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Abandonment of Samaria
ancient city in the West Bank, Palestine
- 6th century – 6th century CE
- Middle East
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ancient city in the West Bank, Palestine
Fetching the article from Wikipedia…
Samaria (Hebrew: שֹׁמְרוֹן Šōmrōn; Akkadian: 𒊓𒈨𒊑𒈾 Samerina; Greek: Σαμάρεια Samareia) was the capital city of the northern Kingdom of Israel between c. 880 BC and c. 720 BC. The city gave its name to the surrounding region of Samaria, a historical region bounded by Judea to the south and by Galilee to the north. Strategically situated on a high hill, Samaria commanded views of the surrounding fertile countryside and was located near key trade routes connecting the highlands with the coastal plain.
Samaria was founded as Israel's royal capital by King Omri (884–873 BC), replacing Tirzah. According to the biblical account, which was composed in Judah but likely preserves records from Israel (possibly from Samaria itself), Omri purchased the hill from its previous owner, Shemer, for two talents of silver. Under the Omride dynasty, Samaria developed into a major royal and administrative center. Excavations reveal a massive palace complex, one of the largest in the Levant from this period, constructed in two main phases corresponding to the reigns of Omri and his successor, Ahab. Notable finds from the Israelite period include the Samaria Ivories, intricately carved ivory fragments inspired by Phoenician art, and the Samaria Ostraca, Hebrew-inscribed potsherds recording transactions such as shipments of wine and oil, which provide insight into the kingdom's bureaucratic organization.
After the Assyrian conquest of Israel c. 720 BC, Samaria was annexed by the Neo-Assyrian Empire and continued as an administrative centre. It retained this status in the Neo-Babylonian Empire and the Achaemenid Persian Empire before being destroyed during the Wars of Alexander the Great. The town was re-established as a military colony populated by Macedonian settlers, a status it retained until its conquest by the Hasmoneans. Later, under the hegemony of the Roman Republic and the subsequent Roman Empire, the city was rebuilt and expanded by the Jewish king Herod the Great, who also fortified it and renamed it "Sebastia" in honour of the Roman emperor Augustus.
The ancient city's hill is where the modern Palestinian village, retaining the Roman-era name Sebastia, is situated. The local archeological site is jointly administered by Israel and the Palestinian Authority, and is located on the hill's eastern slope. The remains are situated on the eastern part of the hill, and include the Omride palace, fortifications, the Herodian Augusteum, a stadium, and other public structures.
Samaria's biblical name, Šōmrōn (שֹׁמְרוֹן), means "watch" or "watchman" in Hebrew. The Hebrew Bible derives the name from the individual (or clan) Shemer (Hebrew: שמר), from whom King Omri (ruled 880s–870s BC) purchased the hill in order to build his new capital city (1 Kings 16:24).
In earlier cuneiform inscriptions, Samaria is referred to as "Bet Ḥumri" ("the house of Omri"); but in those of Tiglath-Pileser III (ruled 745–727 BC) and later it is called Samirin, after its Aramaic name, Shamerayin. The city of Samaria gave its name to the mountains of Samaria, the central region of the Land of Israel, surrounding the city of Shechem. This usage probably began after the city became Omri's capital, but is first documented only after its conquest by Sargon II of Assyria, who turned the kingdom into the province of Samerina.
Samaria is strategically situated on a steep, high hill in a fertile region, commanding key trade routes and offering a commanding view of the surrounding countryside, which enhanced its defensive and administrative significance. In antiquity, the city was situated northwest of Shechem, near a major road leading westward to the Sharon Plain on the coast, and another heading northward through the Jezreel Valley to Phoenicia. This advantageous position likely played a role in Omri's foreign policy. The city lies approximately 50 kilometres (31 mi) north of Jerusalem.
Archaeological evidence indicates that the hill of Samaria was already occupied and cultivated in the Iron Age I, several centuries before Omri purchased the site in the 9th century BC. Bedrock installations, including oil and wine presses as well as bell-shaped cisterns, point to intensive agricultural activity during this period, particularly in viticulture and olive production. Pottery from Samaria's earliest phases includes forms datable no later than the 11th century BC, with close parallels at Megiddo, Taanach, and Tell Qasile. This material demonstrates continuous activity on the site from at least the 11th century until the establishment of Omri's capital in the early 9th century.
