. ^Khalidi, 1992, p. 396
  26. ^Beck and Kochavi 1985:36
  27. ^Warren and Hankey 1989:155-156
  28. ^Closely paralleled with at least 7 additional examples from Cyprus (Kition,Maa-Palaiokastro,Kalavassos-Ayios Dimitrios) andRas Shamra(Ugarit), cf. Yasur-Landau and Goren 2004:22-23.
  29. ^cf. Yasur-Landau and Goren 2004:24 for various interpretations, whether an ownership mark, unit of measurement or a phonetic syllable.

Bibliography

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