Tirzah (Hebrew: תִּרְצָה) was an ancient town in the Samarian highlands northeast of Shechem; it is generally identified with the site of Tell el-Far'ah (North), northeast of modern city of Nablus, West Bank,[1][2] in the immediate vicinity of the Palestinian village of Wadi al-Far'a.
תרצה/תל אל-פארעה | |
  Shown within State of Palestine | |
| Location | Nablus Governorate, Palestinian Territories |
|---|---|
| Coordinates | 32°17′15″N 35°20′16″E / 32.287387°N 35.337803°E |
| Area | 180 dunam 0.18 km² |
| History | |
| Periods | Bronze Age, Iron Age |
History
editThe size of the archaeological site is 180 dunams (44 acres) and is located in the hills of Samaria, northeast of Nablus, in what is currently known as the West Bank. The archaeological site is called Tell el-Far'ah (North) in order to distinguish it from Tell el-Far'ah (South), an archaeological site south of Gaza.
Excavations were undertaken at Tell el-Far'ah between 1946 and 1960 for nine seasons by École Biblique under the direction of Roland de Vaux.[3] More recently, an international archaeological project led by the Universidade da Coruña, in cooperation with the Palestinian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities and the Universidade Nova de Lisboa, has carried out three excavation seasons between 2017 and 2019 and one prospecting campaign in 2022.[4][5]
Prehistoric period
editThe site was occupied in the Neolithic and Chalcolithic eras, and became progressively more populated.[6]
Pre-Pottery Neolithic B
editPeriod I:[7] Finds from the earliest levels of settlement excavated by Dorothy Garrod in 1928 were suggested to date to the Pre-Pottery Neolithic B (PPNB) period.[8]
Chalcolithic
editPeriod II: Cave U: dwellings then tomb.[7]
Early Bronze
editDuring the Early Bronze Age, Tell el-Far'ah had ramparts and domestic housing units.[9] The earliest pottery oven of its kind was excavated here; it had two chambers that allowed separation between the vessels being fired and the open flame. This type of pottery oven continued to be used in the region until the Roman period. A temple and an olive press were also uncovered. Town planning is clearly evident at the site. The western gate in the town wall was rebuilt several times during this period. The excavations indicate developing urbanization and the presence of new populations. However, the town was abandoned in the middle of the third millennium BCE, and remained so for approximately 600 years.[6]
Early Bronze I
editPeriod III: Pit dwellings, burials.[7]
At the end of the EB I into the EB II society changes from being village-based to urban-based.[10] The late EB I represented a period of settlement peak and intensified activity in the Wadi Far'ah and highlands of Samaria with settlements being newly established.[10]
Early Bronze II
editPeriod IV: fortifications, city gate, dwellings, potter’s kiln.[7]
As hamlets and villages grew into fortified towns, sites like Tell el-Far'ah North had continuity in occupation throughout the EB I/II transition.[10]
Early Bronze III
editIn the Early Bronze III, there was a settlement hiatus.
Early Bronze IV
editIn the Early Bronze IV, there was a settlement hiatus.
Middle Bronze
editMiddle Bronze
editIn the Middle Bronze I, there is a settlement hiatus.[7]
Middle Bronze II
editPeriod V: In the Middle Bronze Age II, there was a small settlement on the site that used the remnants of the older town walls for protection. In the 1600s the population expanded and a new wall was built, but it enclosed a smaller area than the older city.
In Middle Bronze IIA there were burials only.[7]
In Middle Bronze IIB there was a village and burials.[7]
In Middle Bronze IIC there were fortifications, city gate, cultic installations (underground chamber, massebah?).[7]
Late Bronze
editThe Late Bronze Age remains indicate that there was no major urban development during this period.[6]
Late Bronze II
editPeriod VI: In Late Bronze II there is a settlement hiatus with no town plan, some tombs.[7]
Iron Age
editIron Age I
editPeriod VII: Tell el-Far'ah was an important town in the early Iron Age, the center of a network of villages, one of five such networks that make up the Israelite settlement, starting around 1150/1130 BCE, in the highlands between Jerusalem and the Jezreel Valley. Excavations from the Iron Age levels have produced numerous artifacts, including various figurines, arrowheads, spindle whorls, a model sanctuary, and Four room houses. The figurines include cow heads, cows nursing calves, horses, tambourine players, and figurines that may represent either Astarte or Asherah.[citation needed]
Iron Age IIA
editStratum VIIb is dated by radiocarbon tests to the first half of the 10th century BCE.[11] Excavations from this settlement phase have uncovered residential quarters and streets, public structures like a shrine, Cypriote Black-on-Red vessels, glyptic items and one of the largest ceramic assemblages from among the sites of the Kingdom of Israel during this time. It apparently served as a seat of the early kings of Israel.[12]
In the Bible
editThe town of Tirzah is first mentioned in the Bible in the Book of Joshua, as having had a king whom the Israelites defeated.[13] It is not mentioned again until after the period of the United Monarchy.
During the time of King Jeroboam, Tirzah is mentioned as the place where Abijah, son of Jeroboam, died as a result of illness.[14] Later Tirzah is described as a capital of the northern kingdom of Israel during the reigns of Baasha, Elah, Zimri and Omri.[15] The royal palace at Tirzah was set on fire by Zimri when he was faced with having to surrender to Omri. Omri reigned from Tirzah for six years after which he moved Israel's capital to Samaria.
