Kamid el-Loz

17 ■ Yedidya, A., “Between Reform and Apologetic: 2003). The Public Letter of I. M. Jost on ‘Love your Neighbor’ and Rabbi Z. H. Kalischer’s Response,” Zutot 10 (2013) 29–40. ■ Yedidya, A. (ed.), Rabbi Zvi Hirsch Kalischer and Proto-Zionism (Jerusalem 2015). [Heb.] Asaf Yedidya Kallai Kallai (MT Qallāy, “swift,” “trifling,” or “light”; LXX Καλλαι) is mentioned as one of the priests of the line of Sallai who returned from Babylonian exile in Neh 12 : 20. Many scholars argue that Neh 12 : 12–18 is an earlier text than vv. 19–21 and that the six names listed in vv. 19–21 were recorded at a later date (Meyers: 196). Bibliography: York 1965). 18 Kamid el-Loz ■ Meyers, J. M., Ezra, Nehemiah (AB 14; New Mihye Jung Kamid el-Loz Kamid el-Loz is located in the south-eastern part of the Bekaa Valley in Lebanon. Its modern name recalls its ancient name Kumidi mentioned five times in the Amarna Texts of the New Kingdom (EA 129, 197, and 198). Owing to its strategic location at the crossroads of international trade routes connecting the Jordan Valley to northern Syria and Tyre to Damascus, Kamid el-Loz became a trade center during the Bronze Age (Marfoe). It was settled as early as the Early Bronze Age IV up to the Byzantine era (Hachmann 1998: 78). While the city occupied the ancient mound, its cemeteries were scattered extra muros (during the Classical period) and in the nearby hills (Bronze Age) indicating that inhabitants of Kamid el-Loz usually preferred to bury their dead outside the city. Even though the site was not mentioned in the Bible, its strategic location, its important role during the Amarna period, and the wealth of cultic remains found on it are nonetheless important for scholars studying biblical-related issues such as religion and commerce. German excavations conducted at the site from 1963 to 1981 (R. Hachmann at the University of Saarbrücken) and from 1997 onwards (M. Heinz at the University of Freiburg) uncovered a thriving city with fortification walls, administrative and religious buildings dated to the Middle and Late Bronze Age (Heinz 2004). Walls were built with fieldstones and mudbricks while posts, ceilings, and floors of upper stories were made of oak and cedar wood. Economy relied on trade as well as farming, animal husbandry (cattle, sheep, pigs), and hunting (deer and bears). Evidence of literacy is attested by the seven cuneiform tablets found in the Late Bronze II palace at the site: Kamid el-Loz (KL) 69/100, KL69/279, KL69/278, KL69/277, KL72/600, KL74/300, and KL78/200 (Hachmann 2012). Encyclopedia of the Bible and Its Reception vol. 15 © Walter de Gruyter, Berlin/Boston, 2017 The city of Kamid el-Loz grew substantially during the relative peaceful period of the Middle Bronze Age and became an important economic, political, and military center responsible for securing the trade route passing through the Bekaa Valley. Excavations uncovered parts of a vast palace. The surge in international commerce in the eastern Mediterranean allowed Kamid el-Loz to continue thriving during the Late Bronze Age. During the 14th century BCE (Late Bronze Age II), the site became one of four garrisons established by the Egyptians in the Levant. According to two tablets from the Amarna archives, EA 129 and EA 132, and one tablet, KL 74/300, found in the rubble of palace P4 at Kamid el-Loz, Kumidi had an Egyptian governor (rabu or rabisu). During the reign of Amenophis III, it had a local administrator or king, Arahattu/ Arassa (EA 198), who was eventually replaced by an Egyptian governor, Puhuru, during the reign of Akhenaton (Kulemann-Ossen: 151). The Late Bronze Age city yielded impressive public and cultic architecture erected on the same locations of the previous Middle Bronze Age palace and temple, thus attesting to a smooth continuity between these two periods. The Late Bronze Age temple occupied a 600 m2 area. It consisted of two adjacent courtyards flanked by three small rooms. The western courtyard C and two of the rooms A and B were used as sanctuaries while room N was used for domestic purposes. Courtyard C included an altar and three cultic basins and the cella had an altar made in mudbricks with two wood columns placed on each side. Animal bones (cow, pig, goat, sheep, gazelle, birds) were found in all rooms indicating sacrificial activities in the temple. Numerous ex-votos such as carnelian and bronze beads and rings, as well as bronze arrowheads were scattered on the temple grounds. The god or goddess worshipped in this temple is yet unknown in spite of the rich offerings found. In 2002, domestic living quarters consisting of a network of small houses and alleys were uncovered in the vicinity of the temple (Heinz 2004: 580). The Late Bronze palace, established at the highest point of the settlement, was fitted with a monumental entrance and a staircase leading to a second floor. In its vicinity, a metal workshop area, serving the temple, was established. Both temple and palace were renovated several times during the Late Bronze Age. A rich built tomb (royal?) formerly mistaken for a treasure house (Schatzhaus) was found east of the Late Bronze palace (Adler). Three skeletons (one adult and two children) were found buried with a trove of luxurious objects in pottery, alabaster, ivory, faience, and precious metals imported from Egypt, Cyprus, and Greece. A ring fitted with a scarab of Thutmose III was found in one of the rooms of this tomb (Heinz 2004: fig. 10). After the collapse