Tel Afek

Tel Afek, (), also spelled Aphek and Afeq, is an archaeological site located in the coastal hinterland of the Ein Afek Nature Reserve, east of Kiryat Bialik, Israel. It is also known as Tel Kurdani.

History Chalcolithic The site has remains dating back to the Chalcolithic age.

Bronze Age Tombs from the Middle Bronze Age and Late Bronze Ages have been excavated here.Porat, 2010, Tel Afeq (East)

A number of burial caves cut into chalk-like bedrock are dated to Middle Bronze Age IIA and are believed to have been reused during Late Bronze Age II. The pottery assemblage consists of vessel types from the Early, Middle and Late Bronze periods, with the later pottery finds presenting both local types and imports, such as Cypriot ‘milk bowls’ and bilbils as well as a few Mycenaean vessels.Atiqot 2008

Classical Age The site is what remains of the biblical town of Aphik or Aphek, which is mentioned in (as "Apheq") and (as "Aphīq"), belonging to the Tribe of Asher.Oxford Bible Atlas By Adrian Curtis, page 206The Land of the Bible: A Historical Geography, By Yohanan Aharoni, page 430 According to Biblical history, this area was part of Cabul and was given to Hiram I by Solomon as a reward for various services rendered to him in building the First Temple. .

Pottery from the Persian,Abu Raya and Porat, 2012, Tel Afeq (Northeast) Hellenistic, Roman, and the Byzantine eras have been found here.

Crusader/Mamluk era Pottery from the Crusader times have been found here. In the Crusader era, it was known as Recordane, and in 1154, the mill and village was acquired the Hospitalliers.Röhricht, 1893, RRH No 293; cited in Pringle, 1997, p. 64 The Hospitalliers owned the water mills here for a number of years.Röhricht, 1893, RRH No 293; RRH No 1062; RRH Ad No 1319a; RRH No 1322; all cited in Frankel, 1988, p. 261 Between 1235 and 1262 the Hospitalliers had a dispute with the Templars about water rights.Pringle, 1997, p. 64

Two aqueducts, dating from this era, have been excavated.

In 1283 it was still part of the Crusader states, as it was mentioned as part of their domain in the hudna between the Crusaders based in Acre and the Mamluk sultan Qalawun.The al-Qalqashandi version of the hudna, referred in Barag, 1979, p. 205, #28Khamisy, 2013, p. 94, #37

According to al-Maqrizi, it had come under Mamluk rule in 1291, when it was mentioned under the name of Kerdanah when sultan al-Ashraf Khalil allocated the village's income to a waqf in Cairo.al-Maqrizi, 1845, vol 2, p. 131Barag, 1979, p. 203

A two-story fortress still stands. A water-powered flour mill operated on the lower floor.Pringle, 1997, pp. 62- 64

Ottoman era Incorporated into the Ottoman Empire in 1517, it appeared under the name Kufrdani in the census of 1596, located in the Nahiya of Acca of the Liwa of Safad. The village was noted as "hali" (empty), but taxes were paid, a total of 1,800 akçe. All of the revenues went to a waqf.Hütteroth and Abdulfattah, 1977, p. 192Note that Rhode, 1979, p. 6 writes that the Safad register that Hütteroth and Abdulfattah studied was not from 1595/6, but from 1548/9. The stair to the tower roof of the mill, and two more wheel-chambers in the southern part of the mill was added in the Ottoman period.

In 1856 it was named Kurdany on Kiepert's map of Palestine published that year.Kiepert, 1856, Map of Southern Palestine

In 1875 Victor Guérin visited, and noted about Tell el-Kerdaneh: "To the north and bottom of this tell, along the marsh, we observe the remains of an enclosure which measured 54 steps long by 40 wide, and which seems to have been that of a fortified khan. All the walls have been removed; the inner blockage alone partly remained."Guérin, 1880, p. 430 About the surrounding march, and mill, he noted that it was the origin of the Nahr Na'min, and "These springs, at their origin, are immediately abundant enough to form a considerable river and to turn the millstones of a millstone. Near this mill, we note the lower foundations of an old bridge and the remains of a tower pierced with loopholes and ogival vaults. It had two floors, and was built with ashlars on which many crosses were traced, and some at a height that the hand cannot reach. Therefore, these crosses could not be engraved there by passing travelers, who would have needed a ladder to place them so high, but they must go back to the time when this tower was occupied by Christians, and most likely date from the time of the Crusades. Above the front door was a mâchecoulis balcony, the trace of which is very visible."Guérin, 1880, p. 428

In 1881, the PEF's Survey of Western Palestine (SWP) found at Kh. Khurdaneh (east of the mill) only heaps of stones.Conder and Kitchener, 1881, SWP I, p. 314 The name, Kh. Kurdâneh was taken to mean the ruin of Kurdâneh, p.n.Palmer, 1881, p. 112

In 1900, Gottlieb Schumacher found here markings on the mill which he took to be Phoenician.Schumacher, 1900, p. 360

British Mandate era The area was acquired by the Jewish community under the Sursock Purchase. In 1925 a Zionist organisation purchased 1,500 dunums in Kordaneh, from Alfred Sursuk, of the Sursuk family of Beirut. At the time, there were 20 families living there.List of villages sold by Sursocks and their partners to the Zionists since British occupation of Palestine, evidence to the Shaw Commission, 1930

In the 1931 census of Palestine, Mathanat Kurdani was counted under Shefa-'Amr.Mills, 1932, p. 96 (PDF)

Tel Afek

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