Editing Adullam (section)

==History==
===Late Bronze Age, Iron Age and Hebrew Bible===
[[File:Millstone in Adullam.jpg|thumb|Millstone in an oil press cave]]
The "Adullam" mentioned in the [[Hebrew Bible]] is thought to be identical with ''Tell Sheikh Madkhur''.<ref name="Aharoni1979"/><ref name="Shaw1993">{{Harvnb|Shaw|1993|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=3VZ5JDCedtoC&pg=PA45 45]}}</ref><ref name="AmitDavid">{{Harvnb|Amit|n.d.|pp=332–333}}</ref><ref>{{Harvnb|Conder|1879|p=[https://archive.org/details/tentworkinpalest02conduoft/page/156/mode/2up?view=theater 156]}}, who wrote: "The term ''Shephelah'' is used in the [[Talmud]] to mean the low hills of soft limestone, which, as already explained, form a distinct district between the plain and the watershed mountains. The name ''Sifla'', or ''Shephelah'', still exists in four or five places within the region round Beit Jibrîn, and we can therefore have no doubt as to the position of that district, in which Adullam is to be sought. [[Clermont-Ganneau|M. Clermont Ganneau]] was the fortunate explorer who first recovered the name, and I was delighted to find that Corporal Brophy had also collected it from half a dozen different people, without knowing that there was any special importance attaching to it. The title being thus recovered, without any leading question having been asked, I set out to examine the site, the position of which agrees almost exactly with the distance given by [[Jerome]], between [[Bayt Jibrin|Eleutheropolis]] and Adullam—ten Roman miles."</ref> The so-called "Biblical period", for time reference-sake, has been referred to by historians and archaeologists as the [[Late Bronze Age]] and the [[Iron Age]], meaning, the Late Canaanite and Israelite periods, respectively.<ref>{{Harvnb|Rainey|1983|p=1}}</ref> [[Anson Rainey|A.F. Rainey]] recognized Adullam (''Kh. esh-Sheikh Madhkûr'') as a Late Bronze Age site.<ref>{{Harvnb|Rainey|1983|p=3}}</ref>

By the [[Iron Age]],<ref>{{Harvnb|DiVietro|2022|p=133 (note 49)}}</ref> Adullam is referred to in the [[Hebrew Bible]] as being one of the royal cities of the Canaanites,<ref>{{bibleverse|Joshua|12:15|HE}}</ref> and is listed along with the cities [[Tel Yarmuth|Jarmuth]] and [[Socho]] as occupying a place in the region geographically known as the ''Shefelah'',<ref>{{bibleverse|Joshua|15:33-35|HE}}</ref> or what is a place of transition between the mountainous region and the coastal plains.

It was here that Judah, the son of [[Jacob]] (Israel), came when he left his father and brothers in [[Migdal Eder (biblical location)|Migdal Eder]]. Judah befriended a certain Hirah, an Adullamite.<ref name="AmitDavid"/><ref>{{bibleverse|Genesis|38:1|HE}}</ref> In Adullam, Judah met his first wife (unnamed in the [[Book of Genesis]]), the daughter of [[Shuah]].

During the period of the [[Book of Joshua#Narrative|Israelite conquest]] of the land of Canaan, Adullam was one of many city-states with independent and sovereign kings.<ref>{{Harvnb|Ben-Yosef|n.d.|p=31}}</ref> According to the same biblical source, the king of Adullam was slain by [[Joshua]] and the [[Israelites]] during their conquest of the land.<ref>{{bibleverse|Joshua|12:7-15|HE}}</ref> The immediate lands were, by what was thought to be a "divine act" of casting lots, given as a tribal inheritance to the progeny of Judah.<ref>{{bibleverse|Joshua|14:1-2|HE}}; {{bibleverse|Joshua|15:1-35|HE}}</ref>

More than 400 years later, the scene of David's victory over [[Goliath]] in the [[Elah valley]] was within a short distance from Adullam, at that time a frontier village.<ref name="AmitDavid"/><ref>{{bibleverse|1|Samuel|17:2|HE}}</ref> Although David was elevated and allowed to sit in King Saul's presence, he soon fell into disrepute with the king and was forced to flee. 
[[File:Adullam,_the_hilltop_ruin.jpg|thumb|right|Ruin of Adullam. ''Wely Madkour'']]
David sought refuge in Adullam after being expelled from the city of [[Gath (city)|Gath]] by King [[Achish]]. The [[1 Samuel|Book of Samuel]] refers to the Cave of Adullam where he found protection while living as a refugee from King Saul. Certain caves, [[grotto]]s and [[sepulchres]] are still to be seen on the hilltop, as well as on its northern and eastern slopes. It was there that "every one that was in distress gathered together, and every one that was in debt, and every one that was discontented."<ref>{{bibleverse|1|Samuel|22:2|HE}}</ref> There, David thirsted for the well-waters of his native Beth-lehem, then occupied by a Philistine garrison. A party of David's mighty-men of valor went and fetched him water from that place, but, when they returned, David refused to drink it.<ref>{{bibleverse|2 Samuel|23:13-17|HE}}</ref>

