Dok (fortress)

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The fortress Dok (also called Doq , Docus or Dagon ) was one of the fortified places in ancient Judea , which already existed at the time of the Jewish kings from the house of the Hasmoneans (165-37 BC) and from them for protection against internal ones and external enemies were used and expanded.

location

According to the Old Testament, Dok was a “small” fortress, a “fortified place” near the city of Jericho (see 1. Maccabees 16:15 ). The fortress is identified with the archaeological remains on a mountain above Jericho, now called Jabal al-Quruntul in Arabic . The name Dok is received in a modified form in the name of a place four miles northwest of Jericho, "'Ain Dujuk", known for its abundant springs of excellent water.

history

Hasmonean period

The Dok square or - as it is called by the Jewish historian Flavius ​​Josephus - "Dagon" was originally converted into a fortress by Ptolemy, the son of Abubos. In its early use by Ptolemy, who lived around 135 BC. Was governor of Jericho, a dramatic and bloody story is linked to which the 1st Book of the Maccabees and the Jewish historian Flavius ​​Josephus tell.

Ptolemy was married to a daughter of the Jewish ethnarch and high priest Simon , the son of the Hasmonean popular leader Mattatias .

Obviously, Ptolemy did not share the Hasmonean political vision, which was aimed at achieving the greatest possible independence for Judea. Rather, he saw in the resistance of the Hasmoneans against the Seleucid king Antiochus VII. Sidetes a possibility to improve his own position by betraying the Hasmoneans. He is said to have killed his father-in-law Simon Maccabeus after a festive meal. As the Old Testament reports, when Simon and his sons were intoxicated after dinner, Ptolemy and his men suddenly got up, seized their weapons and pounced on their defenseless guests, including probably Simon's wife. They killed the high priest Simon and captured his wife and two sons who were present. So Ptolemy committed "a highly treasonable act and repaid good for evil".

After this murder, Ptolemy tried to eliminate his brother-in-law John Hyrcanus I , who had not attended the feast. His plan failed, however, because Johannes Hyrcanus was warned in good time and was able to neutralize the murderers sent. He was now besieging the traitor Ptolemy, who had holed up with his hostages in the fortress Dok. John Hyrcanus I could not take the fortress, however, because Ptolemy kept him from attacking his mother, who was in his power, by threatening to torture him.

Finally, the Jewish Sabbath year ended in 134/133 BC. BC, which allowed no fighting, the unsuccessful siege of the fortress. John Hyrcanus I had to leave. The cruel Ptolemy killed his mother-in-law and the two brothers of John Hyrcanus and fled across the Jordan to Philadelphia (today's Jordanian capital Amman ) to the tyrant Zeno Kotylas.

Roman period

In Roman times, Dok continued to exist as a fortress. Archaeologists found remains of the complex and dated a protective ditch and a water supply system to this time.

Byzantine period

Around 340 AD, Saint Chariton , founder of the first monastery in the Judah desert , left it due to overcrowding and founded a chapel in Duka on the top of the mountain and another in a cave further down on the eastern slope in the Jesus is said to have stayed. In the Christian tradition, the place has meanwhile been identified with the Mount of Temptation , on which Jesus is said to have fasted for 40 days and tried in vain by the devil ( Mt 4,1-4  EU ), which is why the mountain is named "Qarantal" ( Mountain of Forty Days).

Crusader time

The Templars of the Kingdom of Jerusalem built a castle here again sometime before 1169, called Docus or Castellum Abrahami in Latin at the time.

19th - 21st century

The summit plateau is surrounded by a modern wall that was supposed to encircle a Greek Orthodox monastery, but which was left as a ruin after the donations from the tsarist empire dried up in 1917.

archeology

During excavations in caves near the monastery in 1986 and 1993, numerous archaeological remains from the Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age were found, as well as papyri from the time of the Second Temple and the Bar Kochba uprising . However, the stratigraphy is disturbed by interventions from the Middle Ages and modern times. A Greek newspaper from 1948 and weapons that had been used by the Jordanian army in the Six Day War were also found.

