LOOK UP! IT’S A BIRD, IT’S A PLANE...IT’S TEL HADID!
All over Israel there is an endless amount of archaeological remains, both discovered and yet to be discovered. There is so many ruins that you cannot walk anywhere without stubbing your toe on them. Sometimes, you even drive under them!
When driving east from Tel Aviv or west from Jerusalem on Highway 1 and then north towards the Galilee, there is a modern highway called Kvish Shesh or Road 6. Road 6 follows the ancient “Via Maris” (Way of the Sea) that linked Egypt with the northern empires of Mesopotamia long before there were planes, trains and automobiles. Soon after entering Road 6 from Highway 1, you drive through a tunnel. When Road 6 was being constructed about 20 years ago, this tunnel was carved through a hill, for no other reason than to preserve the archaeological remains of Tel Hadid, which just happens to be situated on top of this hill. Tens of thousands of people pass through the tunnel on Road 6 every day having no idea that there is an ancient city sitting above their heads. I have driven through the tunnel 100s of times on my way north making mere mention of Tel Hadid without ever having visited the site myself.
In our continuing pursuit to find “off the beaten track” places, my colleagues and I recently explored Tel Hadid. I now know first hand about what up to now I had only pointed to. The ruins of this ancient Israelite town, identified in ancient Egyptian writings and Biblical texts, rest quietly on this pleasant hill within the beautiful Ben Shemen Forest. There are spectacular views of Samaria’s rolling hills to the northeast, the Ayalon Valley stretching towards the Mediterranean coast to the southwest, and the metropolis of Tel Aviv to the northwest. Today, Tel Hadid is mostly covered with olive orchards which were planted long ago by the former inhabitants of the Arab village of Haditha as well as pine trees planted by the Jewish National Fund. Shepherds with their herds of goats and sheep roam freely through the area hardly noticing the relics from long ago. The remains of ancient walls, cisterns, burial caves, tombs, and an olive press are scattered around the site as a testament to the long history of settlement on this hill, including the Israelites who lived there during the Iron Age.
After their Exodus from Egypt, the Israelites returned to the land of their forefathers and foremothers settling throughout Israel, including here on the slopes of the Samarian mountains in a town mentioned in the Bible as “Hadid”. The Israelite habitation of Hadid will come to an end after several hundred years with the Assyrian conquest. In the eighth century BCE, the Assyrian armies advanced from the north and conquered the areas inhabited by the 10 northern tribes of Israel. These tribes were expelled by the Assyrians and mostly disappeared, becoming known as the “Lost Tribes of Israel”. The Assyrian expulsion of the ten northern tribes of Israel will be the first, but sadly not the last of many expulsions to come. Only the southern two tribes of Judah and Benjamin remained in Israel after the Assyrian conquest, but not for long. After a little more than a decade later, the Babylonians expelled the remaining two tribes.
The Assyrians practiced a policy of “cross-deportation”, meaning they would deport and relocate the local inhabitants to foreign territories and bring deportees from other conquered territories to take their place. Excavations at Tel Hadid unearthed clay tablets and other material remains that shed some light on the Assyrian’s forced exile of the Israelites from Samaria. The Bible verse in 2 Kings 17:24 also describes how the Assyrians resettled foreigners in Israel as follows: “The King of Assyria brought people from Babylon, Cuthah, Avva, Hamath, and Sepharvaim and he settled them in the towns of Samaria in place of the Israelites: they took possession of Samaria and dwelt in its towns”.
Very little is known about the people who were resettled in Hadid by the Assyrians. The article linked to below published in The Jerusalem Post the day after our visit to Tel Hadid, indicates that future excavations will focus on what happened to Tel Hadid after the Assyrian conquest and the people who were forced to resettle there. Stay tuned!
