.: The Khirbet Balamah Excavations 1998

The Project

| Introduction | Project Goals | Project History |

Introduction

Khirbet Balamah is located at the south side of the town of Jenin, a little over a mile south of the main centre of the town. The site guards the southernmost pass to the Marj ibn Amer (Jezreel plain). At present part of the site is cultivated with cereals, almond and olive trees.
The archaeological survey reveals a long history of occupation for the site, extending from Early Bronze I to the Late Islamic period.

Kh. Balamah is identified with Ibleam, one of the ancient cities of Canaan, mentioned as a royal city in the Egyptian Archives, and named in the list of Palestinian cities conquered by Tuthmoses III during the 15th century BC. In the Biblical tradition it is mentioned as one of the cities of Issachar which were given to Manassah, and from which the Manassites were not able to drive out the Canaanites (Josh 17:11-12; Judg. 1:27). In the story of the Israelite conquest the city was not conquered, but it had to pay tribute. Later it was mentioned in connection with the flight of Ahaziah, king of Judah.
The survey material shows that it was occupied in the Roman period as well.
In the Crusader period the site was known as Castellum Beleismum, a small fortress on the northern border of the lordship of Neapolis.
Local traditions associate the site with Ibleam bin Ba'aourah (Bala'am son of Be'or), the seer who is mentioned in the Bible.

The 1998 excavation are carried out by the Palestine Department of Antiquities (PDA) in cooperation with the Faculty of Archaeology of Leiden University, the Netherlands.

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Project Goals

I. The research aspect.

Khirbet Balamah is one of the most important sites of northern Palestine. An all-period study of the site from the Early Bronze Age to the Late Islamic Period, within its regional context, will greatly add to the knowledge of the history of the region. This is of great value for future archaeological research in Palestine.
Therefore it is stated from the outset that every period of occupation has equal importance and will get equal attention.

II. Training aspects.

The Khirbet Balamah excavation is primarily a fieldschool. Trainees will be involved in all stages of research:
excavation, analysis of stratigraphy, processing and reading pottery, processing and registering objects and samples, handling of bones and organic samples. There will be lectures and seminars given by staff and trainees, and occasional trips to other sites.
At the end of the season trainees and supervisors are expected to write a report, in english, evaluating their results, and integrating them in a coherent unity.
Trainees and supervisors will be encouraged to participate in post-excavation research of the data, preferably (but not necessarily) as an MA thesis, and to publish their results.

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Project History

The living history.

The inhabitants of the region around the site tell the story of King Belaam, his struggle with other kingdoms, and how his reign came to an end. The local account is a corruption of the Biblical tradition of Ibleam bin Ba'aourah (Bileam son of Be'or). It is part of the oral history linked to the site, and indicates the great potential of ethnoarchaeological research.

A salvage excavation in the great water tunnel.

At the foot of the ancient mound lies the spring of Ain Nina, locally known as Bir es-Sinjil, where water was brought to the city by a tunnel cut in the rock, providing a safe passage way. The tunnel was probably cut during the Iron Age and reused in the Roman-Byzantine period. The entrance to the tunnel has a large, possibly Roman vault.
G. Schumacher, who visited the site in 1907, wrote that 'Excavations would certainly result in interesting discoveries', but no systematic work has been done on the site since that time.
During road construction works at the southern entrance of the town of Jenin the PDA conducted a salvage excavation to clear the entrance of the water passage, which was blocked by dump and junk. Two months later with the financial aid of the Netherlands government, the PDA and archaeologists from Leiden University in the Netherlands started a salvage excavation in the tunnel. The still ongoing excavation has explored ca. 130 m of the tunnel.

The 1998 excavations of Khirbet Balamah are a direct extension of the Palestinian Dutch cooperation in excavating the water tunnel.

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