Tel Abel Beth Maacah (; ) is a large archaeological tell with a small upper northern section and a large lower southern one, connected by a saddle. It is located on the northern border of present-day Israel, about south of the town of Metula and about west of Tel Dan.Abel, F. M. (1938), p. 233Mazar, B. (1958-59), pp. 122–123
The survey and excavations conducted in recent years have shown that the site had been inhabited during the Bronze and Iron Ages, as well as the Achaemenid, Hellenistic, Byzantine, Early Islamic, Crusader, Mamluk and Ottoman periods. Since at least the early 13th century CEal-Hamawi quoted in le Strange, 1890, p.381 the mound was the location of the Arab village of Abil al-Qamh, depopulated in 1948. However, the lower mound was not occupied after the Iron Age I (late 11th/early 10th centuries BCE), when occupation seems to have concentrated on the upper mound.
The site was fortified with walls and a rampart during the Middle Bronze Age II. These fortifications were reused in the Late Bronze Age in the south of the mound, but were abandoned in Iron Age I. A silver hoard in a jug, dating to the end of the Late Bronze Age, is one of the earliest such hoards found in the country. The Iron Age I sequence is among the densest in this region and includes strata of cultic, domestic, and public character. Traces of metal-working were found in the latter. The Iron Age II is represented by a large stone wall within the upper mound, which may be part of a citadel. A well-built structure dating to the Persian-early Hellenistic period was built above this wall, and other Iron Age remains.
In the later periods, the Palestinians village of Abil al-Qamh was located here until it was depopulated during the Nakba in 1948.
The site
The site is approximately 100 dunams (10 hectares) in size and sits astride the narrow defile of Nahal Ayun, one of the four headwaters of the Jordan River. The Tanur Waterfall, fed by the Iyyon, is located just north of the site. From its strategic vantage point overlooking the narrow northern end of the fertile Hula Valley, the site commands roads leading north to the Lebanese Beqaa Valley, northeast to inland Syria (Damascus) and Mesopotamia, and west to the Lebanese/Phoenician coast.
The tell is identified with Abel Beth-Maacah mentioned in the Hebrew Bible and consists of an upper mound in the north and a larger lower mound in the south, with a moderately high saddle between them.
The location of the town in such a strategic spot points to it having played a major role in the interaction between the various national groups and political powers in the Bronze Age (Canaanites, Hurrians/Mitannians, Egyptians, and Hittites) and the Iron Age (Israelites, Arameans and Phoenicians). Abel Beth Maacah was a border town, and as such, was exposed to these influences at the same time that it fulfilled the role of buffering, or bearing the brunt of, foreign invasions. Its proximity to numerous water sources and a rich agricultural hinterland was yet another factor in making Abel Beth Maacah a large and prominent site in antiquity.
Etymology Abel Beth Maacah means "the meadow of the house of Maacah". The biblical name is spelled variously as Abel-beth-maacah, Abel Beth Maacah, Abel Beth-Maacah, Avel Bet Ma'akha etc. The city is also called Abel Maim ("meadow of water") in 2 Chronicles 16:4.
Toponymic evidence further supports long-term continuity at Abel-beth-maachah beyond the biblical and classical periods. The ancient name is preserved in the Arabic toponym Abil al-Qamḥ, attested in Ottoman-period tax registers and later cartographic sources, reflecting phonetic and semantic adaptation rather than replacement. This survival indicates that the site remained embedded in the regional naming landscape of the northern Hula Valley into the early modern period, challenging earlier assumptions that its ancient name had been lost following Late Antiquity.
Identification
The tell was described by a number of prominent 19th-century and early 20th-century explorers, including Victor Guérin, Félix-Marie Abel and Edward Robinson, who was the first to identify the mound with biblical Abel Beth Maacah (Avel Bet Macakha). The proposal has won scholarly acceptance, based largely on historical-geographical considerations.
The identification is based mainly on the appearance of the town in two geographic lists in the Bible. In 1 Kings 15:20, the Aramean king Ben-Hadad I was solicited in the 9th century BCE by King Asa of Judah to attack the northern kingdom. He did successfully, although apparently soon after this, control over this region returned to Israelite hands during the reign of Ahab. "Ben-hadad listened to King Asa, and sent the commanders of his armies against the cities of Israel. He conquered Ijon, Tel Dan, Abel-beth-maacah, and all Chinneroth, with all the land of Naphtali". A similar geographic list is noted in the story of the Assyrian conquest of the region in the late 8th century BCE in 2 Kings 15:29: "In the days of King Pekah of Israel, King Tiglath-pileser of Assyria came and captured Ijon, Abel-beth-maacah, Janoah, Kedesh, Hazor, Gilead, and Galilee, all the land of Naphtali; and carried the people captive to Assyria".
Second millennium BCE and biblical references A Hebrew inscription on the lid of a wine storage jar uncovered in the summer of 2019 reads “leBenayau,” meaning that the storage jar and its contents “belong to Benayau” is dated to the 10th-9th century BCE. It was found together with other jars in what appears to have been the wine cellar of a man named Benayau. It is the first inscription found at the dig, and the lettering dates it to earlier than 2,900 years ago. The inscription is one of several artifacts that appear to support the idea first proposed by Avraham Biran that Abel-beth-maachah was an Israelite town during the reigns of David and Solomon.
