Rehov (sometimes
Rehob) is an
archaeological siteAn archaeological site is a place in which evidence of past activity is preserved , and which has been, or may be, investigated using the discipline of archaeology and represents a part of the archaeological recordBeyond this, the definition and geographical extent of a 'site' can vary widely,...
, an important
Bronze-The Bronze Age of a culture is the period when the most advanced metalworking in that culture utilised bronze. This could either have been based on the local smelting of copper and tin from ores, or trading for bronze from production areas elsewhere...
and
Iron AgeIn archaeology, the Iron Age is the prehistoric period in any area during which cutting tools and weapons were mainly made of iron or steel. The adoption of this material coincided with other changes in society, including differing agricultural practices, religious beliefs and artistic styles.The...
CanaanCanaan is an ancient term for a region encompassing modern-day Israel and Lebanon, the Palestinian Territories, plus adjoining coastal lands and parts of Jordan, Syria and northeastern Egypt...
ite city built upon
Tel Rehov a large earthen city mound in the
Jordan ValleyThe Jordan Valley is a geographical region that forms part of the larger Jordan Rift Valley. It is 120 kilometers long and 15 kilometers wide, where it runs from the northern Dead Sea in the south to Lake Tiberias in the north. It runs for an additional 155 kilometer south of the Dead Sea to Aqaba...
in
IsraelIsrael officially the State of Israel , is a developed state in Western Asia located on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea. It borders Lebanon in the north, Syria in the northeast, Jordan in the east, and Egypt on the southwest, and contains geographically diverse features within its...
, approximately 5 km south of Beit She'an and 3 km west of the
Jordan RiverThe Jordan River or River Jordan is a river in Southwest Asia which flows into the Dead Sea. It is considered to be one of the world's most sacred rivers...
. The site represents one of the largest ancient city mounds in
IsraelIsrael officially the State of Israel , is a developed state in Western Asia located on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea. It borders Lebanon in the north, Syria in the northeast, Jordan in the east, and Egypt on the southwest, and contains geographically diverse features within its...
, its surface area comprising 120,000 m² in size, divided into an "Upper City" (40,000 m²) and a "Lower City" (80,000 m²).
The
PalestinianThe Palestinian people, also referred to as Palestinians or Palestinian Arabs , are an Arabic-speaking people with family origins in Palestine...
village of
FarwanaFarwana was a Palestinian village, located south of Bisan, depopulated in 1948.-History:Identified with the ancient city of Rehov, extant during Egyptian rule over Canaan in the second millennium BCE, archaeological sites located on the former village's lands include Tell es-Sarem Farwana ...
, depopulated in the lead-up to the
1948 Arab-Israeli warThe 1948 Arab–Israeli War, known by Israelis as the War of Independence or War of Liberation and by Palestinians as the Catastrophe , was the first in a series of wars fought between the newly declared State of Israel and its Arab neighbours in the long-running Arab-Israeli conflict.The war...
, used to be located at the site.
Archaeological excavations have been conducted at Rehov almost every year since 1997, under the directorship of
Amihai MazarAmihai "Ami" Mazar is an Israeli archaeologist. Born in Haifa, Israel , he is currently Professor at the Institute of Archaeology of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, holding the Eleazer Sukenik Chair in the Archaeology of Israel.Mazar has directed archaeological excavations at a number of...
, Professor at the Institute of Archaeology of the Hebrew University in
JerusalemJerusalem is the capital of Israel and its largest city in both population and area, with a population of 747,600 residents over an area of if disputed East Jerusalem is included...
, and with the primary sponsorship of
John CampJohn Sandford is the pseudonym of the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and best-selling novelist John Roswell Camp. Camp was born on February 23, 1944, in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. He received a B.A. in American History and a Masters in Journalism from the University of Iowa. Camp worked for the Miami...
.
Although only recently excavated, Rehov has emerged as a site of much archaeological importance.
Rehov (sometimes
Rehob) is an
archaeological siteAn archaeological site is a place in which evidence of past activity is preserved , and which has been, or may be, investigated using the discipline of archaeology and represents a part of the archaeological recordBeyond this, the definition and geographical extent of a 'site' can vary widely,...
, an important
Bronze-The Bronze Age of a culture is the period when the most advanced metalworking in that culture utilised bronze. This could either have been based on the local smelting of copper and tin from ores, or trading for bronze from production areas elsewhere...
and
Iron AgeIn archaeology, the Iron Age is the prehistoric period in any area during which cutting tools and weapons were mainly made of iron or steel. The adoption of this material coincided with other changes in society, including differing agricultural practices, religious beliefs and artistic styles.The...