Water supply

The various ancient fortresses located on mountain heights in the Jordan Valley were supplied with water via aqueducts . The aqueducts led the water to the fortress mountains. Since an enemy could easily interrupt the water supply via the aqueduct, it had to be removed and brought up to the mountain by people or animals in containers and then filled into cisterns that had been cut out of the rock. It was one of the tasks of the fortress garrison to ensure that the cisterns were always well filled. Some aqueducts of this type, including that of the Dok Fortress, are already mentioned in the so-called " copper scroll " found in Qumran .

In ancient times, the Dok fortress was supplied with water via a 700 meter long aqueduct. The aqueduct began at the foot of a small waterfall north of the fortress. Most of the cisterns were rectangular and measured between 7.5 m to 14 m in length and 3.5 m to 5.5 m in width. The total capacity of all cisterns was 2090 cubic meters.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Othmar Keel, Max Küchler, Christoph Uehlinger: "Places and Landscapes of the Bible: A Handbook and Study Guide to the Holy Land", 2nd volume. Benziger - Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht 1982, p. 551 ( online copy )
  2. ↑ Cf. 1. Maccabees 16: 15-22; Flavius ​​Josephus, De bello Iudaico, Book I, 2,3-4; Antiquitates Iudaicae, Book XIII, 8, 1.
  3. ↑ The description in 1. Maccabees suggests that this meal took place in the fortress of Dok. Flavius ​​Josephus leaves the place open.
  4. ↑ So Flavius ​​Josephus. According to the description in 1. Maccabees, the sons were also killed on this occasion.
  5. ↑ Cf. Flavius ​​Josephus, De bello Iudaico, Book I 2,4.
  6. ↑ a b "La Sapienza" Expedition to Palestine & Jordan: "Quruntul, Jebel: the fortress of Dock / Duyuk"
  7. ^ Adrian Boas: Archeology of the Military Orders: A Survey of the Urban Centers, Rural Settlements and Castles of the Military Orders in the Latin East (c.1120-1291) . Routledge 2006, ISBN 9780415487238 , p. 221 ( online copy )
  8. ↑ Stephen Langfur, "Jericho: The Mount of Temptation." The Mount of Temptation
  9. ↑ See Hanan Eshel: Aqueducts in the Copper Scroll , p. 100f. Images and maps can also be found there.

literature

  • David Amit: The Water System of Dok Fortress (Dagon) . In: David Amit, Joseph Patrich, Yizhar Hirschfeld : The Aqueducts of Ancient Palestine. Collected essays . Yad Yizhak Ben Zvi Verlag, Jerusalem 1989, ISBN 965-217-063-1 , pp. 223-228.
  • Hanan Eshel : Aqueducts in the Copper Scroll . In: George J. Brooke, Philipp R. Davies (Eds.): Copper Scroll Studies . T&T Clark International, London and New York 2004, ISBN 0-567-08456-6 , pp. 92-107.
  • Günther Garbrecht, Ehud Netzer : The water supply of historical desert fortresses in the Jordan Valley . In: Wiel Dierx, Günther Garbrecht: Water in the Holy Land. Biblical evidence and archaeological research . Verlag Philipp von Zabern, Mainz 2001, ISBN 3-8053-2721-8 , ( series of publications of the Frontinus Society Supplementary Volume 3), pp. 222-239.
  • Günter Garbrecht, Ehud Netzer: The water supply of the historical Jericho and its royal facilities . In: Communications from the Leichtweiß Institute for Hydraulic Engineering at the Technical University of Braunschweig No. 115, 1991.
  • Duane W. Roller: The Building Program of Herod the Great . University of California Press, Berkeley, Los Angeles, London 1998. ISBN 0-520-20934-6 . P. 144 ff.

photos

Coordinates: 31 ° 52 ′ 26.4 "  N , 35 ° 25 ′ 52.8"  E