Stager interprets these finds as evidence not of a "phantom" village, as earlier scholars had suggested, but of a substantial agricultural estate. He proposes that this was the estate of the clan of Shemer (or Shomron) mentioned in 1 Kings 16:24, and suggests that it likely included vineyards and olive groves on the surrounding slopes. The identification of these agricultural installations with the biblical estate of Shemer is also supported by Israel Finkelstein. The earliest reference to a settlement at this location may be the town of Shemer, or Shamir, which according to the Hebrew Bible was the home of the judge Tola in the 12th century BC (Judges 10:1–2). Stager further suggests a link between the estate and families of the tribe of Issachar, possibly the lineage of Tola, whose ancestral seat at Shamir may be connected linguistically and historically to Samaria's early name. The 'sons of Issachar' recorded in the genealogy of 1 Chronicles 7:1 relate Tola, the firstborn, to a brother named Shimron (according to the Masoretic Text) or Shomron (in the Septuagint), a name that likely gave rise to Samaria.
Samaria was established as the royal capital of Israel by Omri (884–873 BC), replacing Tirzah as the kingdom's political center. According to the biblical Books of Kings, Omri purchased the hill from its previous owner, Shemer, for two talents of silver and constructed a city on its broad summit, naming it Šōmrōn (Shomron), which later became known as Samaria in Greek. The biblical record of the purchase for two talents of silver suggests that the hill was already a productive and established estate rather than a barren site. The relocation of the capital may have been motivated by a desire to strengthen connections with the coastal plain and the port of Dor.
Under the Omride dynasty (a period archaeologically referred to as late Iron Age II), a massive royal complex was constructed in Samaria, including a casemate wall and a palace considered one of the largest Iron Age structures in the Levant. Remains from the early Iron Age II (IIA) are missing or unidentified; Franklin believes this phase consisted of merely an agricultural estate. Excavations indicate that the palatial complex was built in two primary phases, corresponding to the reigns of Omri and Ahab. According to archaeologist Israel Finkelstein, the construction of the first palace marked the start of Israel's evolution into a more complex kingdom. A subsequent phase of urban development in the capital and across the kingdom reflects a more advanced stage of the dynasty, probably occurring during the reign of Ahab (873–852 BC). Omri is thought to have granted the Arameans the right to "make streets in Samaria" as a sign of submission (1 Kings 20:34).
It was the only great city of Israel created by the sovereign. All the others had been already consecrated by patriarchal tradition or previous possession. But Samaria was the choice of Omri alone. He, indeed, gave to the city which he had built the name of its former owner, but its especial connection with himself as its founder is proved by the designation which it seems Samaria bears in Assyrian inscriptions, "Beth-Khumri" ("the house or palace of Omri"). (Stanley)
Samaria is frequently the subject of sieges in the biblical account. During the reign of Ahab, it says that Hadadezer of Aram-Damascus attacked it along with thirty-two vassal kings, but was defeated with a great slaughter (1 Kings 20:1–21). A year later, he attacked it again, but he was utterly routed once more, and was compelled to surrender to Ahab (1 Kings 20:28–34), whose army was no more than "two little flocks of kids" compared to that of Hadadezer (1 Kings 20:27).
According to 2 Kings, Ben Hadad of Aram-Damascus laid siege to Samaria during the reign of Jehoram, but just when success seemed to be within his reach, his forces suddenly broke off the siege, alarmed by a mysterious noise of chariots and horses and a great army, and fled, abandoning their camp and all its contents. The starving inhabitants of the city feasted on the spoils from the camp. As Prophet Elisha had predicted, "a measure of fine flour was sold for a shekel, and two measures of barley for a shekel, in the gates of Samaria" (2 Kings 6–7).
Towards the end of the 8th century BC, possibly in 722 BC, Samaria was captured by the Neo-Assyrian Empire.
Finkelstein has suggested that the biblical accounts of the northern Israelite kings may have been composed in Samaria or at the sanctuary of Bethel. Following the fall of the northern kingdom in the eighth century BC, these records were transmitted to Judah, where they were eventually incorporated into the Hebrew Bible.
