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Samaria (), the Hellenized form of the Hebrew name Shomron (), is used as a historical and Hebrew Bible name for the central region of the Land of Israel. It is bordered by Judea to the south and Galilee to the north. The region is known in Arabic under two names, Samirah (, as-Sāmira), and Mount Nablus (جَبَل نَابُلُس, Jabal Nābulus).
The first-century historian Josephus set the Mediterranean Sea as its limit to the west, and the Jordan River as its limit to the east. Its territory largely corresponds to the Hebrew Bible allotments of the tribe of Ephraim and the western half of Manasseh. It includes most of the region of the ancient Kingdom of Israel, which was north of the Kingdom of Judah. The border between Samaria and Judea, while historically fluid, is set at the latitude of Ramallah. The New Encyclopaedia Britannica: Macropaedia, 15th edition, 1987, volume 25, "Palestine", p. 403
The name "Samaria" is derived from the ancient city of Samaria, capital of the northern Kingdom of Israel. The name Samaria likely began being used for the entire kingdom not long after the town of Samaria had become Israel's capital, but it is first documented after its conquest by the Neo-Assyrian Empire, which incorporated the land into the province of Samerina.
Samaria was used to describe the northern midsection of the land in the UN Partition Plan for Palestine in 1947. It became the administrative term in Six-Day War, when the West Bank was defined by Israeli officials as the Judea and Samaria Area, of which the entire area north of the Jerusalem District is termed as Samaria. In 1988, Jordan ceded its claim of the area to the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). In 1994, control of Areas 'A' (full civil and security control by the Palestinian Authority) and 'B' (Palestinian civil control and joint Israeli–Palestinian security control) were transferred by Israel to the Palestinian Authority. The Palestinian Authority and the international community do not recognize the term "Samaria"; in modern times, the territory is generally known as part of the West Bank.
The fact that the mountain was called Shomeron when Omri bought it may indicate that the correct etymology of the name is to be found more directly in the Semitic root for "guard", hence its initial meaning would have been "watch mountain". In the earlier cuneiform inscriptions, Samaria is designated under the name of "Bet Ḥumri" (Omrides"); but in those of Tiglath-Pileser III (ruled 745–727 BCE) and later it is called Samirin, after its Aramaic name, Shamerayin.
During the first century, the boundary between Samaria and Judea passed eastward of Antipatris, along the deep valley which had Beth Rima (now Bani Zeid al-Gharbia) and Beth Laban (today's al-Lubban al-Gharbi) on its southern, Judean bank; then it passed Anuath and Borceos, identified by Charles William Wilson (1836–1905) as the ruins of As-Sawiya; and reached the Jordan Valley north of Acrabbim and Alexandrium.James Hastings (editor), A Dictionary of the Bible, Volume III: (Part II: O - Pleiades), "Palestine: Geography", p. 652, University Press of the Pacific, 2004, Tall Asur also stands at that boundary.
The Samarian hills are not very high, seldom reaching the height of over 800 meters. Samaria's climate is more hospitable than the climate further south.
There is no clear division between the mountains of southern Samaria and northern Judea.
The archaeological record suggests that Samaria experienced significant settlement growth in Iron Age II (from 950 BC). Archaeologists estimate that there were 400 sites, up from 300 during the previous Iron Age I ( 1200 BC onwards). The people dwelt on tells, in small villages, farms, and forts, and in the cities of Shechem, Samaria and Tirzah in northern Samaria. Adam Zertal estimated that about 52,000 people inhabited the Manasseh Hill in northern Samaria prior to the Assyrian deportations. According to botanists, the majority of Samaria's forests were torn down during the Iron Age II, and were replaced by plantations and agricultural fields. Since then, few oak forests have grown in the region.
Following the Assyrian conquest, Sargon II claimed in Assyrian records to have deported 27,280 people to various places throughout the empire, mainly to Guzana in the Assyrian heartland, as well as to the cities of the Medes in the eastern part of the empire (modern-day Iran). The deportations were part of a standard resettlement policy of the Neo-Assyrian Empire to deal with defeated enemy peoples. The resettled people were generally treated well as valued members of the empire and transported together with their families and belongings. At the same time, people from other parts of the empire were resettled in the depopulated Samerina. The resettlement is also called the Assyrian captivity in Jewish history and provides the basis for the narrative of the Ten Lost Tribes.
