Sataf

Remains of a 4,000 BCE Chalcolithic village were discovered at the site. The related traces of agricultural activities number among the oldest in the region.[5]

Most ancient remains date to the Byzantine period.[5]

The first written mention of the site is from the Mamluk era.[5]

Sataf was noted in the Ottoman tax records of 1525-1526 and 1538–1539, as being located in the Sanjak of Al-Quds.[6] According to archaeological work, the village originated in the late 16th century, with the use of several cave−dwellings. Later, houses were erected in front of the caves.[7]

In 1838 it was described as a Muslim village, located in the Beni Hasan district, west of Jerusalem.[8]

In 1863, Victor Guérin found a village of one hundred and eighty people. He further noted that their houses were standing on the slopes of a mountain, and that the mountainside was covered by successive terraces.[9] An Ottoman village list from about 1870 counted 38 houses and a population of 115, whereby only men were counted.[10][11]

In 1883, the Palestine Exploration Fund's Survey of Western Palestine described Setaf as "a village of moderate size, of stone houses, perched on the steep side of a valley. It has a spring lower down, on the north."[12]

In 1896 the population of Sataf was estimated to be about 180 persons.[13]

By the 1922 census of Palestine conducted by the British Mandate authorities, Sataf had a population of 329; 321 Muslims and 8 Christians.[14] All the Christians were Roman Catholic.[15] The 1931 census lists 381 inhabitants; 379 Muslim and 2 Christian, in a total of 101 houses.[16]

In the 1945 statistics the population of Sataf was 540, all Muslims,[4] and the total land area was 3,775 dunams, according to an official land and population survey.[3] Of this, 928 dunams were plantations and irrigable land, 465 for cereals,[17] while 22 dunams were built-up land.[18]

On July 13–14, 1948 the Arab village was depopulated by the Har'el Brigade, during Operation Danny.[19] Sataf and the surrounding area became part of the newly created State of Israel.

A short time after the 1948 War, a small group of Jewish immigrants from North Africa settled for a few months in the village area, calling it Bikura.[20] The village, which lasted only until the fall of 1950, was founded on the initiative of former Lehi commanded Natan Yellin-Mor.[20] Subsequently, the IDF's Unit 101 and paratroopers used the site for training purposes.[5]

In the 1980s the Jewish National Fund began the restoration of ancient agricultural terraces, and the area around the springs has been turned into a tourist site. A forest around the site was also planted by the Jewish National Fund.[21]

In 1992, Sataf was described as follows: "Many half-destroyed walls still stand, and some still have arched doorways. The walls of a few houses with collapsed roofs are almost intact....The area around the village spring, which is located to the east next to the ruins of a rectangular stone house, has been turned into an Israeli tourist site. A Jewish family has settled on the west side of the village, and have fenced in some of the village area."[19]