Tel Yokneam, also spelled Yoqne'am or Jokneam (Hebrew: תֵּל יָקְנְעָם), is an archaeological site located in the northern part of the modern city of Yokneam Illit, Israel. It is known in Arabic as Tell Qamun (Arabic: تل قامون), believed to be a corruption of the Hebrew name.[1] The site is an elevated mound, or tell, spanning around 40 dunams (10 acres/4 ha) and rising steeply to a height of 60 meters (200 ft).[2] With a few brief interruptions, Yokneam was occupied for 4,000 years, from the Middle Bronze Age to the Ottoman period.[3]
The ancient settlement at Tel Yokneam is first mentioned in Egyptian sources as a city conquered by Pharaoh Thutmose III.[4] It appears later in the Hebrew Bible as a city defeated by Israelite leader Joshua and settled by the Tribe of Levi.[5] It is mentioned twice in Roman sources.[6] During the Crusades, it was called Caymont, or Cain Mons, recalling a legend that Yokneam was the site of Cain's death.[7] For a period, it was the center of the Lordship of Caymont, the smallest seigneurie of the Crusader kingdom of Jerusalem.[8]
The earliest archaeological features of Yokneam date from the Chalcolithic period, in the fourth millennium BCE. The first structures date from the beginning of the second millennium BCE.[9] During the Middle and Late Bronze Ages (2000–1200 BCE), Yokneam was for the most part a fortified city,[10] which was razed during a period known as the Late Bronze Age collapse.[11] During the Iron Age, the city was razed and rebuilt several times; events which are attributed to the biblical accounts of the conquests by Joshua, King David, Hazael of Aram-Damascus, and the Neo-Assyrian Empire.[5][12][13][14] The period between the 10th and 8th centuries BCE is considered Yokneam's golden age, during which it extended beyond the mound's limits.[15] The city was protected at that time by a massive fortification system.[14] During Persian rule (539–330 BC) Yokneam was a dense, unfortified, and cosmopolitan city, housing Jews, Phoenicians, and Persians.[16][17] Very little has been found in Yokneam from the Hellenistic, Roman, and Byzantine periods (333 BCE–634 CE), because the settlement was probably located on a different hill, south of Tel Yokneam.[18] The remains of a Byzantine church were found in the southern part of the mound.[19] After the Islamic conquest of 634 AD, a well-planned city was established on the mound by the Abbasid Caliphate. It was gradually abandoned and was struck by an earthquake in 1033 CE.[20] In the 12th century CE, the Crusaders built a fortified city on the site, the largest since the Iron Age.[21] The city eventually fell to the Muslims, and was rebuilt by the Mamluks during the 14th century CE.[22] After the Ottoman conquest of 1517 CE, a fortress was built in the 18th century, and later abandoned in the 19th century.[23]
The site, which had remained abandoned, was surveyed by the Palestine Exploration Fund in 1878,[24] and by Avner Raban in the 1970s.[15] It was first excavated as part of a "Yoqne'am Regional Project" run by the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the Israel Exploration Society. The excavations, between 1977 and 1988, were directed by the archaeologist Amnon Ben-Tor.[2] Some of the digs were also headed by Renate Rosenthal and Yuval Portugali.[25] Two other sites were studied in that project: Tel Qashish and Tel Qiri.[2] Further excavations were conducted on the acropolis by Miriam Avissar in 1993.[23]