In the 10th-century BCE, Adullam was thought to have strategic importance, prompting King David's grandson, [[Rehoboam]] (c. 931–913 BCE), to fortify the town, among others, against [[Ancient Egypt]].<ref name="AmitDavid"/><ref name="Clermont-Ganneau1875"/><ref>{{Harvnb|Beyer|1931|pp=115, 129–134}}</ref><ref>{{bibleverse|2|Chronicles|11:7|HE}}</ref> According to Israeli historian [[:he:נדב נאמן|N.]]{{nbsp}}[[:he:נדב נאמן|Naʾaman]], this was not a fortress in the real sense, but only a town inhabited by a civilian population, although it functioned as an administrative military center in which a garrison was stationed and food and armor stored.<ref>{{Harvnb|Naʾaman|1986|p=6}}</ref>

===Assyrian and Chaldean conquests===
In the late 8th-century BCE, the [[Book of Micah]] recalled the cities of the lowlands of Judah during a time of [[Assyria]]n encroachment in the country:<ref>{{Harvnb|Laato|1995|pp=213–215, esp. p. 214 (note 19)}}</ref><ref>{{Harvnb|Rainey|1983|pp=15–16}}</ref> "I will yet bring unto thee, O inhabitant of [[Maresha]]h, him that shall possess thee; he shall come even unto Adullam, O glory of Israel."<ref>{{bibleverse||Micah|1:15|HE}}, following the interpretation of the verse by [[Rashi]].</ref>

[[Sennacherib]], during his [[Sennacherib#War in the Levant|third military campaign]], despoiled many of the cities belonging to Judah.<ref>{{cite book|last=Luckenbill |first=D.D. |author-link=Daniel David Luckenbill |editor=James Henry Breasted |title=The Annals of Sennacherib|volume=2 |publisher=The University of Chicago Press |location=Chicago |date=1924|pages=32–33|oclc=610530695|url=https://isac.uchicago.edu/research/publications/oip/oip-2-annals-sennacherib |quote=As for Hezekiah, the Jew, who did not submit to my yoke, forty-six of his strong, walled cities, as well as the small cities in their neighborhood, which were without number...I besieged and took. Two-hundred thousand, and one-hundred and fifty people, great and small, male and female, horses, mules, asses, camels, cattle and sheep, without number, I brought away from them and counted as spoil. Himself, like a caged bird, I shut up in Jerusalem his royal city... The cities of his, which I had despoiled, I cut off from his land and to Mitinti, king of Ashdod, [and to] Padi, king of Ekron, [and to] Silli-bel, king of Gaza, I gave. And (thus) I diminished his land.}}</ref> The Assyrian period was followed by the rise of the [[Neo-Babylonian Empire]], a time marked by general unrest and the eventual [[Babylonian captivity|deportation of the inhabitants of Judah]] by the Neo-Babylonian army in the sixth century BCE.<ref>{{Harvnb|Faust|2012|pp=140–143}}</ref> Adullam, as with other towns of the region, would not have gone unaffected.

===Persian period===
The only record of Adullam for this time-period (c. 539–331 BCE) is taken from the [[Hebrew Bible|Hebrew canonical books]], specifically the account of [[Nehemiah]] who returned with the Jewish exiles from the [[Babylonian captivity]], during the reign of [[Artaxerxes I]].<ref name="Clermont-Ganneau1875"/> According to [[Ezra]], the acclaimed author of the book,<ref>Among the 24 books of the Hebrew canon, the [[Book of Ezra]] and the [[Book of Nehemiah]] are numbered as one book, and which, according to [[Babylonian Talmud]] (''[[Baba Bathra]]'' 15a), was compiled by [[Ezra the Scribe]].</ref> some of these returnees had settled in Adullam.<ref name="AmitDavid"/><ref>{{bibleverse|Nehemiah|11:25-30|HE}}</ref><ref name="EncyclopaediaJudaica"/> According to Nehemiah, the postexilic community that resettled in Adullam traced their lineage to the tribe of Judah.

