Ain Feshkha
Ain Feshkha ( Arabic عين فشخة, DMG ʿAin Fašḫa ; Hebrew עינות צוקים Einot Tzukim ) is an archaeological site on the northwest coast of the Dead Sea , around three kilometers south of Qumran in the West Bank . The place is named after a nearby brackish water source. It is probably identical to the ancient Engallim . In connection with the work in Qumran, a room in the grounds of Roland de Vaux of the École biblique was excavated in 1956 ; the complete excavation took place in 1958. Yizhar Hirschfeld carried out further work in 2001.
The spring that exists today in Ain-Feshkha is a hundred meters south of the main building and at least three meters lower. In ancient times , a spring that had dried up in the meantime supplied the plant to the north. Since this spring is a few meters higher, it is assumed that it supplied fresh water and not brackish water.
The complex consists of a 24 by 18 meter main building with a central courtyard, a craft installation with two paved basins adjoining it in the northeast, and buildings that give the impression of stables on the west side. De Vaux was able to show that Ain-Feshkha was inhabited at the same time as Qumran and concluded that it was used by the same group.
The main building has the same floor plan as the one in Qumran on a smaller scale with the same orientation. The entrance consisted of two adjacent doors on the east side. At the southeast corner of the building there was a staircase, from which the existence of an upper floor is revealed, at least on the west side.
By means of a canal, water from the (older) spring in the north was led through the surrounding wall to a rectangular tank at both basins. The purpose of this facility is unknown. An early theory adopted a tannery (e.g. for the production of the leather for the Qumran Scrolls ), but this was refuted by Zeuner , who demonstrated that the organic materials required for this trade, such as hair, were not available. so he suggested fish farming instead. More recent studies suggest an indigo manufacture, a production of date wine, date honey or mecca balsam.
The road to the south now leads through the surrounding wall in the west, so that the stables have been completely destroyed.
literature
- Dan Barag: Ein-Feshkha. In: Lawrence H. Schiffman, James C. VanderKam (Eds.): Encyclopedia of the Dead Sea Scrolls. Oxford: Oxford University Press 2000, pp. 237-238.
- Mirielle Bélis: The Workshops at ʿEin Fashkhah: A New Hypothesis. In: Jean-Baptiste Humbert, Jürgen Zangenberg , Katharina Galor (eds.): The Site of the Dead Sea Scrolls: Archaeological Interpretations and Debates. Leiden: Brill 2006, p. ???.
- Immanuel Benzinger : Engallim . In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Volume V, 2, Stuttgart 1905, Col. 2563.
- Roland de Vaux : Fouilles de Feshka, Rapport preliminaire. In: Revue Biblique 66 (1959), pp. 225-255.
- Yizhar Hirschfeld : Qumran in Context: Reassessing the Archaeological Evidence. Peabody, MA: Hendrickson 2004, pp. 183-209.
- Jodi Magness : Archeology and the Dead Sea Scrolls. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans 2002, pp. 210-217.
- Ehud Netzer : Did Any Perfume Industry Exist at ʿEin Fashkhah? In: Israel Exploration Journal 55 (2005), pp. 97-100.
- Joan Taylor: A Fashkha. In: Encyclopaedia Judaica , Ed. 2, Vol. 6, pp. 255-256. Macmillan Reference USA, December 2006. ISBN 0028659287
Footnotes
- ↑ Magness 2002, p. 214.
- ↑ Magness 2002, p. 211.
- ^ De Vaux, Archeology and the Dead Sea Scrolls , 1973, p. 82
- ↑ Bélis 2006
- ↑ Ehud Netzer, quoted in Taylor 2006
- ^ Gideon Hadas, cited in Hirschfeld 2004, p. 207
- ↑ Opobalsam, balm from Commiphora opobalsamum, a shrub of southwestern Arabia, obtained by boiling the branches and used in perfumery (Brockhaus); Hirschfeld 2004, p. 207
- ↑ Hirschfeld 2004, p. 189
Coordinates: 31 ° 42 ′ 52 ″ N , 35 ° 27 ′ 12 ″ E