Adullam

Khirbat esh-Sheikh Madkur / ʿAīd el Mâ
Pine-covered hill of Adullam, seen from northwest
Shown within Israel
Alternative name	'Eîd el Mieh (Kh. ‘Id el-Minya)
Location
Region	Shfela
Coordinates	31°39′0″N 35°0′9″E / 31.65000°N 35.00250°E / 31.65000; 35.00250Coordinates: 31°39′0″N 35°0′9″E / 31.65000°N 35.00250°E / 31.65000; 35.00250
Grid position	150118 PAL
History
Founded	Canaanite period
Abandoned	unknown
Periods	Early Bronze, Chalcolithic period to the Ottoman period
Cultures	Canaanite, Jewish, Greco-Roman, Byzantine, early Islamic, Ottoman
Site notes
Excavation dates	1992, 1999, 2015
Archaeologists	Surveyed by Y. Dagan, B. Zissu, I. Radashkovsky and E. Liraz (unexcavated)
Condition	Ruin
Public access	yes

Khirbet 'Eîd el Mieh, stone water trough (at the lower site)

Adullam (Hebrew: עֲדֻלָּם) is an ancient ruin, formerly known by the Arabic appellation ʿAīd el Mâ (or `Eîd el Mieh), built upon a hilltop overlooking the Elah Valley, straddling the Green Line between Israel and the West Bank.^[1] In the late 19th century, the town was still in ruins.^[2] The hilltop ruin is also known by the name Khurbet esh-Sheikh Madkour, named after Madkour, one of the sons of the Sultan Beder, for whom is built a shrine (wely) and formerly called by its inhabitants Wely Madkour.^[3] The hilltop is mostly flat, with cisterns carved into the rock. The remains of stone structures which once stood there can still be seen. Sedimentary layers of ruins from the old Canaanite and Israelite eras, mostly potsherds, are noticeable everywhere, although olive groves now grow atop of this hill, enclosed within stone hedges. The villages of Aderet, Aviezer and Khirbet al-Deir are located nearby. The ruin lies about 3 km (1.9 mi) south of Moshav Neve Michael. The area around ancient Adullam between Bet Shemesh and Bet Guvrin was established in 1957 as "Adullam Region" (Hebrew: חבל עדולם) and settled since then.^[4]

Main archaeological sites; identification

• Kh. esh-Sheikh Madkur (grid: 1503/1175), sitting at an elevation of 434 metres (1,424 ft) above sea-level, is thought by modern historical geographers to be the "upper Adullam", based on its proximity to Kh. ‘Id el Minya, a site whose name is believed to be a corruption of "Adullam."^[5] The identification of the upper site with the biblical Adullam is still inconclusive, as archaeological evidence attesting to its Old Canaanite name has yet to be found. While Victor Guérin does not specifically say that the site in question was the ancient Adullam, he holds that Kh. esh-Sheikh Madkur and Kh. ‘Id el Minya are to be recognised as the same city; the Upper and the Lower. Site maintained by the JNF (KKL) in Israel, and where archaeological surveys and partial excavations have been conducted. The site features ancient caverns, cisterns carved into the rock, and a Muslim shrine known as Wely Sheikh Madkur.
• Kh. ‘Id el Minya, also known as ‘Eid al-Miah (grid: 1504/1181), is the site recognised by M. Clermont Ganneau as Adullam proper,^[6] being now a tell at the southern end of Wadi es-Sûr, an extension of the Elah valley. The ruin sits at an elevation of 351 metres (1,152 ft) above sea-level. The ruin is overgrown with vegetation and trees at the bottom of the mountain whereon lies Kh. esh-Sheikh Madkur, towards its north. Razed stone structures, a stone water trough, and the shaft of a stone column can still be seen there. PEF surveyor C.R. Conder mentions having seen in ʻAid el-Miyeh an ancient well having stone water-troughs round it.^[7]

Previous attempts of identification

Early drawings depicting the so-called "Adullam cave" have tentatively been identified with the cavern of Umm el Tuweimin, and the cave at Khureitun (named after Chariton the ascetic),^[8] because of their immense size. Modern-day archaeologists have rejected these early hypotheses,^[9] and have accepted that ʻAid el-Miyeh is the Adullam of old.^[10][11][12]

History

Iron Age and Hebrew Bible

The "Adullam" mentioned in the Hebrew Bible is usually thought to be identical with Tell Sheikh Madkhur, that is, the archaeological ruin referred to in this article as "Adullam."^{[5][13][12][14]}

Adullam is referred to in the Hebrew Bible as being one of the royal cities of the Canaanites (Joshua 12:15), and is listed along with the cities Jarmuth and Socho as occupying a place in the region geographically known as the Shefelah (Joshua 15:33–35), or what is a place of transition between the mountainous region and the coastal plains. It was one of many city-states with independent and sovereign kings.^[15] According to the same biblical source, the king of Adullam was slain by Joshua and the Israelites during their conquest of the land of Canaan (Joshua 12:7–15).

It was here that Judah, the son of Jacob (Israel), came when he left his father and brothers in Migdal Eder. Judah befriended a certain Hirah, an Adullamite.^[12][16] In Adullam, Judah met his first wife (unnamed in the Book of Genesis), the daughter of Shuah. More than 700 years later, the scene of David's victory over Goliath in the Elah valley was within a short distance from Adullam, at that time frontier village.^[12][17]

Ruin of Adullam. Wely Madkour

David sought refuge in Adullam after being expelled from the city of Gath by King Achish. I Samuel refers to the Cave of Adullam where he found protection while living as a refugee from King Saul. It was there that "every one that was in distress gathered together, and every one that was in debt, and every one that was discontented."^[18] Certain caves, grottos and sepulchres are still to be seen on the hilltop, as well as on its northern and eastern slopes.