of the superpowers in the eastern Mediterranean at the end of the Late Bronze Authenticated | [email protected] Download Date | 8/17/17 5:36 PM 19 Age, Kamid el-Loz declined to a small rural settlement, albeit fortified (Heinz 2004: 581), as attested by the modest houses built mainly in wood and the disappearance of imports from Cyprus, Egypt, and the Aegean. No palaces or temples were found during the Iron Age I (Kulemann-Ossen: 155). It is important to note that no destructions were observed at the beginning of this period that could be attributed to outside invasions similar to those witnessed on some coastal Levantine sites. During the Iron Age III (Persian Period), the mound was converted into a burial area where many rich tombs were found (Heinz 2010: 29). Attic lekythoi and silvers coins minted in Sidon found in some tombs attest to the revival of Kamid el-Loz during this period. A series of domestic dwellings and tombs found in the 1999–2005 excavations gave proof that Kamid el-Loz continued to subsist during the Hellenistic and Roman periods and maintained international trade connections (Heinz 2010: 11–19). Hellenistic houses contained amphorae imported from Rhodes and marked with seals on their handles. One of them was stamped with the name of a Rhodian year “EIIIAPX(E)MBPOT” dating the vessel to 145–108 BCE (Heinz 2010: 18). The Roman period saw a substantial increase in human settlements in the Bekaa Valley. Romans established numerous towns and erected multiple sanctuaries such as those at Baalbek. The three Roman houses found at Kamid el-Loz yielded ovens, storage jars, glass bracelets, and ivory, as well as possible evidence for metal working (Heinz 2010: 15). A quarry located south of the site yielded more than thirty-two Aramaic/Syriac inscriptions dated to the 8th century CE (Elitzur/Erlich: 711). These were carved by Christians Nestorians brought from Iraq to work this quarry. More than fifty percent of the inscriptions mention bltmya, an unknown word in the Syriac language that derives from the Greek λατοµα meaning “quarry”. This quarry belonged (?) to a Christian religious leader (rēš pathora) named Mar-Addai who came to Kamed el-Loz from the valley of Nineveh in northern Iraq. Bibliography: ■ Adler, W., Kamid el-Loz 11: Das ‘Schatzhaus’ im Palastbereich: Die Befunde des Königsgrabes (SBA 47; Bonn 1994). ■ Elitzur, Y./Z. Erlich, “A New Bltmya Inscription from Kāmed El-Lawz in the Lebanon Valley,” JAOS 105.4 (1985) 711–14. ■ Hachmann, R., “Kamid el-Loz: Métropole de la Beqaa,” in Liban: l’autre rive (Exhibition Catalogue, Institut du monde arabe; Paris 1998) 78–81. ■ Hachmann, R., Kamid el-Loz 20: Die Keilschriftbriefe und der Horizont von elAmarna (SBA 87; Bonn 2012). ■ Heinz, M., “Kamid el-Loz: From Village to City and Back to Village: 3000 Years of Settlement History in the Beqaa Plain,” in Decade: A Decade of Archaeology and History in the Lebanon (ed. C. Doumet-Serhal; Beirut 2004) 560–81. ■ Heinz, M. (ed.), Kamid el-Loz: Intermediary between Cultures: More than 10 Years of Archaeological Research in Kamid el-Loz (1997 to 2007) (BAAL Hors-Série 7; ■ Kulemann-Ossen, S., “Kamid el-Loz/ Beirut 2010). Kumidi,” in Libanon: Treffpunkte der Kulturen (ed. M. Heinz/ W. Vollner; Berlin 2010) 149–65. ■ Marfoe, L., Kamid el-Loz Encyclopedia of the Bible and Its Reception vol. 15 © Walter de Gruyter, Berlin/Boston, 2017 20 Kamon 13: The Prehistoric and Early Historic Context of the Site (SBA 41; Bonn 1995). ■ Metzger, M., Kamid el-Loz 7: Die spätbronzezeitlichen Tempelanlagen (SBA 35; Bonn 1991). Hanan Charaf Kamon Kamon (MT Qāmôn; LXX Ραμνων) is the burial place of the minor judge Jair in Judg 10 : 5. The identification of the place is debated. On account of Eusebius and Jerome some scholars look for a place in Cisjordan. However, it is more likely that the burial place of the judge was in the vicinity of the “villages of Jair” – i.e., in Gilead. Since Deut 3 : 14 mentions the “villages of Jair” in connection with the conquest of Argob, Kamon should be looked for between the rivers Jabbok and Yarmuk. Two places may preserve the name of Kamon: Qamm and Qumeim. However, no archaeological evidence for an Iron Age settlement has been discovered there. Bibliography: ■ Mullen, E. T. Jr., “The ‘Minor Judges’: Some Literary and Historical Considerations,” CBQ 44 (1982) 185–201. István Karasszon See also /Jair Kanah 1. A Brook Kanah (MT Qānâ; LXX Κα[ρα]να/Χελκανα) is a brook defining the boundary between Ephraim and Manasseh. According to Josh 16 : 8, it flows westward from Tappuah and pours into the Mediterranean. Josh 17 : 9 suggests that some towns of Manasseh lie to the south of the brook, in the tribal allotment of Ephraim. The brook is often identified with Wadi/naḥal Qana, today the northernmost tributary of the Yarkon River that empties into the Mediterranean. There is an assumption that the brook, without joining the Yarmuk, flowed directly into the Mediterranean in ancient times, somewhere near modern Apollonia Arsuf. 2. A Town Kanah (MT Qānâ; LXX Καν[θ]α[ν]) is a town mentioned together with Ebron, Rehob, Hammon and Great Sidon in the tribal allotment of Asher, on its northern border (Josh 19 : 28). It is sometimes identified with Qana, a small modern town, ca. 10 km southeast of Tyre, and with q–n mentioned in some reliefs of the Egyptian kings of the 18th and 19th Dynasties. Shuichi Hasegawa Kanah (in Galilee) /Cana of Galilee Authenticated | [email protected] Download Date | 8/17/17 5:36 PM