Khirbet el-Qom

Khirbet el-Qom (Arabic: خربة الكوم) is an archaeological site in the village of al-Kum, West Bank, in the territory of the biblical Kingdom of Judah, between Lachish and Hebron, 14 km to the west of the latter.

Khirbet el-Qom
Khirbet el-Qom is located in the West Bank
Khirbet el-Qom
Shown within the West Bank
LocationState of Palestine al-Kum, West Bank
Coordinates31°32′4.98″N 34°57′59.63″E
History
Founded20 BCE
PeriodsEarly Bronze Age - Hellenistic period
CulturesCanaanite, Israelite, Edomite, Second Temple Judaism
Site notes
Excavation dates1967-8
ArchaeologistsWilliam G. Dever
ConditionIn ruins
Public accessyes

Excavations

Archaeological excavations were conducted at the site in 1967 by William G. Dever on behalf of the Hebrew Union College.[1]

Findings

Iron Age

Two Iron Age bench tombs carved into natural rock were discovered at el-Qom; both were investigated by William Dever in 1967 following their discovery by tomb robbers.[2] Both tombs contain inscriptions, dating from the second half of the 8th century BCE,[3] slightly after the Asherah-relating Kuntillet Ajrud inscriptions. The inscription from Tomb 2 is associated with a "magic hand" symbol, and reads:

"Uriyahu the honourable has written this
Blessed is/be Uriyahu by Yahweh
And [because?] from his oppressors by his asherah he has saved him
[written] by Oniyahu"
"...by his asherah
...and his asherah"[4][5]

Unlike the Kuntillet Ajrud inscriptions, they do not include a place name with the name of Yahweh (the Kuntillet Ajrud inscriptions talk of "Yahweh of Samaria" and "Yahweh of Teman"); this seems to indicate that they were written after the fall of Samaria, which left Yahweh as the god of one state only.[6]

There is some scholarly debate about the translation, particularly for line three.[7][8]

A jug inscribed "to/for Yahmol" and a bowl inscribed "El" were also found.[9]

Persian and Hellenistic periods

One thousand seven hundred ostraca in Aramaic may have been found on the site and the vicinity, dating from the Persian and Hellenistic periods, during which the area was classified as the Persian province of Idumea, with a mixed population of Edomites, Jews and Arabs.[10] The site is called Maqqedah in the Idumean ostraca.[11] Based on this, some scholars identify Khirbet el-Qom with biblical Makkedah (Joshua 10:10, 16, 17, 21, 28, 29; 12:16; 15:41).[12]

Roman period

A burial cave in El-Qom contained three Hebrew funerary inscriptions dating from the 1st century BCE to the 2nd century CE, bearing names such as Miriam and Shalom. Currently, they are housed in the Israel Antiquities Authority storage facilities in Beit Shemesh.[13]

Identification

Based on the findings and the possible name preservation of the ancient name in the adjacent valley of Wadi es-Safir, it has been suggested that Khirbet el-Qum is Shafir, a place mentioned in the Book of Micah (1:11).[14]

See also

References
  1. Dever, William G. 1969–1970. "Iron Age Epigraphic Material from the Area of Khirbet El-Kôm.", Hebrew Union College Annual 40–41: 139–204
  2. Zevit, Ziony. “The Khirbet El-Qôm Inscription Mentioning a Goddess.” Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research, no. 255, 1984, pp. 39–47
  3. Hadley, Judith M. (1987). "The Khirbet el-Qom Inscription". Vetus Testamentum. 37 (1): 50–62. doi:10.2307/1517810. ISSN 0042-4935. JSTOR 1517810.
  4. Keel, Othmar, and Uehlinger, Christoph, "Gods, goddesses, and images of God in ancient Israel" (Fortress Press, 1998) p.239.
  5. Meindert Djikstra, I Have Blessed you by YHWH of Samaria and his Asherah: Texts With Religious Elements from the Soil Archive of Ancient Israel, in Bob Becking, (ed), "Only One God? Monotheism in Ancient Israel and the Veneration of the Goddess Asherah" (Sheffield Academic Press, 2001), p.p.32-34
  6. Keel, Othmar, and Uehlinger, Christoph, "Gods, goddesses, and images of God in ancient Israel" (Fortress Press, 1998) p.239.
  7. Shea, William H. “The Khirbet El-Qom Tomb Inscription Again.” Vetus Testamentum, vol. 40, no. 1, 1990, pp. 110–16
  8. Margalit, Baruch. “Some Observations on the Inscription and Drawing from Khirbet El-Qôm.” Vetus Testamentum, vol. 39, no. 3, 1989, pp. 371–78
  9. Alice Mandell, and Jeremy Smoak. "Reading and Writing in the Dark at Khirbet El-Qom: The Literacies of Ancient Subterranean Judah." Near Eastern Archaeology, vol. 80, no. 3, 2017, pp. 188–95
  10. André Lemaire, 'Edom and the Edomites,' in André Lemaire, Baruch Halpern (eds.), The Books of Kings: Sources, Composition, Historiography and Reception, BRILL 2010pp.225-245 p.243.
  11. David F. Graf, 'Petra and the Nabataeans in the Early Hellenistic Period: the literary and archaeological evidence,' in Michel Mouton,Stephan G. Schmid (eds.), Men on the Rocks: The Formation of Nabataean Petra, Logos Verlag Berlin GmbH, 2013 pp.35-55 p.47
  12. Diana Vikander Edelman, The Origins of the Second Temple: Persion Imperial Policy and the Rebuilding of Jerusalem, Routledge 2005, ISBN 9781845530174, p. 265
  13. Corpus inscriptionum Iudaeae/Palaestinae: a multi-lingual corpus of the inscriptions from Alexander to Muhammad. Vol. IV: Iudaea / Idumaea. Eran Lupu, Marfa Heimbach, Naomi Schneider, Hannah Cotton. Berlin: de Gruyter. 2018. pp. 1237–1241. ISBN 978-3-11-022219-7. OCLC 663773367.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
  14. Kochavi, Moshe, ed. (1972). Judaea, Samaria and the Golan: Archaeological Survey 1967-1968 (in Hebrew). Jerusalem: Carta. p. 29.

31.5347°N 34.9666°E / 31.5347; 34.9666

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