Tel Rehov (Arabic: Tell es-Tsarem) is a large site (about 100 dunams) located in the Beth Shean Valley, in the heart of the Valley of the Springs. This area is an important crossroads, with trade routes leading to the neighboring countries to the north, and from the Mediterranean region towards the Jordan. Rehov is also mentioned in the Onomasticon of Eusebius from the late Roman period.
The history of the excavations
A street inside the tel was excavated by a delegation from the Hebrew University led by Prof. Amichai Mazar. About six excavation areas were opened, the most important of which is area C. The beginning of the settlement was at the latest in the Early Bronze Age (4th and 3rd millennium BCE), after which it was abandoned for about a thousand years. A few remains were found from the Intermediate (approximately 2500-2000 BCE) and Middle Bronze Ages (2000 -1550 BCE approximately). The majority of the finds from the site belong to eight archaeological periods, from the Late Bronze Age, the Iron Age and the early Islamic period.
A Canaanite city under Egyptian rule
During the Late Bronze Age (16th-12th centuries BCE), Rehov was one of the largest cities in the country with an area of about 100 dunams. During this period, a public building with a courtyard was built and facilities for the production of bronze vessels, in the Egyptian tradition, were discovered. Rehov appears in the inscriptions of the Egyptian kingdom The new one such as the letters of Ta’anakh, the letters of El Amarna and the stele of Seti I from Beth Shean. In the stele of Seti I (King of Egypt in the years 1323-1279 BCE) Rehov is mentioned as a royal city under Egyptian rule, which did not join the rebellion against the Egyptians, started by the inhabitants of Pahil, Hammath, and Yeno’am. During the Iron Age I (12th-10th centuries BCE), after the Egyptian withdrawal from Canaan, the city shrank. The biblical tradition tells about the continuity of the Canaanite culture in the areas of the Beth Shean Valley during this period: “And Manasseh did not inherit Beth Shean… and the Canaanite went to Shabbat in this land” (Judges 1:1-27).
An Israeli royal city
During the Iron Age II (6th-10th centuries BCE) the city became part of the Kingdom of Israel. In an inscription in the Karnak Temple in Egypt, Rehov is mentioned as one of the cities adjacent to Beth Shean, which was destroyed by the pharaoh Shoshenq (identified with the biblical Shishak), in 920 BCE. In the second half of the 9th century BCE, the city was burned and destroyed again, most likely during the reign of King Hazael of Aram-Damascus. The construction technique during this period was untempered mud bricks, without stone foundations (which is unique to Tel Rehov). During this period, the city was dense and well-planned, and no fortifications were found in the lower area of the city. It should be noted that the vast majority of the cities in the Kingdom of Israel during this period were surrounded by walls. The city continued to exist on the upper part of the mound until its final destruction in the Assyrian conquest of the northern part of the Kingdom of Israel in 732 BC by King Tiglath-pileser III. The inhabitants of the city were exiled and the city ceased to exist (a few Assyrian tombs remained in the place) until the early Islamic – Mamluk peiods.
The unique findings in the city and the connection to King Jehu of Israel and Elisha the prophet
In area C, evidence of a bee industry was discovered at the site: industrial beehives made of tin, the only ones discovered so far in the ancient Middle East. It seems that the beehives were important for the bronze industry, where they used the “lost wax” technique. There is a possibility that the beehive complex was destroyed in an earthquake. A number of inscriptions were found on the site that mention the name “nms“, which is associated with the “Nimshi” family, to which Jehu, the king of Israel, belongs. In one of the inscriptions, the words “Lashki-Nemesh” appear, and it was suggested that this was an official from the Nimshi family, and that the street was a colony. The name “Namesh” is found in another inscription from Tel Rehov and on a jar from nearby Tel Amal. A number of ostraca with Hebrew handwriting were found on the site, and the excavators suggest that on one of them the name [A]Elisha was written in red letters. Elisha ben Shefat appears in the Bible as “a man of God”, and his origin is in Abel Mehola identified at Tel Abu Sus, about 10 km southeast of Tel Rehov. Mazar hypothesized that this building was used for a time as Elisha ben Shefat’s place of stay in Tel Rehov .
In addition, many ritual tools were found, decorated clay altars with four horns, temple-like tools, figurines of women and horses, tools used in homes (cooking, storage, etc.) and a very large amount of loom weights, which can indicate an extensive textile industry. The similarity between the tools on the street and the tools past the Jordan testify to the connection between the two sides of the Jordan River.
Sources
Mazar, A. (2003). The Tel Rehov excavations and their significance for the study of the Iron Age in Israel. The Land of Israel: Studies in the Knowledge of the Land and its Antiquities, 143-160.
Stranger, P. (2016). royal honey Discoveries from the city of Rehov from the beginning of the monarchy in Israel. Zipper p. (editor), exhibition catalog at the Eretz Israel Museum, Tel Aviv.
Nir, D. (1989). The Beit Shan Valley and its challenges on the border of the desert. The united kibbutz.
Zuri, N. (5772). Beit Shan Valley. Jerusalem.
Mazar, A. and Panitz-Cohen, N. 2020. Tel Reḥov, A Bronze and Iron Age City in the Beth-Shean Valley Volume I-V.
Biblical Hiking map