Bronze Age references to the site include the early group of the Execration Texts (Middle Bronze IIA) and possibly Thutmose III's list of destroyed towns (Late Bronze I), as well as the Amarna letters (Late Bronze IIA; Dever 1984: 211–213). After the Assyrian conquest, the site is not mentioned in any later sources.
Aside from the two geographic lists quoted above in relation to the conquest of the town by the Arameans and the Assyrians, the site is mentioned one other time in the Bible: 2 Samuel 20:14–22, which relates a call for revolt against David by a Benjaminite named Sheba ben Bichri. Sheba fled to Abel Beth Maacah, pursued by Joab and his army. Setting up a siege at the town, Joab threatened to destroy it, when the local "wise woman" (possibly an oracle) informed him that the city was loyal to David, calling it "a city and a mother in Israel" (2 Samuel 20:19) and arranged to have the rebel who took refuge there beheaded, and thus saving her town. This is the only time the phrase "a city and a mother in Israel" is mentioned in the Bible and might allude to its particular political and/or religious status. This narrative also emphasizes the town as the northernmost point of the Israelite state entity, although it is not clear to which time period this relates, since this narrative most likely reflects a time later in Iron Age II than the reign of David.
Though speculative, some scholars have suggested that the conquest of Abel Beth Maacah by Ben-hadad I may be alluded to in the second line of the 'House of David' inscription found at nearby Tel Dan, where the letters aleph and bet have survived and might be the beginning of the name of the town "Abel" (Schneidewind 1996:77; Naaman 2012:95, note 10).
Exploration history Past explorations Despite its obvious historical importance and geographic prominence, Abel Beth Maacah was not excavated before 2012. Previous study of the site involved periodic visits by representatives of the British Mandatory Department of Antiquities and limited surveys carried out by the Israel Department of Antiquities in the 1950s, by Yehudah Dayan in the 1960s, and by Prof. William G. Dever of the University of Arizona in 1972, who summarily published the results, along with a detailed historical-geographical analysis (Dever 1986). Subsequently, a small salvage excavation conducted by the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) at the base of the southeastern slope revealed several Byzantine tombs, as well as a group of Middle Bronze IIB vessels that seemed typical of a tomb assemblage, although no tomb from this period was found (Stepansky 2005).
Current project The excavation of Tel Abel Beth Maacah has been initiated and funded by Azusa Pacific University of Los Angeles, and is conducted as a joint project with the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, co-directed by Dr. Robert Mullins of the former institution and Dr. Naama Yahalom-Mack and Dr. Nava Panitz-Cohen of the latter. The surveyor and stratigraphic advisor is Ruhama Bonfil of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.Participating institutions include Cornell University, Trinity International University, Asbury Theological Seminary, Indiana Wesleyan University, the University of Arizona, Scottsdale Community College, Hebrew Union College, and the Pillar Seminary. Logistics are provided by Dr. Oren Gutfeld of Israel Archaeological Services .
The project began in 2012 with a survey followed by four excavation seasons to date (2013–2016).For detailed field reports of each season, see www.abel-beth-maacah.org, and for published preliminary reports, see Panitz, Mullins and Bonfil 2013, 2016.
2012 survey; habitation periods
In May 2012, a four-day survey was conducted, combining an extensive walking survey with limited shallow (up to 10 cm) excavation in six areas spread around the site.For a detailed report of the survey, see http://www.abel-beth-maacah.org/index.php/2012-survey . The survey showed that there was occupation in the Early Bronze [EB] II-III, Middle Bronze [MB] II, Late Bronze [LB]I-II, Iron Age I-II, Persian, Hellenistic, Byzantine, Early Islamic, Crusader, Mamluk and Ottoman periods. The survey also revealed that the lower part of the tell in the south has an outcropping of bedrock running through much of its center, indicating that the ancient remains in this part of the site should be sought around its perimeter.
An intact ring flask, apparently of Late Bronze Age date, was found in the survey in the vicinity of Area A.
Excavation and findings Excavation areas
Five areas had been excavated as of Winter 2021. Area A on the eastern slope of the middle saddle (remains of Middle Bronze IIB, Late Bronze IIB, Iron Age I, Iron Age II and Early Islamic), Area B on the eastern slope of the upper mound (remains of Middle Bronze IIB, Iron Age I, Iron Age II, Persian-early Hellenistic, Roman-Byzantine, Mamluk), Area F on the southern end of the lower mound (remains of MBIIB, LB I-II, Iron I), Area O on the western edge of the lower mound (remains of MBIIB, Iron I-II), and Area K on the eastern slope of a topographical depression between the lower and upper mounds (remains of Iron I-II). In wake of the survey and excavations to date, it was found that the lower mound was probably not occupied after the Iron Age I (late 11th/early 10th century BCE) and occupation was limited to the upper mound and the interim saddle.
Excavation areas are marked on this 1945 aerial photo of the tell (Aerial Photographic Archive, Geography Department, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, taken by the Royal Air Force, Section 23, 1945); the houses visible on the photo belong to the Arab village of Abil al-Qamh.
Middle Bronze II Remains of the Middle Bronze II have been revealed to date in three areas: F, O and B.
Area F