Khirbat Umm Burj

Khirbat Umm Burj was a Palestinian Arab village in the Hebron Subdistrict, sometimes designated in modern maps as Burgin.[6] Its ruins are today located within the borders of Israel. It occupied an extensive site, stretching about 30 dunams (7.4 acres) on the crest of a hill, rising some 430 metres (1,410 ft) above sea level, and commanding a good prospect of the surrounding region. It was depopulated during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War on October 28, 1948, during the third stage of Operation Yo'av under the command of Yigal Allon. The site is located 17 km northwest of Hebron.

For other uses, see Burj.
Khirbat Umm Burj
خربة أم برج
Khirbat Umm Burj (ruined house)
Khirbat Umm Burj (ruined house)
Etymology: the mother of the tower [1]
1870s map
1940s map
modern map
1940s with modern overlay map
A series of historical maps of the area around Khirbat Umm Burj (click the buttons)
Khirbat Umm Burj is located in Mandatory Palestine
Khirbat Umm Burj
Khirbat Umm Burj
Location within Mandatory Palestine
Coordinates: 31°38′12″N 34°58′11″E
Palestine grid147/115
Geopolitical entityMandatory Palestine
SubdistrictHebron
Date of depopulationNot known[2]
Area
[3]
 • Total13,083 dunams (13.083 km2 or 5.051 sq mi)
Population
 (1945)
 • Total140[4][3]
Current LocalitiesNehusha[5]

History

The site was occupied from the Iron Age. A large ancient necropolis was here, including a church or synagogue, residential buildings and numerous agricultural installations.[7] Israeli archaeologists, Amir Ganor and Boaz Zissu, think that Umm Burj may be a corruption of the 1st-century Jewish village, Kefar Bish, a view earlier rejected by Klein who said that Kefar Bish still bears its namesake in the nearby ruin of Khirbet al-Bis.[8][9] A Jewish inscription, possibly dating from the Bar Kokhba revolt, has been found in a hiding complex at the site; it mentions a "Shelamzion daughter of...".[10]

In the late 19th century, extensive Christian remains were noted in the area surrounding Umm Burj.[11] Finnish scholar, Aapeli Saarisalo, visited the site of Umm Burj in the early 20th-century, and described its ruins as being of Byzantine and Arab origin.[12]

Late Ottoman period

In 1838 Um Burj was noted as village, located in the area between the mountains and Gaza, but subject to the government of el-Khulil.[13]

In 1863, Victor Guérin passed north of Khirbat Umm Burj, and described the village as being on a mountain, dominating the surroundings.[14]

An Ottoman village list from about 1870 found that um-burdsch had a population of 150, in 25 houses, though the population count included men, only.[15][16]

French orientalist and archaeologist, Charles Clermont-Ganneau, visited the site in 1874 where he noticed a well situated nearby, called Bîr Hârûn, surmounted with a rude structure, near which were troughs hollowed out in large stone blocks.[17]

In 1883, the PEF's Survey of Western Palestine (SWP) described Umm Burj as: "A ruined village, with a central tower; apparently not ancient; caves and cisterns round it, and a well".[18] Khalidi believed that the SWP assumption that the tower was not ancient might have been wrong.[19]

British Mandate period

In the 1931 census of Palestine, Umm Burj and Sanabra, listed in the sub-district of Hebron, had a joint population of 119 Muslims, in a total of 26 houses.[20]

In the 1945 statistics it had a population of 140 Muslims,[4] with a total of 13,083 dunums of land.[3] Of this, 28 dunums were irrigated or used for plantations, 3,546 were for cereal,[21] while 15 dunams were built-up (urban) areas.[22]

The villagers used to obtain drinking water from three wells on the northern outskirts of the village.[19]

1948 and aftermath

After the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, the ruin of Umm Burj came under Israeli control under the terms of the 1949 Armistice Agreements[23] between Israel and Jordan. Today, the site lies in the Adullam-France Park.

The moshav of Nehusha was established in 1955 on land that had belonged to the village, west of the village site,[24] but collapsed in 1968. It was re-established in 1981.

