Timnath or Timnah was a Philistines city in Canaan that is mentioned in the Hebrew Bible in and in connection with Samson. Modern archaeologists identify the ancient site with a tell lying on a flat, alluvial plain, located in the Sorek Valley ca. north-west of Beit Shemesh, near moshav Tal Shahar in Israel, known in Hebrew as Tel Batash (תל בטש) or Teluliot Batashi (plural), and in Arabic as Tell Butashi or Teleilat Batashi (plural). The site is not to be confused with either the as yet unidentified Timna from the hill country of Judah (), nor with the southern copper-smelting site of Timna valley in the Arabah near Eilat.
The Tel Batash mound was discovered in the 19th century by C. Clermont-Ganneau, who identified it as a Roman military camp.[ The New Encyclopedia of Archaeological Excavations in the Holy Land (ed. E. Stern), vol. 1, Jerusalem 1993, p. 152 ] In subsequent years, the site was uncovered through 1977–1989, in 12 seasons of excavations, by Amihai Mazar and George L. Kelm while Kelm was serving as professor of Biblical backgrounds and archaeology at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, on a dig sponsored by the Seminary.[Center for Online Judaic Studies, Excavating in Samson Country, George L. Kelm and Amihai Mazar, BAR 15:01, Jan-Feb 1989, accessed 11 November 2016]
Geography
Tel Batash is strategically located in the
Sorek Valley, an access point from the Coastal Plain through the
Shephelah and into the Central
Judean Mountains.
Hebrew Bible references
In , a place called Timnah (Timnath) is mentioned in the context of the story of the Hebrew patriarch Judah and Tamar. Some think that Judah may have gone to this Timnah (Tibna) to shear his sheep, when he met his daughter-in-law in passing,
[ Genesis 38:14] while others suggest that this would have happened in the Timnath now known in Arabic as Khirbet et-Tibbaneh.
[See George L. Kelm & Amihai Mazar, p. 58 in: ][F.M. Abel, Géographie de la Palestine (vol. II), Paris 1938, p. 481, s.v. Thimna (1), citing Conder & Kitchener's SWP, III, p. 53.][Samuel Klein, Eretz Yisrael: Geography of Israel for High Schools and for the People (Heb. ארץ ישראל -- גיאוגרפיה של ארץ ישראל לבתי ספר תיכוניים ולעם), Vienna 1922, p. 42 (Hebrew)]
In , a place with this name is mentioned as a point on the border of the Tribe of Judah, and refers to Timnah's .
In , Samson went down to Timnah in order to find a wife. On his way there, he tore apart a lion. Samson married a "girl of the Philistines" from Timnah and posed a riddle for the men of Timnah, which they were only able to resolve following the intervention of his wife.
History
Excavations under the leadership of Mazar and Kelm during the 1970s–1980s uncovered twelve strata of continuous settlement at the site through the
Hellenistic period, with sparse settlement nearby during the
Byzantine Empire period.
Not far from the tell, on the edge of Nahal Sorek (Sorek Valley), are the remains of a Roman road as well as settlement dating to the Chalcolithic and periods.
Bronze Age
Tel Batash was first settled in the Middle Bronze Age by creating an earthen rampart that enclosed the 10 acre (4 hectare) site.
Iron Age
Iron I
Tel Batash during the
Philistine era (Late Bronze Age to Iron Age) was a fortified city with dense mud-brick construction.
[ The New Encyclopedia of Archaeological Excavations in the Holy Land (ed. E. Stern), vol. 1, Jerusalem 1993, p. 156 ]
Iron II
The archaeologists discovered fortifications and buildings from the Kingdom of Judah period, dating to the 7th and 8th centuries BCE. In one of the buildings, a ceramic
potsherd bearing a written
LMLK seal was found.
In the 9th and 8th centuries BCE, it was a town of c. 500 people, according to archaeologist William G. Dever.
Old identification (Khirbet Tibneh)
Khirbet Tibna, also spelled Kh. Tibneh, is a ruin situated ca. south-west of
Bet Shemesh,
Israel,
and lying at an elevation of above sea-level.
[The Palestine Exploration Fund Quarterly Statement, London 1871, p. 93] In the Survey of Palestine Map of 1928–1947 (Pal 1157), preserved at the National Library of Israel, it is listed in map section 14-12, at Grid reference 144.1 / 127.9 144/127, under coordinates 31
o44'36.587" N / 34
o56'12.72"E. The ruin lies ca. 2 kilometers north-east of Moshav
Sdot Micha and about south-west of Bîr el-Leimûn.
[ Bîr el-Leimûn lies perpendicular to the ancient ruin of Tibna and the biblical city of Beit Shemesh ( ʻAin Shems), being a junction on the road between Zorah and Tibna and where there is a well. As late as 1835 it was still inhabited, but is now a ruin. See: Edward Robinson & Eli Smith, Biblical Researches in Palestine, Mount Sinai and Arabia Petraea (vol. III), Boston 1841, Arabic Lists – Second Appendix on p. 120.] Access to the site is now restricted, as it sits in a military area. Early explorers and historical geographers identified the ruin Kh. Tibna with the biblical town of Timnah, thought to be associated with stories of the biblical
Samson (Judges 14:1–5).
[Marten Woudstra, The Book of Joshua (1981)][Adolphe Neubauer, La Géographie du Talmud, Paris 1868, pp. 102–103] French orientalist
Clermont-Ganneau also thought Tibna to be a corruption of the Hebrew word Timnah.
[Page 214 in:]
Edward Robinson visited the immediate area in 1838, and Tibna was already a deserted village.[Edward Robinson, Biblical Researches in Palestine, vol. II, section XI, London 1856, pp. 16–17] Archaeologist W.F. Albright visited the site in the winter of 1924–25, which he described as "Khirbet Tibneh, the Timnath of the Samson story." He wrote that the site was covered with "masses of Graeco-Roman and Byzantine débris," although he was unable to come-up with Jewish potsherds.[See p. 10 in: ] In the 1940s, archaeologist Benjamin Mazar conducted a surface survey in the region, including Tell Butashi, without digging.[G. Kelm & Amihai Mazar, "Timnah: A Biblical City in the Sorek Valley", in: Archaeology, Vol. 37, No. 3 (May/June 1984), Archaeological Institute of America, p. 58]
Modern identification (Tell Butashi)
Today, modern archaeologists think the biblical Timnath (Timnah) associated with the saga of Samson to have been situated where Tell Butashi is now located and where extensive archaeological excavations had been conducted during the 1970s–1980s. With the town's demise, the name "Timnah" is thought to have migrated to the site now known as Khirbet Tibna, a few kilometers away from Tell Butashi.
Other References
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