Yavneh - The BAS Library

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THE SITE

Yavneh is situated c. 25 km south of Tel Aviv and c. 8 km from Meẓad Ḥashavyahu on the Mediterranean coast. It was occupied throughout many periods, making it difficult to estimate the extent of the ancient city, which is covered with a thick accumulation of later remains including those of a medieval fortress and an Ottoman period village. The mound occupies a prominent hill, about 45 m above sea level, at the center of the modern city of Yavneh. Ancient remains are also present outside the mound proper.

IDENTIFICATION

Yavneh is mentioned in numerous sources from the Iron Age onwards, some of the references providing accurate information as to its location. The ancient name has survived to this day. It was mentioned by many travelers and scholars, including V. Guérin, F. M. Abel, C. R. Conder, and H. H. Kitchener. Its identification has never been a matter of controversy. Recently, however, S. Weingarten and M. Fischer suggested that Ibelin, the name by which Yavneh was known in the Crusader period, derived from the name Abella, which appears in the Theophanes archive and comes from Mount Ba‘alah in Joshua 15:11. However, these are two different sites. Mount Ba‘alah is generally identified with the ridge of el-Mughar, a few kilometers northeast of Yavneh (as claimed by J. Kaplan, B. Mazar, and N. Na’aman). Since settlement at Yavneh was continuous, the change of the name from Mount Ba‘alah to Yavneh is unlikely. The appearance of the name Ibelin/Abilin should probably be understood as a simple linguistic corruption of the name Yavneh.

HISTORY

Yavneh is first mentioned in the biblical description of the borders of Judah, probably dating to the late Iron Age II. It is called Jabneel and is located on the northern border of Judah along the Sorek River (Jos. 15:11). According to 2 Chronicles 26:6, Jabneh (Iabnia in the Vulgate) was captured from the Philistines, together with Ashdod and Gath, by King Uzziah. Many scholars believe this verse to be a reliable source, evidence that Yavneh was ruled by the Philistines prior to Uzziah’s conquest.

Sources about the region are lacking for most of the Persian period. Yavneh is mentioned in the Book of Judith (3:1; Vulgate 2:28). It was later a Hellenistic city, included first in Idumea and then in the Paralia (coastal) region. A second-century BCE inscription from Delos mentions people from Yavneh who made offerings to the gods Heracles and Auronus (Horon). A story in 2 Maccabees 12:40 relates that some Jews died in battle because of the sin of carrying under their tunics “amulets sacred to the idols of Jamnia.” Unfortunately, nothing further is said about these idols.

The Seleucids used Yavneh as a base of operations against Judea. According to 1 Maccabees 5:55–62, Gorgias, the governor of the area, established his base there and repulsed a Judean attack. Judah Maccabee apparently attacked Jamnia by night and set fire to its harbor (2 Macc. 12:3–9). A contemporary inscription from Yavneh-Yam mentions Sidonians who rendered service to King Antiochus V, without any reference to an attack by Judah Maccabee. When Apollonius was appointed over Coele Syria (147 BCE), he encamped at Yavneh and battled with Jonathan the Hasmonean (1 Macc. 10:67–89; Josephus, Antiq. XIII, 88–102). Under Antiochus VII, Cendebeus established himself in Yavneh as governor of the coast and began to harass Judea (1 Macc. 15:40). According to Josephus (Antiq. XIII, 215), Simeon captured Gazara, Jaffa, and Jamnia (137 BC), although they may have been taken by his son, John Hyrcanus (135–104 BCE). Alexander Jannaeus controlled Yavneh, from which point it is mentioned in ancient sources as a city with a Jewish population.

