Location
Khorbat Anim (originally: Khirbat A’vin a-Tatta) is the name of a site in the south of the Hebron mountains where the remains of a biblical and Talmudic settlement are found, about 20 km northwest of Arad and in the area of Yatir forest. The site is near the settlement of Livna to the southwest
General background
The site of Khirbet Ghuwein et-Taḥta was first identified with biblical ‘Anim by Edward Robinson in the 1830s. It is also identified with Byzantine Anaia, which Eusebius describes as nine miles south of Hebron. After Robinson’s survey, V. Guérin visited the site in 1863 and identified the presence of the Israelite fortress. Moshe Kochavi surveyed the site in 1968, followed by Zvi Meshel in 1976-77. It was not until the survey of Zvi Ilan in 1986-87 that the Byzantine synagogue was identified. He excavated the synagogue, along with David Amit, in 1988-89. Finally, in 2010-11, Amit and Oren Shmueli excavated two of the Byzantine (and later) subterranean dwellings on the site, including one containing an oil press. These dwellings, however, are not included in the project. Today, Horvat ‘Anim is located in the middle of the Yattir forest, Israel’s largest desert forest.
The synagogue is a broad room with the entrance facing the east, as is common among the southern Judean synagogues. The ark would have been located on a large bema at the northern end of the prayer hall. At the front of the entrance was a covered narthex, whose roof was supported by a row of columns, and an open paved courtyard, which included a cistern for ablutions to the south. Rooms outside the northern wall of the synagogue were probably service rooms for the synagogue.
The Israelite fortress has not yet been excavated.