Samaria was a largely autonomous province nominally dependent on the Seleucid Empire. However, the province gradually declined as the Maccabees movement and Hasmonean Judea grew stronger. The transfer of three districts of Samaria— Ephraim, Lod and Ramathaim—under the control of Judea in 145 BCE as part of an agreement between Jonathan Apphus and Demetrius II is one indication of this decline. Around 110 BCE, the decline of Hellenistic Samaria was complete, when the Jewish Hasmonean ruler John Hyrcanus destroyed the cities of Samaria and Shechem, as well as the city and temple on Mount Gerizim.See: Jonathan Bourgel, " The Destruction of the Samaritan Temple by John Hyrcanus: A Reconsideration ", JBL 135/3 (2016), pp. 505-523; [5] . See also idem, "The Samaritans during the Hasmonean Period: The Affirmation of a Discrete Identity?" Religions 2019, 10(11), 628. Only a few stone remnants of the Samaritan temple exist today.
Southern Samaria reached a peak in settlement during the early Roman period (63 BCE–70 CE), partly as a result of the Hasmonean dynasty's settlement efforts. The impact of the Jewish–Roman wars is archaeologically evident in Jewish-inhabited areas of southern Samaria, as many sites were destroyed and left abandoned for extended periods of time. After the First Jewish-Roman War, the Jewish population of the area decreased by around 50%, whereas after the Bar Kokhba revolt, it was completely wiped out in many areas. According to Klein, the Roman authorities replaced the Jews with a population from the nearby provinces of Roman Syria, Phoenicia, and Arabia Petraea.קליין, א' (2011). היבטים בתרבות החומרית של יהודה הכפרית בתקופה הרומית המאוחרת (135–324 לסה"נ). עבודת דוקטור, אוניברסיטת בר-אילן. עמ' 314–315. (Hebrew)שדמן, ע' (2016). בין נחל רבה לנחל שילה: תפרוסת היישוב הכפרי בתקופות ההלניסטית, הרומית והביזנטית לאור חפירות וסקרים. עבודת דוקטור, אוניברסיטת בר-אילן. עמ' 271–275. (Hebrew) An apparent new wave of settlement growth in southern Samaria, most likely by non-Jews, can be traced back to the late Roman and Byzantine eras.Finkelstein, I. 1993. The Southern Samarian Hills Survey. In E. Stern (ed.). The New Encyclopedia of Archaeological Excavations in the Holy Land. Jerusalem: Israel Exploration Society, Carta, Vol. 4, pp. 1314.
The Byzantine period is considered the peak of settlement in Samaria, as in other regions of the country.זרטל, א' (1992). סקר הר מנשה. קער שכם, כרך ראשון. תל-אביב וחיפה: אוניברסיטת חיפה ומשרד הביטחון. (Hebrew) 63–62. Based on historical sources and archeological data, the Manasseh Hill surveyors concluded that Samaria's population during the Byzantine period was composed of Samaritans, Christians, and a minority of Jews.זרטל, א' (1996). סקר הר מנשה. העמקים המזרחיים וספר המדבר, כרך שני. תל-אביב וחיפה: אוניברסיטת חיפה ומשרד הביטחון. 93–91 (Hebrew) The Samaritan population was mainly concentrated in the valleys of Nablus and to the north as far as Jenin and Legio; they did not settle south of the Nablus-Qalqiliya line. Christianity slowly made its way into Samaria, even after the Samaritan revolts. With the exception of Neapolis, Sebastia, and a small cluster of monasteries in central and northern Samaria, most of the population of the rural areas remained non-Christian.די סגני, ל' (2002). מרידות השומרונים בארץ-ישראל הביזנטית. בתוך א' שטרן וח' אשל (עורכים), ספר השומרונים. ירושלים: יד יצחק בן-צבי, רשות העתיקות, המנהל האזרחי ליהודה ושומרון קצין מטה לארכיאולוגיה, עמ' 454–480. (Hebrew) In southwestern Samaria, a significant concentration of churches and monasteries was discovered, with some of them built on top of citadels from the late Roman period. Magen raised the hypothesis that many of these were used by Christian pilgrims, and filled an empty space in the region whose Jewish population was wiped out in the Jewish–Roman wars.מגן, י' 2002 .השומרונים בתקופה הרומית – הביזנטית. בתוך א' שטרן וח' אשל (עורכים), ספר השומרונים. ירושלים: יד יצחק בן-צבי, רשות העתיקות, המנהל האזרחי ליהודה ושומרון קצין מטה לארכיאולוגיה, עמ' 213–244. (Hebrew)
Samaria is one of several standard statistical districts utilized by the Israel Central Bureau of Statistics. "The Israeli CBS also collects statistics on the rest of the West Bank and the Gaza District. It has produced various basic statistical series on the territories, dealing with population, employment, wages, external trade, national accounts, and various other topics." The Palestinian Authority however use Nablus, Jenin, Tulkarm, Qalqilya, Salfit, Ramallah and Tubas governorates as administrative centers for the same region.