CanaanCanaan is an ancient term for a region encompassing modern-day Israel and Lebanon, the Palestinian Territories, plus adjoining coastal lands and parts of Jordan, Syria and northeastern Egypt...
ite city built upon
Tel Rehov a large earthen city mound in the
Jordan ValleyThe Jordan Valley is a geographical region that forms part of the larger Jordan Rift Valley. It is 120 kilometers long and 15 kilometers wide, where it runs from the northern Dead Sea in the south to Lake Tiberias in the north. It runs for an additional 155 kilometer south of the Dead Sea to Aqaba...
in
IsraelIsrael officially the State of Israel , is a developed state in Western Asia located on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea. It borders Lebanon in the north, Syria in the northeast, Jordan in the east, and Egypt on the southwest, and contains geographically diverse features within its...
, approximately 5 km south of Beit She'an and 3 km west of the
Jordan RiverThe Jordan River or River Jordan is a river in Southwest Asia which flows into the Dead Sea. It is considered to be one of the world's most sacred rivers...
. The site represents one of the largest ancient city mounds in
IsraelIsrael officially the State of Israel , is a developed state in Western Asia located on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea. It borders Lebanon in the north, Syria in the northeast, Jordan in the east, and Egypt on the southwest, and contains geographically diverse features within its...
, its surface area comprising 120,000 m² in size, divided into an "Upper City" (40,000 m²) and a "Lower City" (80,000 m²).
The
PalestinianThe Palestinian people, also referred to as Palestinians or Palestinian Arabs , are an Arabic-speaking people with family origins in Palestine...
village of
FarwanaFarwana was a Palestinian village, located south of Bisan, depopulated in 1948.-History:Identified with the ancient city of Rehov, extant during Egyptian rule over Canaan in the second millennium BCE, archaeological sites located on the former village's lands include Tell es-Sarem Farwana ...
, depopulated in the lead-up to the
1948 Arab-Israeli warThe 1948 Arab–Israeli War, known by Israelis as the War of Independence or War of Liberation and by Palestinians as the Catastrophe , was the first in a series of wars fought between the newly declared State of Israel and its Arab neighbours in the long-running Arab-Israeli conflict.The war...
, used to be located at the site.
Archaeological excavations have been conducted at Rehov almost every year since 1997, under the directorship of
Amihai MazarAmihai "Ami" Mazar is an Israeli archaeologist. Born in Haifa, Israel , he is currently Professor at the Institute of Archaeology of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, holding the Eleazer Sukenik Chair in the Archaeology of Israel.Mazar has directed archaeological excavations at a number of...
, Professor at the Institute of Archaeology of the Hebrew University in
JerusalemJerusalem is the capital of Israel and its largest city in both population and area, with a population of 747,600 residents over an area of if disputed East Jerusalem is included...
, and with the primary sponsorship of
John CampJohn Sandford is the pseudonym of the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and best-selling novelist John Roswell Camp. Camp was born on February 23, 1944, in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. He received a B.A. in American History and a Masters in Journalism from the University of Iowa. Camp worked for the Miami...
.
Although only recently excavated, Rehov has emerged as a site of much archaeological importance. The Iron Age II levels of the site, in particular, have emerged as a vitally important component in the current debate regarding the chronology of the
United MonarchyThe united Kingdom of Israel was a kingdom in the Land of Israel according to the Bible, a period referred to by scholars as the United Monarchy.-Background:...
of
IsraelThe Kingdom of Israel ) was one of the successor states to the older United Monarchy . It existed roughly from the 930s BC until about the 720s BC, when the kingdom was conquered by the Assyrian Empire...
. Important data has also been forthcoming regarding the Early Bronze Age, Late Bronze Age and medieval occupation of the site.
Mazar's site supervisors at Rehov have included Paul James Cowie (Area E), Robert Mullins (Areas A and B), Nava Panitz-Cohen (Area C), Amir Sumaqai-Fink (Area D), Dalit Weinblatt-Krauss (Area B), Adi Ziv-Esudri (Areas F and G) and Nachum Applbaum (computers and website). The burden of the work is achieved each year by students and volunteers from universities and colleges in Israel, the
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
,
CanadaCanada is a country occupying most of northern North America, extending from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
,
AustraliaAustralia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the continental mainland , the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans...
, the
United KingdomThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe. It is an island country, spanning an archipelago including Great Britain, the northeastern part of Ireland, and many small islands...
and several other countries.
Ancient beehives
In September 2007 it was reported that that 30 intact
beehiveBeehive may refer to:Bee-keeping* Beehive is a structure in which bees live and raise their young. It includes both natural and man-made hives; the latter includes traditional designs such as skeps and gums and modern designs such as:...
s dated to the mid-10th century BCE to the early 9th century BCE were found by archaeologists in the
ruinsRuins is a term used to describe the remains of human-made architecture: structures that were once complete but which have fallen into a state of partial or complete disrepair, due to lack of maintenance or deliberate acts of destruction...
of Rehov. The beehives were evidence of an advanced
honeyHoney is a sweet food made by some insects using nectar from flowers. The variety produced by honey bees is the one most commonly referred to and is the type of honey collected by beekeepers and consumed by humans...
-producing
beekeepingBeekeeping is the maintenance of honey bee colonies, commonly in hives, by humans. A beekeeper keeps bees in order to collect honey and beeswax, to pollinate crops, or to produce bees for sale to other beekeepers. A location where bees are kept is called an apiary.-Origins:There are more than...
