Area referred to in the Bible as the land of Ephraim is today designated the southern Samarian hills. Situated at the center of the central hill country of western Palestine, between Ramallah in the south and Shechem in the north, and between the outermost permanent settlements of the desert fringe in the east to Israel’s pre-1967 border in the west, the region is characterized by a rugged topography and generally harsh setdement conditions.
About 1,050 sq km (651 sq. mi.) of the southern Samarian hills were surveyed between 1980 and 1987 by a team directed by Israel Finlcelstein on behalf of the Department of the Land of Israel Studies at Bar-Ilan University, with the assistance of the Archaeological Survey of Israel and the archaeology staff officer for Judea and Samaria. Some sites in the region had already been surveyed as part of the emergency survey conducted in 1967-1968 and by a team from the American Shechem Expedition, but it was not until the 1980-1987 survey that the region’s setdement history and the environmental conditions tliat influenced it were investigated.
About 85 percent of the area under investigation was fully tracked on foot. Up to 98 percent of previously mapped ruins and 92 percent of the 113 Arab villages in the area were surveyed. Some 550 settlements were recorded and examined, about 350 of them for tire first time. Only a few sites were larger than 4-5 acres. The region was divided into six topographical units based on the geographic features and economic resources of each.
1. Eastern desert fringe. Within the long, narrow strip of desert fringe in the east are tracts of land suitable for grain cultivation as well as pastoraiism, especially sheep raising. [5ee Sheep and Goats.]
2. Northern central range. Small interior valleys characterize the nordrern central range, which had the best setdement conditions in the region. Its economy was based on grain cultivation, especially in the valleys, and, in the eastern part, on grazing. [5ee Cereals.]
3. Southern central range. The area known as the southern central range consists of the Bethel plateau. Subsistence was based on an equal division between dry farming and horticulture.
4. Northern slopes. The northern slopes of tlie western hill country are characterized by moderate ridges and broad wadis but no permanent water sources. Land use there was balanced between grain cultivation and horticulture.
5. Southern slopes. Also part of the western hill country, the southern slopes consist of long spurs and deep wadis. Their harsh topography and rugged litliology are not naturally suited to human habitation, but terracing the land made it suitable for horticulture,
6. Foothills. Parts of the foothills are rocky, but the area generally has a relatively moderate terrain. Its economy was based on grain crops and grazing in tire rocky areas.
The most distinctive element of tire settlement history of southern Samaria is oscillation: periods of prosperity and settlement expansion alternating with intervals of settlement decline. Periods of prosperity were characterized by expansion into the western slopes, intensive production of oil and wine, and the emergence of settlement and political complexity, Periods of decline were characterized by settlement withdrawal to the eastern, more fertile part of the region and a shift, by at least part of the population, to tlie pastoral side of the sedentary-pastoral continuum. These cylical processes are especially evident in sites dating to the third and second millennia bce.
Chalcolithic and Bronze Ages. Only a few Chalcolitlric sites were found. One of them, the Bidya cave, is located in the northwestern part of the region. The first wave of settlement took place in the Early Bronze Age: forty sites from this period, constituting an estimated 60 acres of development, were examined. Again, these settlements were rather small; only one, Ai, was a large fortified city. [5ee Ai.] The environment greatly influenced the settlement pattern of this period. Because most of the land of Ephraim was covered with forests, settlers were directed away from the interior valleys of the central range and from the western slopes and toward outlying areas of the central range, tlie desert fringe, and the footirills.
Only six EB IV settlements, covering about 25 built-up acres, were surveyed. The only important finds from this period were cemeteries, most located along the desert fringe and on the central range. The discovery of main burial grounds around ‘Ain es-Samiyeh and the central site of Dhahr Mirzbaneh indicates tliat much of the population subsisted on a seasonal pastoralism that took tltem to the eastern desert fringe in winter and the central range in summer. [See ‘Ain es-Samiyeh; Burial Sites; Pastoral Nomadism.]