Pompey made Yavneh an independent city under Gabinius, the proconsul of Syria (War I, 157, 166; Antiq. XIV, 75). Around 30 BCE, Augustus granted the city to Herod, who willed it to his sister Salome; she handed it over to Augustus’ wife, Livia, and it later passed into the possession of Tiberius (Antiq. XIII, 321). Philo of Alexandria mentions Jamnia as a large city in Judah. Strabo writes that Jamnia is located about 200 stadia from both Gaza and Ashkelon. Though called a village, the area of Yavneh was densely populated. From this time onwards, the port of Yavneh (Yavneh-Yam) is mentioned separately from the city (Pliny, NH 5, 68). Yavneh was a seat of a procurator named Herennius Capito (also known from an inscription from Italy), who is said to have erected an altar in the city in order to provoke the Jews, who were a majority there. The destruction of this altar led to the occupation of Judea by Rome (Antiq. XVIII, 158; War IV, 130, 663).

According to a famous legend, Yoḥanan b. Zakkai persuaded Vespasian to “leave him Yavneh and its sages” after the destruction of the temple (70 CE). Yavneh became the seat of the Sanhedrin and the birthplace of rabbinic Judaism. The Mishnah is said to have been edited there. Many references in rabbinical literature deal with sages from Yavneh, particularly Yoḥanan and Gamliel b. Zakkai. However, the nature of the sources does not allow for a precise history of these sages. As a result of the Second Jewish Revolt (130–135 CE), the Sanhedrin moved to the Galilee and Yavneh lost its importance in Jewish spiritual life.

The Samaritans became part of the population of Yavneh and built a synagogue there, as is evident from an inscription found not in situ. Petrus the Iberian encountered a strong Samaritan population at Yavneh c. 500 CE. During the Byzantine period, it was primarily a Christian city, and the seat of a bishop. The names of six bishops from Yavneh are known. They participated in the councils at Nicea (325 CE), Chalcedon (451 CE), and Jerusalem (518 and 536 CE). Eudocia built a church in the city and Eusebius listed it in his Onomasticon. The Medeba map of the sixth century refers to Yavneh as “Jabneel, which is also Iamneia.”

There are few references to Yavneh from the Early Islamic period. According to al-Baladuri, Yavneh (Yubna) was captured by the Arabs in 634. In 891, al-Yaqubi, in his Geography, describes Yavneh as an ancient village with a Samaritan population. Al-Muqaddasi (985) mentions a magnificent mosque at Yavneh and the fertility of its region. A Crusader castle called Hibelin or Ibelin was established at Yavneh by Fulco, King of Jerusalem (1142). It was ruled by a seigneur, Balian, and his family. William of Tyre erroneously identified it with Philistine Gath. Benjamin of Tudela (c. 1160) wrote that “from [Jaffa] it is five parsangs to Ibelin or Jabneh, the [former] seat of the Academy, but there are no Jews there at this day.” Saladin conquered Yavneh in 1187, and Richard the Lionheart allegedly camped in the ruins of the castle in 1191.

During the Mameluke period, the impressive structure known as Abu Hureirah’s tomb was built by Baybars I at Yavneh. Yaqut (1225) refers to Yavneh as a pleasant place near Ramla, and mentions the tomb. Abu Hureirah was one of Muhammad’s companions, but he was buried at Medina and his connection with the tomb at Yavneh is probably a secondary tradition; its identification as the tomb of Gamliel is a recent invention. During the Mameluke period, a bridge was erected over the Sorek River northeast of the mound, continuing in use until the twentieth century. The large mosque on the mound, built on a former church and now in ruins, contained an inscription of Suleiman en-Nasiri from 1337; it was published by Conder and Kitchener.

In the Ottoman period, Yavneh was an Arab village related to the Gaza district, with 710 people registered in 1596. Nineteenth-century travelers describe it as composed mostly of humble mud-huts, with only a few ancient remains visible above ground. The largely abandoned village came under Israeli control in early June 1948. Soon afterwards, the present city of Yavneh was established nearby.