The political entity that was established in Judea at the time was that of a vassal state, as Judea became a province of the [[Persian Empire]], governed by a [[satrap]].<ref>{{Harvnb|Ben-Yosef|n.d.|pp=36–37 (s.v. {{Script/Hebrew|סקירה היסטורית-ישובית}})}}</ref>

===Hellenistic, Roman and Byzantine periods===
Few records abound for the site during the classical period. In 163 BCE, it was in Adullam that [[Judas Maccabaeus]], the principal leader of the [[Maccabean Revolt]] during a time of foreign dominion in the country, retired with his fighting men, after returning from war against the [[Idumaeans]] and the [[Seleucid Empire|Seleucid]] general, [[Gorgias (general)|Gorgias]].<ref name="AmitDavid"/><ref>[[2 Maccabees]] 12:32–38; [[Josephus]] (''[[Antiquities of the Jews|Antiquities]]'' 6.12.3.; 8.10.1.)</ref><ref>{{Harvnb|Clermont-Ganneau|1875|pp=171–172}}</ref><ref>{{Harvnb|Rainey|1983|p=18}}</ref><ref name="EncyclopaediaJudaica">{{Harvnb|Encyclopaedia Judaica|1971|p=311 (s.v. Adullam)}}</ref> Adullam stood near the highway which later became the [[Roman road]] in the Valley of Elah, which road led from [[Jerusalem]] to [[Bayt Jibrin|Beit Gubrin]].

As late as the early 4th century CE, Adullam was described by [[Eusebius]] as being "a very large village about ten [Roman] miles east of [[Bayt Jibrin|Eleutheropolis]]."<ref>{{Harvnb|Notley|Safrai|2005|pp=27 (§77), 82 (§414)}}. As for the word "east," this is not to be understood directly east in relation to Beit Gubrin (Eleutheropolis), as proven by other descriptions of biblical place names in Eusebius' writings, but can also mean "northeast", as in this case, or "southeast".</ref>
[[File:Kh. esh Sheikh Madkour (Adullam - Upper site).jpg|thumb|Cave-like structure at the Upper site of Adullam]]

===Ottoman period===
Adullam was an inhabited village in the late 16th century. An Ottoman [[Daftar|tax ledger]] of 1596 lists {{lang|ar|ʻAyn al-Mayyā}} {{sic}} ({{langx|ar|عين الميا}}) in the ''[[nahiya]]'' ''[[Hebron|Ḫalīl]]'' (Hebron subdistrict), and where it is noted that it had thirty-six Muslim heads of households.<ref name="Hütteroth 1977 122">{{Harvnb|Hütteroth|Abdulfattah|1977|p=122}}</ref> The copyist of the same tax ledger had erroneously mistaken the Arabic ''dal'' in the document for a ''nun'', and which name has since been corrected by historical geographers Yoel Elitzur and [[Ehud R. Toledano|Toledano]] to read {{lang|ar|ʻA'ïd el-Miah}} ({{langx|ar|عيد الميا}}), based on the entry's number of fiscal unit in the ''daftar'' and its corresponding place on Hütteroth's map.<ref>{{Harvnb|Elitzur|2004|p=137}}; (The number of fiscal unit in the ''daftar'', corresponding to the map, is "P-17").</ref><ref>{{Harvnb|Toledano|1984|pp=279–ff.}}</ref> Local inhabitants grew wheat and barley, as well as cultivated olives. Total revenues accruing from the village for that year amounted to 5160 ''[[akçe]]''.<ref name="Hütteroth 1977 122"/>
[[File:Adullam ruin in foreground.jpg|thumb|Biblical ruin of Adullam, the Lower site known as ʻAid al-Mieh (in foreground)]]
According to [[C. R. Conder|Conder]], an ancient road, leading from [[Beth-zur|Beit Sur]] to [[Isdud]] once passed through ''ʿAīd el Mâ'' (Adullam) and was still partially visible.<ref>{{Harvnb|Conder|Kitchener|1883|p=[https://archive.org/stream/surveyofwesternp03conduoft#page/318/mode/1up 318]}}</ref>

French [[Oriental studies|orientalist]] and archaeologist, Charles Clermont-Ganneau, visited the site in 1874 and wrote: "The place is absolutely uninhabited, except during the rainy season, when the herdsmen take shelter there for the night."<ref>{{Harvnb|Clermont-Ganneau|1896|p=[https://archive.org/stream/archaeologicalre02cler#page/458/mode/2up 459]}}</ref>

The Arabs of [[Bayt Nattif]] in the 19th century, when asked about the meaning of the name of the nearby ruin, {{lang|ar|ʻA'ïd el-Miah}}, related their own legend about the origin of the name. According to their version, the name {{lang|ar|ʻA'ïd el-Miah}} = lit. "Holiday of the Hundred," revolves around an event that occurred there, years ago. According to their story, a large fight broke out on a holiday, in which a hundred people were killed and the settlement destroyed. In memory of the event, the ruins of the settlement were named {{lang|ar|ʻA'ïd el-Miah}}, which means "Holiday of the Hundred."<ref name="AmitDavid"/> Scholars explain this as a case of 'popular etymology', where, in Palestinian toponyms, the original denotation of a town's name is often "re-interpreted" by its local population.<ref>{{Harvnb|Zadok|1995–1997|p=98}}</ref>