Today. there is an archaeological park and a visitor center on the mound. The park is operated by the Israel Antiquities Authority and the municipality of Yokneam Illit. It was created as part of a conservation project, with the participation of school students from Yokneam Illit.[26]
The name Yokneam (Hebrew: יָקְנְעָם) is Hebrew in origin, from the Hebrew Bible. During the Bronze Age, it was probably called something like 'En-qn'mu, as it appears in the list of 119 cities conquered by Pharaoh Thutmose III.[4] This form of the name possibly derives from the nearby springs (or "en") and is perhaps a corruption of "'En Yoqneam" ("Spring of Yoqneam").[2]
The site is mentioned in the Onomasticon of Eusebius as a village called Kammona. Jerome described it as Cimona.[6] Following the Muslim conquest, the site was called Qaymun. After the First Crusade, around 1130 Fetellus referred to it as Cain Mons (Kaym Mons or Kaim Monte, literally "Cain's Mountain"), identifying the site with a legend of Cain's slaying at the hand of his descendant, Lamech. The name "Cain Mons" is probably a corruption of the Arabic "Qaymun", or "Caimum" as the name appeared in the first Latin sources. The name was later transformed into Caymont.[2][8][27][7]
In 1799, Pierre Jacotin labeled the site Chateau d'El Kireh (Castle of Qira). The castle mentioned is probably the Ottoman castle attributed to Zahir al-Umar. "Qira" refers to a village of that name that then existed nearby.[28]
The site name appears in 19th century sources as a variant, Tell Qamun, which was probably the local Arab name.[24][29][7]
Tel Yokneam is located in the western Jezreel Valley. The region's abundant water, moderate climate, and fertile soils allow inhabitants to grow a variety of crops in the valley and herd cattle on the slopes of the Menashe Heights and Mount Carmel.[30]
Tel Yokneam rises to a height of 60 meters (200 ft). The mound spans approximately 10 acres, or 40 dunams. Including its slopes, the site as a whole is relatively large, covering some 20 acres (80 dunams). The mound can be divided into three parts: a lower terrace in the north, an upper terrace in the center, and an acropolis (upper city) at the southwestern end.[30] The top of the mound slopes steeply upward from north to south, a feature which led ancient Yokneam's builders to create the terraces on which its structures were built.[2]
Yokneam stands at the junction of two major ancient (and modern) routes.[30] The ancient international coastal highway ("Via Maris") avoided the difficult coastal stretch along Mount Carmel's western flank by crossing the mountain along one of two pass roads, a western one ending at Yokneam, and one east of it coming out at Megiddo.[30] The western pass was used by those heading for Phoenicia, the eastern one by those bound for Damascus and places further north.[30] The pass exiting near Yokneam follows in its final part a valley called in Arabic Wadi Milh,[30] "Salt Wadi" (unsuccessfully Hebraised to Nahal Yokne'am).[31] Another major route, the hill road that went along the ridge of the Judean and Samarian Mountains, split once it reached the Jezreel Valley, with one continuation heading towards the sea along the foot of the northeastern slopes of the Manasseh Heights and the Carmel, via both Megiddo and Yokneam.[2][30]In modern terms, the ridge road or "Way of the Patriarchs" largely corresponds to Highway 60, the ancient route connecting it via Ta'anakh, Megiddo, and Yokneam with the coast is now followed by the Jenin-Haifa road (Highway 66 for the first section), and the pass road entering the Jezreel Valley at Yokneam is now Highway 70. Only the main seaport connected to Yokneam isn't Acre ('Akko) anymore, but Haifa south of it.