The Shomron Regional Council is the local municipal government that administers the smaller Israeli towns (settlements) throughout the area. The council is a member of the network of regional municipalities spread throughout Israel. Elections for the head of the council are held every five years by Israel's ministry of interior, all residents over age 17 are eligible to vote. In special elections held in August 2015 Yossi Dagan was elected as head of the Shomron Regional Council. administered by the Shomron Regional Council in the West Bank]]
Israeli settlements in the West Bank are considered by most in the international community to be illegal under international law, but others including the United States and Israeli governments dispute this. In September 2016, the Town Board of the United States Town of Hempstead in the State of New York, led by Councilman Bruce Blakeman entered into a partnership agreement with the Shomron Regional Council, led by Yossi Dagan, as part of an anti-Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign.
Archaeological finds from Roman-era Sebaste, a site that was rebuilt and renamed by Herod the Great in 30 BC, include a colonnaded street, a temple-lined acropolis, and a lower city, where John the Baptist is believed to have been buried.
The Harvard excavation of Samaria, which began in 1908, was headed by Egyptologist George Andrew Reisner. The Archaeology of Palestine, W.F. Albright, 1960, p. 34 The findings included Hebrew, Aramaic, cuneiform and Greek inscriptions, as well as pottery remains, coins, sculpture, figurines, scarabs and seals, faience, amulets, beads and glass. The joint British-American-Hebrew University excavation continued under John Winter Crowfoot in 1931–35, during which time some of the chronology issues were resolved. The round towers lining the acropolis were found to be Hellenistic, the street of columns was dated to the 3–4th century, and 70 inscribed potsherds were dated to the early 8th century.Albright, pp.39–40
In 1908–1935, remains of luxury furniture made of wood and ivory were discovered in Samaria, representing the Levant's most important collection of ivory carvings from the early first millennium BC. Despite theories of their origin, some of the letters serving as fitter's marks are in Israelian Hebrew.
As of 1999 three series of coins have been found that confirm Sinuballat was a governor of Samaria. Sinuballat is best known as an adversary of Nehemiah from the Book of Nehemiah where he is said to have sided with Tobiah the Ammonite and Geshem the Arabian. All three coins feature a warship on the front, likely derived from earlier Sidonian coins. The reverse side depicts the Persian King in his kandys robe facing down a lion that is standing on its hind legs.
In contrast to the Galilee and the Judean Mountains, there are very few remnants of natural vegetation in the Samaria Mountains. Large areas in the south and west of Samaria and in the valleys have been cultivated for many generations as agricultural land and are planted mainly with olive, fig, almond and pomegranate trees; the areas in the valleys are used for arable land or vegetable crops. Only on the edges of the fields and in places that have been regenerated and where damaging the plant-life is prohibited by law have remnants of natural vegetation been preserved.
The wildlife of Samaria, as in other regions of the country, consists of populations that invaded the general area at different times and adapted to the conditions prevailing in the area. Hunting (with the introduction of modern firearms in the 20th-century) and extensive farming have been the principal causes for a decline in the area's natural wildlife. The animals that dominate the general area have their origins in the Mediterranean basin and in Europe, such as the Honey badger, the wild boar, the red fox, the hedgehog, the Apodemus, and the mole (among mammals).
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