Samaria became an administrative center under Assyrian, Babylonian, and Persian rule.
During the Persian period, Samaria appears to have been a prosperous city. Excavations indicate that much of the site from this period was later destroyed or built over during the Hellenistic period, so surviving evidence is limited. Finds include coins, some Greek pottery, seal impressions, limestone altars, and Aramaic-inscribed sherds. A building with plastered floors and circular basins may have served as an industrial facility. Archaeological layers reveal extensive leveling and preparation of the summit, with fertile soil spread over a broad area, possibly for a Persian-style garden or park.
During the Hellenistic period, Samaria underwent a significant demographic transformation. According to Curtius Rufus, writing several centuries later, the Samaritans staged a revolt against Alexander the Great, during which they burned the new Macedonian governor of Coele-Syria alive. Alexander traveled to Samaria and executed those responsible, who had been handed over to him. According to Eusebius's Chronicon, he also razed the city before establishing it as a military colony. Later, Eusebius notes that in 296 BC, Samaria was destroyed once more by Demetrius Poliorcetes during a military campaign conducted in opposition to Ptolemaic control of the region.
Following the Hellenistic conquest, the city was settled by Macedonian colonists, displacing the local Samaritan population. The Samaritans instead settled at the nearby, then abandoned site of Shechem. Archaeological evidence from this period indicates a transition from indigenous, informal housing to more structured Hellenistic-style homes, as well as the development of an urban layout organized around a main street with secondary streets branching from it. Around 200 BC, the Macedonian settlers repaired and reinforced the existing Israelite fortifications of the upper city: the corners of the ramparts were flanked by strong round towers, three of which have been excavated: two at the southwest corner and one at the northeast corner, described as "the finest monument of the Hellenistic age" in the region. Archaeological remains from the third century BC on the northern slope of the tell include two reliefs depicting symbols associated with the Dioscuri and a dedication to the Egyptian deities Isis and Serapis, indicating the practice of Hellenistic religion by the Greek colonists. The latter is a Greek dedicatory inscription on black limestone reading, "Hegesandros, Xenarchis and their children to Sarapis Isis," which may have originated from a Ptolemaic-period temple dedicated to these deities.
During the Hasmonean Revolt, the Seleucid general Apollonius raised an army that included Macedonian troops from Samaria to fight against the Jewish rebels led by Judas Maccabeus; this force was defeated at the Battle of the Ascent of Lebonah in 167/6 BC. By the mid-second century BC, in response to the expansion of the Jewish Hasmonean state, the inhabitants rebuilt the upper city wall. The new wall incorporated numerous salient projections, measured approximately 4 meters thick, and reused material from the earlier Israelite rampart. In the beginning, the older towers were kept to strengthen the wall, but they were soon replaced with protruding quadrangular bastions. The lower town was also fortified, combining reused Israelite masonry with new Hellenistic construction.
In the late second century BC, Samaria was captured by the Hasmoneans under John Hyrcanus following a siege led by his sons, Antigonus and Aristobulus, which began sometime between 111 and 107 BC. According to Josephus, Hyrcanus' aimed to punish the inhabitants for attacks they had carried out against the people of Maresha. Bezalel Bar-Kochva, following an emendation proposed by Michael Avi-Yonah, argues that Josephus's reference to the Mariseans is a textual corruption of "Gariseans", referring to the inhabitants of Gerasa (modern Jurish, southeast of Shechem). He argues that Hyrcanus used attacks on the settlement as a pretext to complete Hasmonean control of the central Samarian highland ridge. The defenders of Samaria appealed to Antiochus IX for assistance, including a force of 6,000 troops supplied by Ptolemy IX, but these reinforcements were defeated. According to Megillat Taanit 25, "Samaria-wall" fell on 25 Marheshvan. Josephus reports that John Hyrcanus razed the city, digging channels so that rainwater would gradually erase the ruins. This act was probably intended to fulfill a prophecy mentioned in Micah 1:6.
The Romans, who conquered Judaea in 63 BC, generally favored restoring or enhancing Hellenized cities as centers of local administration. In 55 BC, the Roman governor of Syria Aulus Gabinius reportedly ordered the rebuilding of several towns, including Samaria.
Text from the Wikipedia article “Samaria (ancient city)”, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.