Archaeology

In the years 1995–2012, archaeological fieldwork was conducted by a team of archaeologists at Khirbet Umm Burj on behalf of the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA), among whom were Boaz Zissu and Amir Golan, et al., where they uncovered at the site two Byzantine churches, and a Jewish inscription incised on a doorjamb of an underground room in a hiding tunnel system.[25]

  • Khirbat Umm Burj
    Khirbat Umm Burj
  • Tunnel at Hurvat Burgin (Khirbat Umm Burj)
    Tunnel at Hurvat Burgin (Khirbat Umm Burj)
  • Cave and pit in Umm Burj
    Cave and pit in Umm Burj
  • Old structure of house
    Old structure of house
  • General view of remaining walls at Khirbat Umm Burj
    General view of remaining walls at Khirbat Umm Burj
  • Mosaic in ruined Byzantine Church at Khirbat Umm Burj
    Mosaic in ruined Byzantine Church at Khirbat Umm Burj
  • Staircase leading down to a cavern
    Staircase leading down to a cavern
  • General view
    General view
  • Open roof of cavern (Hurvat Burgin)
    Open roof of cavern (Hurvat Burgin)
  • Plastered pool from Ottoman period at Khirbat Umm Burj
    Plastered pool from Ottoman period at Khirbat Umm Burj
  • "Cave of the Column"
    "Cave of the Column"
  • Khirbat Umm Burj 1945 1:250,000
    Khirbat Umm Burj 1945 1:250,000
  • Khirbat Umm Burj 1947 1:20,000
    Khirbat Umm Burj 1947 1:20,000

References
  1. Palmer, 1881, p. 408
  2. Morris, 2004, p. xix village #326. Morris gives both cause and date of depopulation as "Not known".
  3. Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 50
  4. Department of Statistics, 1945, p. 23
  5. Khalidi, 1992, p. 224
  6. In the Topographical Map (Map # 9, Jerusalem Corridor) published by Israel's Nature Protection Society, the site is listed as Ḥurvat Burjin.
  7. Ganor and Klein, 2011, Horbat Burqin, Preliminary Report
  8. Boaz Zissu and Amir Ganor, Survey and Excavations at Ḥorbat Burgin in the Judean Shephelah: Burial Caves, Hiding Complexes and Installations of the Second Temple and Byzantine Periods, ʿAtiqot (publication of the Israel Antiquities Authority), Issue 58 (2008), p. 63; Zissu, Boaz (2008). "Survey and Excavations at Ḥorbat Burgin in the Judean Shephelah: Burial Caves, Hiding Complexes and Installations of the Second Temple and Byzantine Periods". 'Atiqot. 58 (58): 60–64. JSTOR 23464336.
  9. Samuel Klein, The Twenty-four City Councils in Judea (ארבע ועשרים בולאות שביהודה), Vienna 1933, p. 293 (Hebrew)
  10. 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. 843–844. ISBN 978-3-11-022219-7. OCLC 663773367.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
  11. Warren and Conder, 1884, p. 446
  12. Aapeli Saarisalo, "Topographical Researches in the Shephelah", in: The Journal of the Palestine Oriental Society, vol. XI, Jerusalem 1931, p. 16
  13. Robinson and Smith, 1841, vol 3, Appendix 2, p. 117
  14. Guérin, 1869, p. 336
  15. Socin, 1879, p. 162
  16. Hartmann, 1883, p. 148
  17. Clermont-Ganneau, 1896, ARP, vol 2, p. 462
  18. Conder and Kitchener, 1883, SWP III, p. 380
  19. Khalidi, 1992, p. 223
  20. Mills, 1932, p. 33
  21. Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 93
  22. Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 143
  23. The 1949 Armistice Agreement between Israel and Jordan
  24. Khalidi, Walid (1992), All That Remains: The Palestinian Villages Occupied and Depopulated by Israel in 1948, Washington D.C.: Institute for Palestine Studies, pp. 217, 224, ISBN 0-88728-224-5,
  25. Judea and Samaria Research Studies, Miriam Billig (ed.), vol. 22, Ariel University: Ariel 2013, pp. 19–20, 151–ff.

Bibliography
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