Hesbon
Coordinates: 31 ° 49 ′ 7 ″ N , 35 ° 47 ′ 56 ″ E
Heschbon , Tall Ḥisbān ( Arabic حشبون, DMG Ḥašbūn ) is an archaeological site in Jordan, located east of the Jordan River , near Mount Nebo .
Surname
In the Hebrew Bible, the place name occurs in the form Ḥæšbôn (חֶשְׁבּוֹן), Samaritan ʾIšbon . In the Septuagint it is transcribed in Greek as Εσεβων Esebon . Later the place was called in Greek Ἒσβοῦς Esboũs ; this corresponds to the Latin Esbus .
The ecumenical spelling of the biblical place name according to the Loccumer guidelines is Heschbon ; follow z. B. the standard translation , Good News Bible and Luther Bible . The Zurich Bible offers the place name Cheschbon .
Literary testimony
Bible
The books Numbers ( Num 21,21–35 EU ) and Joshua ( Jos 23,10 EU ) report on Israel's victory over the Amorite king Sihon of Heschbon and the division of his land between the tribes Reuben and Gad . According to the Book of Judges ( Judges 11:26 EU ), Israel had Heshbon for three hundred years. At the time of the prophet Isaiah , however, Heshbon belonged to Moab ( Isa 15.4 EU ; 16.8 EU ). Also Jeremiah lamenting the destruction of Heshbon ( Jer 49.3 EU ). In the Song of Songs , the girl's eyes are compared with the “ponds of Heschbon” ( Hld 7.5 EU ); apparently the cisterns there were famous.
Authors of the Hellenistic-Roman period
Flavius Josephus mentions a place Esbonitis or Sebonitis (Jewish Antiquities XIII, xv, 4., XII, iv, 11; Jewish War II, xviii, 1). According to his statements, Alexander Jannäus conquered this city; Herod the Great built a fortress there (Jewish antiquities, XV, viii, 5).
Pliny the Elder mentioned Arabes Esbonitae , "Arabs of Esbon" (Natural History, V, xii, 1). Claudius Ptolemy mentioned Esboús or Esboúta among the cities of the province of Arabia Petraea (Geogr. V, xvi).
The church historian Eusebius and the Byzantine geographer Georgios Kyprios mention the city of late antiquity. It was an important bishopric; Formally, the corresponding titular Catholic diocese of Esbus still exists today .
Middle Ages and Modern Times
In 1184, the Ayyubid historian ed-Dîn mentions a village called Ḥesbân , near which Saladin set up camp before moving on to Kerak with his army . Abu l-Fida , an early 14th century historian, wrote that the capital of the Belka region was Husban . Then the sources remain silent until the travelers of the 19th century who frequently visited the ruins.
Archaeological evidence
Since 1968 the hill of ruins ( Tell ) Ḥesbân, located 20 km southwest of Amman , has been archaeologically researched in several campaigns, initially by teams from Andrews University, a private Seventh-day Adventist university :
- 1968–1973 Siegfried H. Horn;
- 1974-1976 Roger S. Boraas and LT Geraty.
The excavator Horn, his team and the sponsors of his excavation hoped to find the Amorite settlement, which was destroyed during the Israeli conquest and rebuilt by the Ruben tribe.
The ruins of the Roman city including two Byzantine churches and the remains of cisterns were found, as well as a bath from the Ottoman period. The Heschbon ostraka , pottery shards from the 7th and 6th centuries BC, inscribed in a local Canaanite dialect, are also important . Chr.
On the other hand, it seems before 700 BC. To have given only a relatively small settlement; before 1200 BC The site was definitely uninhabited. This contradicts the portrayal of the biblical books Numbers and Joshua that the city was the seat of an important petty king. That is why there are hypotheses that are supposed to support the historicity of the biblical conquest narrative on this point. It is z. B. suggested that the biblical Heschbon was located in another place, about a few kilometers away at Tell Jalul, which has not yet been explored; the city would then have been relocated after the destruction by the Israelites and not rebuilt at the original location.
The excavations resumed in 1997 were devoted to the Islamic settlement phases from the Omayyad to the Ottoman period.
Tourist development
The identification of Tell with the biblical place Heschbon as the scene of the Israelite conquest of the land is a "desirable past" that makes the place relevant for Christian and Jewish, and in some cases also Muslim, visitors. Since Jordan presents itself to tourists as the “Land of the Bible”, appropriate signs have been put up. Part of the local population rejected this interpretation, destroyed the signs and thus came into conflict with the tourism marketing concept.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Art. חֶשְׁבּוֹן In: Gesenius, 18th edition 2013 , p. 407.
- ↑ Øystein Sakala LaBianca, Maria Elena Ronza: Narrating contested pasts: lessons learned at Tall Hisban , Amman 2018, p. 624.
- ↑ Udo Worschech : The country beyond the Jordan: Biblical archeology in Jordan . Brockhaus Verlag / Saatkorn Verlag, 1991, p. 122 f.
- ↑ Øystein Sakala LaBianca, Maria Elena Ronza: Narrating contested pasts: lessons learned at Tall Hisban , Amman 2018, p. 625.
Literature (chronological)
- Immanuel Benzinger: Esbus 1 . In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Volume VI, 1, Stuttgart 1907, Col. 613.
- Roger S. Boraas, Siegfried H. Horn: Heshbon 1968: the first campaign at Tell Ḥesbân; a preliminary report . Andrews University Press, Berrien Springs / Mich. 1969.
- Lawrence T. Geraty (Ed.): Historical Foundations: Studies of Literary References to Hesban and Vicinity (Hesban 3). Berrien Springs / Mich 1989.
- Øystein Sakala LaBianca (Ed.): Sedentarization and Nomadization: Food System Cycles at Hesban and Vicinity in Transjordan (Hesban 1). Berrien Springs / Mich 1990.
- Larry A. Mitchel: Hellenistic and Roman Strata: a Study of the Stratigraphy of Tell Hesban from the 2nd Century BC to the 4th Century AD (Hesban 7). Berrien Springs / Mich 1992.
- Roger S. Boraas, Lawrence T. Geraty, David Merling (Eds.): Hesban after 25 years . Papers presented at the Heshbon Expedition 25th Anniversary, 1968-1993, Symposium, March 20-21, 1993, sponsored by the Siegfried H. Horn Archaeological Museum in cooperation with Andrews University and the Michigan Humanities Council, Berrien Springs / Mich. 1994.
- Paul J. Ray: Tell Hesban and Vicinity in the Iron Age (Hesban 6). Berrien Springs / Mich 2001.
- Øystein Sakala LaBianca, Maria Elena Ronza: Narrating contested pasts: lessons learned at Tall Hisban . Annual of the Department of the Antiquities of Jordan, Amman 2018. ( PDF )
- Bethany Walker et al. (Ed.): Tall Ḥisbān 2016 excavation season: household archeology in the medieval village . Annual of the Department of the Antiquities of Jordan, Amman 2018. ( PDF )