The number of settlements decreased substantially in Middle Bronze I, and the inhabitants continued to use tire shaft tombs of the previous period. This was followed, however, by an impressive wave of settlement in MB II-III: eighty-six sites were recorded in a built-up area of more than 6o acres. Settlements were concentrated in every area except tire southern slopes and the foothills. The concentration of sites on tire northern slopes indicates that settlement was not adversely affected by the lack of a permanent water source or the necessity of clearing forests. Small, unfortified sites seem to have been established throughout southern Samaria in MB II; many were subsequently abandoned in MB III, but some—Bethel, Khirbet el-Marjameh, Shiloh, Sheikh Abu Zarad (biblical Tappuah), and KJrirbet eI-‘Urma (biblical ‘Arumah)—became large, fortified settlements. EB II-III seasonal sites provide evidence of a continuing pastoral component in the economy. [See Shiloh; BetlieL]
The fortified EB IE centers constituted virtually the entire settlement pattern in soutliern Samaria during the Late Bronze Age, when the region experienced a dramatic population decrease. That this was a period of settlement crisis is further demonstrated by the results of excavations at Shiloh, which show tliat most of the large EB III sites shrank in size during the Late Bronze. The entire area of development in this period was 20 acres, and tlie population subsisted primarily on pastoralism.
Iron and Persian Periods. In sharp contrast to the Late Bronze Age, southern Samaria experienced a new wave of settlement at the beginning of the Iron Age (c. 1200 bce). Of the 115 Iron I sites recorded, 26 were classified as large villages (one or more acres), 32 as small villages (slightly less than an acre), and the remaining 57 as isolated strucmres or seasonal sites. The entire area of development was about 95 acres. At tlie beginning of Iron I, settlement was concentrated along the desert fringe, around tlie small valleys of the northern central range, on tlie Bethel plateau, and in die northern part of the western slopes, an indication tliat the economy was based on grain cultivation and animal grazing; in the later phase of Iron I, however, settlement moved into the horticultural niches of the western slopes. This westward expansion, coupled with a rise in horticultural specialization, is believed to have contributed to the development of a more complex society in Iron II.
The region’s greatest increase in settlement to that time took place during Iron II; 190 sites—most of them occupied in the eighth century bce—were recorded. Fifteen were medium-sized (2.5 or more acres), and the rest were small villages. More than 300 acres were built up, and the entire region was reclaimed for cultivation. For the first time in the region’s history, settlement tilted toward its western part. Several sites with large concentrations of Iron II olive presses were discovered on the western slopes and in the foothills, evidence perhaps that the Israelite government sponsored an oil and wine industry from produce grown in the region’s orchards. [5ee Olives.] Only on the Bethel plateau did settlement decrease, primarily because of political upheavals that took place near there, on the border separating the kingdoms of Judah and Israel.
A sharp decrease in the number of settlements was evident in the Persian period, when occupants of the region were dispersed as a result of both the destruction of the Idngdom of Israel in 722 bce and tlie conquest of Judah in 586 bce. Ninety settlements from this period were recorded in a built-up area of about 65 acres. The bulk of settlement activity shifted west, probably as a result of the development on tlie coastal plain.
Hellenistic through Ottoman Periods. Settlement in the Hellenistic period was characterized by renewed prosperity, a trend that would continue for several centuries. More than two hundred Hellenistic and Roman sites were recorded within an area of about 260 acres. Of the Roman sites, which were scattered across the entire region, forty-five were classified as large (2.5 acres or more). Settlement activity in the southern parts of the region increased dramatically in the Hellenistic-Roman periods, probably because of tlieir proximity to Jerusalem.
As in northern Samaria, settlement in the land of Ephraim peaked during the Byzantine period, when more tlian 65 percent of the population lived in its western area. About 260 sites were recorded within a built-up area of more than 300 ha (750 acres). Settlement around Shechem declined, however, probably as a result of the political suppression of the Samaritans. A prominent settlement feature in tlie southwestern part of the region was a concentration of monasteries, where oil and wine probably were produced. [See Monasteries.]
Settlement oscillations continued in the Islamic periods: 174 sites were occupied in the Byzantine/Early Umayyad period, whereas only fifty-five were inhabited in the Umay-yad/‘Abbasid period. Prosperity was renewed in tlie Cru-sader/Ayyubid and in the Mamluk periods (163 and 174 sites, respectively). Survey findings indicate that more sites were occupied in the Early Ottoman period tlian in recent generations.
[5ee also Northern Samaria, Survey of; Samaria; and Samaritans.]
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Campbell, Edward F. Shechem II: Portrait of a Hill Country Vak. Atlanta, 1991.
Finkelstein, Israel. The Archaeology of the Israelite ScttfewoM. Jerusalem,
1988.
World History
