Khirbat Umm Burj Explained

Khirbat Umm Burj
Native Name:خربة أم برج
Native Name Lang:ar
Etymology:the mother of the tower [1]
Pushpin Map:Mandatory Palestine
Pushpin Mapsize:200
Coordinates:31.6367°N 34.9697°W
Grid Name:Palestine grid
Grid Position:147/115
Subdivision Type:Geopolitical entity
Subdivision Name:Mandatory Palestine
Subdivision Type1:Subdistrict
Subdivision Name1:Hebron
Established Title1:Date of depopulation
Established Date1:Not known[2]
Established Title2:Repopulated dates
Unit Pref:dunam
Area Total Dunam:13,083
Population As Of:1945
Population Total:140[3] [4]
Blank Name Sec1:Cause(s) of depopulation
Blank3 Name Sec1:Current Localities
Blank3 Info Sec1:Nehusha[5]

Khirbat Umm Burj was a Palestinian Arab village in the Hebron Subdistrict, sometimes designated in modern maps as Burgin.[6] Its ruins are today located within the borders of Israel. It occupied an extensive site, stretching about 30 dunams (7.4 acres) on the crest of a hill, rising some 430m (1,410feet) above sea level, and commanding a good prospect of the surrounding region. It was depopulated during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War on October 28, 1948, during the third stage of Operation Yo'av under the command of Yigal Allon. The site is located 17 km northwest of Hebron.

History

The site was occupied from the Iron Age. A large ancient necropolis was here, including a church or synagogue, residential buildings and numerous agricultural installations.[7] Israeli archaeologists, Amir Ganor and Boaz Zissu, think that Umm Burj may be a corruption of the 1st-century Jewish village, Kefar Bish, a view earlier rejected by Klein who said that Kefar Bish still bears its namesake in the nearby ruin of Khirbet al-Bis.[8] [9] A Jewish inscription, possibly dating from the Bar Kokhba revolt, has been found in a hiding complex at the site; it mentions a "Shelamzion daughter of...".[10]

In the late 19th century, extensive Christian remains were noted in the area surrounding Umm Burj.[11] Finnish scholar, Aapeli Saarisalo, visited the site of Umm Burj in the early 20th-century, and described its ruins as being of Byzantine and Arab origin.[12]

Late Ottoman period

In 1838 Um Burj was noted as village, located in the area between the mountains and Gaza, but subject to the government of el-Khulil.[13]

In 1863, Victor Guérin passed north of Khirbat Umm Burj, and described the village as being on a mountain, dominating the surroundings.[14]

An Ottoman village list from about 1870 found that um-burdsch had a population of 150, in 25 houses, though the population count included men, only.[15] [16]

French orientalist and archaeologist, Charles Clermont-Ganneau, visited the site in 1874 where he noticed a well situated nearby, called Bîr Hârûn, surmounted with a rude structure, near which were troughs hollowed out in large stone blocks.[17]

In 1883, the PEF's Survey of Western Palestine (SWP) described Umm Burj as: "A ruined village, with a central tower; apparently not ancient; caves and cisterns round it, and a well".[18] Khalidi believed that the SWP assumption that the tower was not ancient might have been wrong.[19]

The village was settled in the 19th century by the Al-Husayni family, who purchased the land, that was initially proposed for purchase by Jews.[20]

British Mandate period

In the 1931 census of Palestine, Umm Burj and Sanabra, listed in the sub-district of Hebron, had a joint population of 119 Muslims, in a total of 26 houses.[21]

In the 1945 statistics it had a population of 140 Muslims,[3] with a total of 13,083 dunums of land.[4] Of this, 28 dunums were irrigated or used for plantations, 3,546 were for cereal,[22] while 15 dunams were built-up (urban) areas.[23]

The villagers used to obtain drinking water from three wells on the northern outskirts of the village.[19]

1948 and aftermath

After the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, the ruin of Umm Burj came under Israeli control under the terms of the 1949 Armistice Agreements[24] between Israel and Jordan. Today, the site lies in the Adullam-France Park.

The moshav of Nehusha was established in 1955 on land that had belonged to the village, west of the village site,[25] but collapsed in 1968. It was re-established in 1981.

Archaeology

In the years 1995–2012, archaeological fieldwork was conducted by a team of archaeologists at Khirbet Umm Burj on behalf of the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA), among whom were Boaz Zissu and Amir Golan, et al., where they uncovered at the site two Byzantine churches, and a Jewish inscription incised on a doorjamb of an underground room in a hiding tunnel system.[26]

Bibliography

External links

Notes and References

  1. Palmer, 1881, p. 408
  2. Morris, 2004, p. xix village #326. Morris gives both cause and date of depopulation as "Not known".
  3. Department of Statistics, 1945, p. 23
  4. Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 50
  5. Khalidi, 1992, p. 224
  6. In the Topographical Map (Map # 9, Jerusalem Corridor) published by Israel's Nature Protection Society, the site is listed as Ḥurvat Burjin.
  7. Ganor and Klein, 2011, Horbat Burqin, Preliminary Report
  8. Boaz Zissu and Amir Ganor, Survey and Excavations at Ḥorbat Burgin in the Judean Shephelah: Burial Caves, Hiding Complexes and Installations of the Second Temple and Byzantine Periods, ʿAtiqot (publication of the Israel Antiquities Authority), Issue 58 (2008), p. 63; Zissu. Boaz . Survey and Excavations at Ḥorbat Burgin in the Judean Shephelah: Burial Caves, Hiding Complexes and Installations of the Second Temple and Byzantine Periods. 'Atiqot. 58. 60–64 . 23464336 . 2008. 58 .
  9. Samuel Klein, The Twenty-four City Councils in Judea (ארבע ועשרים בולאות שביהודה), Vienna 1933, p. 293 (Hebrew)
  10. Book: Corpus inscriptionum Iudaeae/Palaestinae: a multi-lingual corpus of the inscriptions from Alexander to Muhammad . . Eran Lupu, Marfa Heimbach, Naomi Schneider, Hannah Cotton . 2018 . 978-3-11-022219-7 . IV: Iudaea / Idumaea . Berlin . 843–844 . 663773367.
  11. Warren and Conder, 1884, p. 446
  12. Aapeli Saarisalo, "Topographical Researches in the Shephelah", in: The Journal of the Palestine Oriental Society, vol. XI, Jerusalem 1931, p. 16
  13. Robinson and Smith, 1841, vol 3, Appendix 2, p. 117
  14. Guérin, 1869, p. 336
  15. Socin, 1879, p. 162
  16. Hartmann, 1883, p. 148
  17. Clermont-Ganneau, 1896, ARP, vol 2, p. 462
  18. Conder and Kitchener, 1883, SWP III, p. 380
  19. Khalidi, 1992, p. 223
  20. Grossman, D. (1986). "Oscillations in the Rural Settlement of Samaria and Judaea in the Ottoman Period". in Shomron studies. Dar, S., Safrai, S., (eds). Tel Aviv: Hakibbutz Hameuchad Publishing House. p. 376
  21. Mills, 1932, p. 33
  22. Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 93
  23. Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 143
  24. http://mfa.gov.il/MFA/ForeignPolicy/MFADocuments/Yearbook1/Pages/Israel-Jordan%20Armistice%20Agreement.aspx The 1949 Armistice Agreement between Israel and Jordan
  25. ,
  26. https://www.ariel.ac.il/images/stories/site/management/rd/Kovez22.pdf Judea and Samaria Research Studies

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