(apiculture)
industryAn industry is the manufacturing of a good or service within a category. Although industry is a broad term for any kind of economic production, in economics and urban planning industry is a synonym for the secondary sector, which is a type of economic activity involved in the manufacturing of raw...
3000 years ago in the city, then thought to have a population of about 2000 residents at that time, both
IsraeliteIn the Bible, the Israelites were the descendants of the Biblical patriarch Jacob. They were divided into twelve tribes, each descended from one of twelve sons or grandsons of Jacob....
and Canaanite. The beehives, made of
strawStraw is an agricultural by-product, the dry stalk of a cereal plant, after the grain or seed has been removed. Straw makes up about half of the yield of cereal crops such as barley, oats, rice, rye and wheat...
and unbaked
clayClay is a naturally occurring material composed primarily of fine-grained minerals, which show plasticity through a variable range of water content, and which can be hardened when dried and/or fired...
, were found in orderly rows of 100 hives. Previously references to honey in ancient texts of the region (such as the phrase "land of milk and honey" in the
Hebrew BibleThe Hebrew Bible is a term referring to the books of the Jewish Bible as originally written mostly in Biblical Hebrew with some Biblical Aramaic...
) were thought to refer to honey derived from
datesPhoenix dactylifera , commonly known as the Date Palm, is a palm in the genus Phoenix, extensively cultivated for its edible sweet fruit...
and
figsThe Common fig is a large, deciduous shrub or small tree native to southwest Asia and the eastern Mediterranean region . It grows to a height of tall, with smooth grey bark. The leaves are long and across, and deeply lobed with three or five lobes. The fruit is long, with a green skin,...
; the discoveries show evidence of commercial production of honey and
beeswaxBeeswax is a natural wax produced in the bee hive of honey bees of the genus Apis. Worker bees have eight wax-producing mirror glands on the inner sides of the sternites on abdominal segments 4 to 7...
.
The beehives were dated by
carbon-14Carbon-14,
14C, or radiocarbon, is a radioactive isotope of carbon discovered on February 27, 1940, by Martin Kamen and Sam Ruben at the University of California Radiation Laboratory in Berkeley, though its existence had been suggested already in 1934 by Franz Kurie. Its nucleus contains...
radiocarbon datingRadiocarbon dating, or carbon dating, is a radiometric dating method that uses the naturally occurring radioisotope carbon-14 to determine the age of carbonaceous materials up to about 60,000 years. Raw, i.e. uncalibrated, radiocarbon ages are usually reported in radiocarbon years "Before Present"...
at the
University of GroningenThe University of Groningen , located in the city of Groningen, was founded in 1614. It is one of the oldest universities in the world and one of the largest universities in the Netherlands. Since its inception more than 100,000 students have graduated...
in the
NetherlandsThe Netherlands is a country in Northwestern Europe, constituting the major portion of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It is a parliamentary democratic constitutional monarchy. The Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east...
, using organic material (
wheatWheat is a worldwide cultivated grass from the Fertile Crescent region of the Near East. In 2007 world production of wheat was 607 million tons, making it the third most-produced cereal after maize and rice...
found next to the beehives).
Ezra Marcus of Haifa University, said the finding was a glimpse of ancient beekeeping seen in
Near EastNear East today is an ambiguous term that covers different countries for archeologists and historians, on one hand, and for political scientists, economists, and journalists, on the other...
ern texts and
ancient artArts of the ancient world refers to the many types of art that were in the cultures of ancient societies, such as those of ancient China, India, Mesopotamia, Egypt, Greece and Rome.-Morocco:...
. Religious practice was evidenced by an
altarAn altar is any structure upon which offerings such as sacrifices and votive offerings are made for religious purposes, or some other sacred place where ceremonies take place. Altars are usually found at a shrines, and they can be located in temples, churches and other places of worship...
decorated with
fertilityFertility is the natural capability of giving life. As a measure, "fertility rate" is the number of children born per couple, person or population. This is different from fecundity, which is defined as the potential for reproduction...
figurinesFigurines is an indie rock band from Denmark, formed in the mid-1990s. The band released their first EP, The Detour, in 2001 and their first full-length album, Shake a Mountain, in 2003. The band began to receive national attention in Denmark around the time of the full-length release, and began...
found alongside the hives.
External links
- Tel Rehov Excavations - page includes volunteer information, preliminary reports and an image gallery.
- "The Beehives of Tel Rehov" (SourceFlix Productions) - A two-minute video clip concerning the discovery of a beehive industry at Tel Rehov, produced by an independent documentary film group, and includes a brief interview with Dr. Amihai Mazar
Amihai "Ami" Mazar is an Israeli archaeologist. Born in Haifa, Israel , he is currently Professor at the Institute of Archaeology of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, holding the Eleazer Sukenik Chair in the Archaeology of Israel.Mazar has directed archaeological excavations at a number of...
, director of the Tel Rehov excavations..