This location, at the crossroads of significant trade routes, is the main reason for Yokneam's continuous settlement over some four millennia. Approximately two kilometers (1 mi) north and south respectively are Tel Qashish and Tel Qiri, other village sites believed to have been dependencies of Yokneam.[2]
The earliest traces of human settlement found at Tel Yokneam are from the Chalcolithic period (4500–3300 BCE). They consist only of a few cone-shaped vessels and jar handles. No architectural features can be attributed to the chalcolithic settlement, if one existed. Unexcavated areas of the site may hold more significant remains of this period, as excavations to date have reached bedrock in a very limited location only.[9]
A diverse range of pottery from this period has been found, in pockets of fill sitting on the bedrock of the tel. Finds include bowls, platters, cooking pots, and jars that date from the entire period (3300–2100 BCE). A cylinder seal with a geometric motif, and a stamped seal were also found. Most of the finds correspond to the Early Bronze Age layer of the nearby Tel Qashish.[9] An Egyptian vessel made of diorite, was discovered on top of the mound in the 1930s. It has been dated to the late stages of the First Dynasty of Egypt or early stages of the Second Dynasty, sometime in the first half of the third millennium BCE. No architectural features attributed to the Early Bronze Age have been unearthed during excavations on the site.[32] There is a gap in the archaeological record of at least a century between the Early Bronze Age and later remains.[10]
The Middle Bronze Age remains at Tel Yokneam were found directly on the limestone bedrock.[33]
In the Middle Bronze, Yokneam can be divided into Strata XXV–XXI, with the earliest architectural remains uncovered dating to MB IIA. Form strata XXIV (MB IIA) to the end of MB IIB, Yoqneam was fortified with three successive fortifications systems. The city was unfortified in the MB IIC (Stratum XXI).[34]
Underneath the wall of Yokneam which was constructed sometime before between the 20th and 18th century BCE, a layer of burnet mudbrick material (different than the material used in the later period) mixed with potsherds, bones and ash. It appears that these are the remains of structures made out of mudbrick. The presence of ash and the skeleton of a young male may indicate that this settlement was violently destroyed by fire. Around these remains were two openings to a burial cave. The settlement and burial cave are dated to the Middle Bronze Age IIA period (2000–1800 BCE).[33]
The burial cave was cut in the soft limestone. It had at least three chambers, of them two were excavated. It was accessed by the excavators through holes in the ceiling of each chamber. No other entrance was discovered because of the limitations of the excavation but it is possible it was accessed through a shaft. The opinings may also provide ventilation and lighting. One of the chambers had two niches with a skeletons of a young female aged 20–25 and one aged 14–15. Next to the burials were offerings and the older female had a stone "pillow" under her skull. The other chamber was filled with soil containing potsherds and the complete skeleton of a sheep.[33]
This burial cave is unique in its shape and in the burial goods found inside of it. The burial in niches is more common in later periods but considered very rare in the Middle Bronze Age. Three other examples exist in Tel Amr, Tirat Ha-Carmel and mostly in Tel Te'enim. All of these sites, including Yokneam are located in the western part of the Jezreel Valley and the adjacent northern coastal plain. It is possible that those who were buried in those niches were people of a high status (religious, social or economic).[33]
Yokneam was a fortified city from around 1900–1650 BCE. The fortifications were built on top of the burial cave, sealing one of its entrances. During this period, three different fortification systems were built. The first two of these were massive constructions of mudbrick on a stone base, with a glacis built into their outer face. The third fortification, dating to between 1750 and 1650 BCE, was less significant.
A period of the site's history during which the city was unfortified began in the final years of the Middle Bronze Age, and lasted well into the Iron Age.[10] In the first unfortified settlement phase, between 1650 and 1550 BCE, inhabitants buried the dead, particularly children, under the floors of houses in burial jars[35] or tombs, with offerings laid beside the bodies. One notable offering was an artistic vessel in the shape of what appears to be a donkey, from whose mouth liquid could be poured.[36] A one-meter-deep (3 ft 3 in) layer of dirt fill separates the Middle and Late Bronze Age phases on the site. The settlement above that fill presents a completely new urban plan compared to that of the earlier habitation.[10]
In an assemblage from a later period, a beetle stamp was found on a bowl bearing the name of Pharaoh Amenemhat III, who reigned from 1860 to 1814 BCE.[35] His reign is regarded as the golden age of the Middle Kingdom of Egypt.[37]
Late Bronze Age Yokneam lasted from the 15th to the 13th century BCE. The well-preserved houses excavated from this period contained an abundance of pottery, including a collection of Chocolate-on-white ware. Some of these artifacts were imports from foreign lands, including Cyprus and Mycenae. Two Egyptian tools were found, although it is not clear whether these are originals or locally-made copies. Silver earrings, typical of the Mitanni culture, were also found.[35][11]
The city is mentioned as "En-qn'mu