King David's grandson, Rehoboam, fortified the town against Ancient Egypt.^[12][19] The Book of Micah calls it "the glory of Israel."^[20]

Persian period

The only record of Adullam for this time-period (c. 539–331 BCE) is taken from the Hebrew canonical books, specifically the account of Nehemiah who returned with the Jewish exiles from the Babylonian captivity, during the reign of Artaxerxes I. According to Ezra, the acclaimed author of the book,^[21] some of these returnees had settled in Adullam, as shown by Nehemiah 11:25–29.^[12] The political entity that was established in Judea at the time was that of a vassal state, as Judea became a province of the Persian Empire, governed by a satrap.^[22]

Hellenistic, Roman and Byzantine periods

Few records abound for the site during the classical period. It was in Adullam that Judas Maccabaeus retired with his fighting men, after returning from war against the Idumaeans.^[12][23] Adullam stood near the highway which later became the Roman road in the Valley of Elah, which road led from Jerusalem to Beit Gubrin.

As late as the early 4th century CE, Adullam was described by Eusebius as being "a very large village about ten miles east of Eleutheropolis."^[24]

Ottoman period

Adullam was an inhabited village in the late 16th-century. An Ottoman tax ledger of 1596 lists `Ayn al-Mayyā (Arabic: عين الميا) in the nahiya Ḫalīl (Hebron subdistrict), and where it is noted that it had thirty-six Muslim heads of households.^[25] The copyist of the same tax ledger had erroneously mistaken the Arabic dal in the document for a nun, and which name has since been corrected by historical geographers Yoel Elitzur and Toledano to read A'ïd el-Miah (Arabic: عيد الميا), based on the entry's number of fiscal unit in the daftar and its corresponding place on Hütteroth's map.^[26][27]

In the late 19th century, the hilltop ruin and its adjacent ruins were explored by French explorer, Victor Guérin, who wrote:

, at 11:20 , we descend to the east in the valley. At 11:25 , I examine other ruins, called Khirbet A'id el-Miah. Sixty toppled houses in the wadi formed a village that still existed in the Muslim period, as the remains of a mosque there observed. In antiquity, the ruins that cover the plateau of the hill of Sheikh Madkour and which extend in the valley were probably one and the same city, divided into two parts, the upper part and the lower part.^[28]

According to Conder, an ancient road, leading from Beit Sur to Ashdod, once passed through ʿAīd el Mâ (Adullam).^[29]

French orientalist and archaeologist, Charles Clermont-Ganneau, visited the site in 1874 and wrote: "The place is absolutely uninhabited, except during the rainy season, when the herdsmen take shelter there for the night."^[30]

Nature reserve and park

The Adullam Grove Nature Reserve is a nature reserve managed by the Israel Nature and National Parks Protection Authority. It was established in 1994.^[31]

The Adullam Caves park is a JNF park of 50,000 dunams (12,355 acres (50.00 km²)) of mostly pine forests, which were planted by Jewish immigrants who settled in the Lachish region in the early years of the state. The park was prepared for public use by the Israel Antiquities Authority and the Jewish National Fund.^[32]

Today the park sits in an area that is threatened by shale oil extraction through the CCR ground-heating process, with the Green Zionist Alliance and the grassroots group Save Adullam, among others, working to stop shale oil extraction in the region.^[33][34][35]

Landmarks

• Archaeological sites;
  • Hurvat Adullam - a nearby ruin with caves.
  • Hurvat Itri - remains of a Jewish village from the 1st-2nd centuries CE, containing mikvehs, a synagogue, a columbarium, and burial caves.
  • Hurvat Borgyn - remains of a 2nd-century CE settlement, including fortifications, wells, burial caves, a wine press, and other agriculture oriented finds.
  • Tel Sokho
• Two marked trails for bicycle riders:
  • "Sokho" track – a 13 km track heading towards Tel Sokho and then heads back.
  • Track "Borgyn" – a 22 km track which passes through the ancient ruins of Itri and Borgyn, and then heads back.

Gallery

• 

  Old Muslim stone structure (wely) at Adullam (Sheikh Madhkour, upper site)

• 

  Cavern and cistern at ancient ruin (Sheikh Madhkour, upper site)

• 

  Cave entrance in Adullam (upper site)^{[dubious – discuss]}

• 

  Biblical ruin of Adullam (in foreground)

• 

  Stone trough (lower site, ʻEid el-Miah)

• 

  Stone trough (lower site, ʻEid el-Mieh)

• 

  Stone trough near lower Adullam site

• 

  Stone trough at Adullam (lower site)

• 

  Broken stone column (lower site, ʻEid el-Mieh)

• 

  Heap of boulders (lower site, ʻEid el-Mieh)

• 

  Ephemeral spring (lower site, ʻEid el-Miah)

• 

  Shady tree, Adullam ruins

• 

  Tel Adullam (lower site, ʻEid el-Mieh) in foreground

• 

  Mound of ancient remains (lower site, ʻEid el-Miah)

• 

  The road to Adullam

• 

  JNF sign post of Tel Adullam

See also

• Archaeology of Israel
• Tourism in Israel

References

Bibliography

External links

• Media related to Adullam at Wikimedia Commons
• Survey of Western Palestine, Map 21: IAA, Wikimedia commons