EXCAVATIONS AROUND THE MOUND

Despite its large size and easily accessible location, the mound of Yavneh has not yet been excavated. In 1957, it was surveyed by J. Kaplan, and in the late 1980s, by A. Maeir and D. Pringle. Numerous salvage excavations have been conducted in the vicinity of the mound, mainly in the wake of development projects in the modern city. The first excavation was conducted in Mandatory times by J. Ory, on behalf of the Palestine Department of Antiquities (1930). He uncovered remains of a Roman period cemetery during the construction of a section of the railway line east of the mound; it lay under debris from the Byzantine period. A second excavation by Ory (1951) and one by S. Pipano (1983) have not been published. M. Brosh excavated a Middle Bronze Age tomb and Roman sarcophagi near Ge’alya, northeast of Yavneh (1964), as well as a Roman period mausoleum containing gold jewelry near Naḥal Yavneh (1966).

Since 1990, more than 13 salvage excavations have been carried out at Yavneh. In 1989–1990, Y. Levi excavated Byzantine period remains north of the mound, an ashlar wall with Roman–Byzantine coins near Abu Hureirah’s tomb, and a Byzantine period kiln southwest of the mound. A. Feldstein and O. Shemueli examined buildings and other finds west of the mound, mainly from the Byzantine period. I. Barash excavated Byzantine–Early Islamic remains south of the Mameluke bridge. A. Gorzalzcany mapped a vaulted building on the eastern slope of the mound. C. Eliaz excavated several small areas containing Roman, Byzantine, and Early Islamic remains east of the mound. Other excavations were carried out but have not yet been published.

In a cemetery excavated north of the mound by R. Kletter in 2000–2001, a Late Bronze Age tomb and several Iron Age II/Persian period tombs were uncovered. The latter included tombs built of kurkar masonry, as well as simple graves dug in pits. The graves were covered by a 2 m-thick accumulation of Byzantine and modern remains.

THE “TEMPLE HILL” AND FAVISSA

Since Mandatory times, the existence of a site called ed-Deir (“the monastery”) has been noted on a hill c. 200 m north of the mound. Ory visited the site in 1946, and in 1952, a tent camp for new immigrants, which formed the core of the modern city of Yavneh, was established around this hill (now called ha-Rishonim neighborhood). The hill was damaged by construction, and over the years antiquities cropped up in gardens and at building sites. In the 1960s, the site was visited on numerous occasions by antiquities supervisor M. Brosh, who reported the discovery of buildings, burials, pottery, bones, cult chalices, and fragments of figurines. Several of the Persian period figurines (now on display in the museum at Kibbutz Palmaḥim) were subsequently published by E. Stern. Following the discovery of many more figurines and fragments of cult stands, which he called “hearths,” Brosh concluded that this was a cult site dating “from the Iron Age II until the Persian–Hellenistic period.” The site thus gained its sobriquet, “Temple Hill.” Concern about destruction by the encroaching buildings led to the initiation of excavations at the site. In 1978, six squares were excavated by A. Honigman on the summit of the hill, where she uncovered numerous Iron Age II sherds and two fragments of incense stands, one decorated with an animal figure.

In 2002, a salvage excavation was carried out by R. Kletter on behalf of the Israel Antiquities Authority after a bulldozer had struck the upper part of a pit, smashing its contents and causing them to disperse around the pit and down the slope to the south. The ensuing excavation revealed a round Iron Age II favissa from approximately the tenth–ninth centuries BCE. The favissa is c. 2 m in diameter and at least 1.5 m deep. All of its objects seem to have been deposited at the same time, after which the favissa was sealed. It contained a number of distinct layers with a certain pattern in the arrangement of the contents that may indicate that the objects were inserted during ritual ceremonies. The pit was filled to the brim with pottery, and much care was required in the removal of the objects. To prevent further damage to the more delicate finds, small dental tools were used by the excavators, and hours were invested on each vessel. The earth was sifted and all the sherds collected. Since the site is located in the middle of a modern city, its discovery could not be kept secret for long, and the entire favissa had to be excavated with the utmost speed to prevent looting.

The favissa contained a huge amount of chalices—well over a thousand—all broken in antiquity. Some of the chalices are decorated with geometric patterns in black, red, and white, but because of encrustation and wear, the decoration is often no longer visible. Their shapes are varied and many show traces of soot in the interior.