Tirzah is mentioned in when Menahem left it to Samaria, assassinated King Shallum and became King of Israel.[16]
Tirzah is mentioned in Song of Songs, where the lover compares his beloved's beauty to that of Tirzah. If the authorship of Song of Songs can be attributed to Solomon, then this is a reference to the city during the United Monarchy. However, Song of Songs provides no definite historical context to allow it to be dated on that basis.[17]
Modern location
editRobinson suggested that Talluza might be ancient Tirzah (Latin form: Thersa), one of 31 Canaanite cities which the Bible lists as having been conquered by Joshua; the modern Arabic name being a derivation of the ancient name by way of its Hebrew form, or possibly its original Canaanite form, whereby the r sound was replaced with a l.[18] French explorer Victor Guérin also argued that Talluza was the site of ancient Thirza.[19] Biblical researchers, Robinson and Guérin, suggested identifying the town with Talluza.[20][21]
Later, Conder and Kitchener suggested that Tayasir was a more likely candidate based on its phonemes;[22] however, today Tell el-Farah (North), northeast of modern Nablus is generally accepted as the site of Tirzah.
References
edit- ^ Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible. Amsterdam University Press. 31 December 2000. pp. 1314–1315. ISBN 978-90-5356-503-2.
- ^ Marvin Alan Sweeney (September 2007). I & II Kings: a commentary. Westminster John Knox Press. p. 186. ISBN 978-0-664-22084-6.
- ^ R. de Vaux, "Les fouilles de Tell el-Far'ah" Revue Biblique 68, 1961, pp. 576-592
- ^ Fenollós, Juan Luis Montero; Caramelo, Francisco; Yasin, Yehad; Dias, Sufyan; Carrasco, José Gabriel Gómez; Escanilla, Ingrid Bejarano; Sánchez, Jorge Sanjurjo; Rodríguez, Víctor Barrientos (2023). "Nuevas investigaciones arqueológicas en Tell el-Far'a, Palestina: balance de las primeras campañas". Informes y Trabajos: Excavaciones en el Exterior (in Spanish). 21: 44–60. ISSN 2444-8087.
- ^ Montero Fenollós, Juan Luis (2024). "Tell el-Farʿah: New Archaeological Research on the Iron Age IIA in the Central Mountains of Palestine". Near Eastern Archaeology. 87 (3): 158–167. doi:10.1086/731397. ISSN 1094-2076.
- ^ a b c de Vaux, Roland (1992). E.Stern (ed.). האנצקלופדיה החדשה לחפירות ארכיאולוגיות בארץ ישראל [The New Encyclopedia of Archaeological Excavations in the Land of Israel] (in Hebrew). Vol. IV. pp. 1297–1302.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Jasmin, Michael (2013). "Tell el Far'ah (N)". In Master, Daniel M. (ed.). Oxford Encyclopedia of the Bible and Archaeology. Oxford University Press. pp. 393–400. ISBN 978-0-19-984653-5.
- ^ Ephraim Stern; Ayelet Leṿinzon-Gilboʻa; Joseph Aviram (January 1993). The New encyclopedia of archaeological excavations in the Holy Land. Israel Exploration Society & Carta. ISBN 978-0-13-276288-5. Retrieved 2 May 2011.
- ^ Deborah Sebag, The Early Bronze Age Dwellings in the Southern Levant, Bulletin du Centre de recherche français de Jérusalem [En ligne], 16|2005, mis en ligne le 09 octobre 2007, Consulté le 23 mai 2010. URL : http://bcrfj.revues.org/index256.html
- ^ a b c Sala, Maura (2022). "The EB IB–II Transition at Tell el-Far'ah North: Continuity Versus Discontinuity. A Preliminary Reassessment". In Adams, Matthew J.; Roux, Valentine (eds.). Transitions During the Early Bronze Age in the Levant: Methodological Problems and Interpretative Perspectives. Zaphon. pp. 179–196. ISBN 978-3-96327-158-8.
- ^ Fenollós, Juan-Luis Montero; Francisco, Caramelo (2021). "Nouvelles recherches archéologiques sur l'âge du Fer IIA à Tell el-Far'a, Palestine". Cuadernos de Prehistoria y Arqueología de la Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (in French). 47 (1): 11–30. doi:10.15366/cupauam2021.47.1.001. hdl:10362/137421. ISSN 0211-1608.
- ^ Kleiman, Assaf (2018). "Comments on the Archaeology and History of Tell el-Far'ah North (Biblical Tirzah) in the Iron IIA". Semitica. 60: 85–104. doi:10.2143/SE.60.0.3285031. ISSN 2466-6815.
- ^ Joshua 12:24
- ^ 1 Kings 14:17
- ^ 1 Kings 15:33, 1 Kings 16:8 and 1 Kings 16:23.
- ^ 2 Kings 15:14
- ^ Song of Songs 6:4
- ^ Robinson and Smith, 1856, pp. 302 -303
- ^ Guerin, 1874, pp. 365-368 ff
- ^ Robinson (1856), p. 303
- ^ Guérin (1874), p. 366
- ^ Conder and Kitchener, SWP II, 1882, pp. 216, 228
Bibliography
edit- Conder, C.R.; Kitchener, H.H. (1882). The Survey of Western Palestine: Memoirs of the Topography, Orography, Hydrography, and Archaeology. Vol. 2. London: Committee of the Palestine Exploration Fund.
- Guérin, V. (1874). Description Géographique Historique et Archéologique de la Palestine (in French). Vol. 2: Samarie, pt. 1. Paris: L'Imprimerie Nationale.
- Robinson, E.; Smith, E. (1856). Later Biblical Researches in Palestine and adjacent regions: A Journal of Travels in the year 1852. London: John Murray.