There was also an unusually large number of handmade cult stands. Although some were nearly complete, the great majority was broken, and at present can only be estimated at between 20 and 30, a number far exceeding similar finds from other sites in Israel, where the discovery of cult stands is quite rare indeed. The stands are rectangular, elliptical, or round; all are fenestrated and most are decorated with knobs or applied rope patterns, and a variety of animal figures, such as goats, bulls, lions, doves, and what appear to be horses. Applied anthropomorphic figures, mostly female, are also very common. Some stands bear applied or incised trees. More than 100 figures detached from the stands were recovered. Unlike the large stands from Tel Taanach, all of the Yavneh examples are quite small. The favissa also contained a large number of different types of bowls and other vessels.

The finds assemblage suggests that the favissa belonged to a temple from the tenth–ninth centuries BCE, which has not yet been located but probably stood on the same hill. Since very few favissae of cult objects are known, and comparable contemporary finds are rare in this region, the discovery of the favissa is of considerable importance. Though still in its infancy, the study of these unique stands may solve the riddle of the function of these vessels, whether they served as stands for cult statues, architectural models, models of shrines, or, as recently suggested by A. Mazar, altars. The study is also expected to shed light on the art, culture, and history of Philistia during the early Iron Age II.

RAZ KLETTER, IRIT ZIFFER

Main publication: Yavneh, Yavneh-Yam and Their Neighborhood: Studies in the Archaeology and History of the Judean Coastal Plain (Eretz: Geographic Research & Publications; ed. M. L. Fischer), Tel Aviv 2005.

Studies: V. Guérin, Description géographique, historique et archéologique de la Palestine, Judée, 1–3, Paris 1868–1869; Y. Aharoni, PEQ 90 (1958), 27–31; B. Mazar, IEJ 10 (1960), 65–77; RB 75 (1968), 381–428; T. Noy, EI 13 (1977), 290*–291*; J. Neusner, Aufstieg und Niedergang der Römischen Welt II/19/2, Berlin 1979, 3–42; O. Keel et al., Orte und Landschaften der Bibel: ein Handbuch und Studienreisefürer zum Heiligen Land, 1–2, Zürich 1982–1984, 33–37; F. Blanchetiere, MdB 29 (1983), 20–21; Y. Porath, ESI 2 (1983), 50; S. J. D. Cohen, HUCA 55 (1984), 27–53; N. Na’aman, Borders and Districts in Biblical Historiography (Jerusalem Biblical Studies 4), Jerusalem 1986; Y. Levy, ESI 9 (1989–1990), 61; 10 (1991), 170; 12 (1994), 113; J. J. Schwartz, Lod (Lydda), Israel: From its Origins Through the Byzantine Period, 5600 B.C.E.–640 C.E. (BAR/IS 571), Oxford 1991; J. P. Lewis, ABD, 3, New York 1992, 634–637; id., HUCA 70–71 (1999–2000), 233–259; H. Taragan, Cathedra 97 (2000), 180; id., Milestones in the Art and Culture of Egypt (Assaph Book Series; ed. A. Ovadiah), Tel Aviv 2000, 117–143; S. Weingarten & M. Fischer, ZDPV 116 (2000), 43–56; I. Barash, ESI 113 (2001), 101*; C. Eliaz, ibid. 114 (2002), 115–116*; A. Gorzalczany, ibid., 72*; BAR 29/3 (2003), 20; P. De Miroschedji, Les “Maquettes architecturales” de l’antiquité (Bibliothèque archéologique et historique 160; ed. B. Muller), Beiruth 2002; D. Boyarin, Jewish Culture and Society Under the Christian Roman Empire (Interdisciplinary Studies in Ancient Culture and Religion 3), Leuven 2003, 285–318; R. Kletter, Welt und Umwelt der Bibel 30/4 (2003), 58–59; id., ASOR Annual Meeting 2004, www.asor.org/AM/am.htm; id., ESI 116 (2004), 45*–46*; id., Yavneh: An Early Cemetery and Other Remains, ESI (in prep.); H. Shanks, BAR 30/6 (2004), 47–51; N. Velednizki, ESI 116 (2004), 47*.