Marissa (Israel)
Marissa is the ancient name of a small ancient city in what is now Israel . It is located as the city of Judas in the southern foothills.
Naming
The place appears as Marescha in the Bible .
Today's hill of ruins is called Tell Sandahannah . This name comes from the ruins of a church of St. Anne ("Santa Anna").
History of the place
It seems rather unlikely that the place Mukhurti (mu-uch-ra-ash-ti) mentioned in the Amarna letters (14th century BC, Pharaoh Akhenaten ) is identical with Marescha, as excavations did not reveal any finds that are older than the Iron Age . Thus a Canaanite predecessor of the Israelite city is not documented. The place was fortified under Solomon's son Rehoboam (approx. 920 BC) and 587 BC. Destroyed by the Babylonians . The Edomites who are weakening and ultimately destroying the Kingdom of Judahtook advantage of, settled the region and even made Marescha their capital. When the Jews returned from captivity in Babylon in the sixth and fifth centuries, here, as elsewhere, parts of their former sovereign territory were colonized by other ethnic groups. In the fourth century, at the time of Hellenistic supremacy in the Levant , Phoenicians from the city of Sidon settled in the city now called Marissa by the Greeks . The place was Hellenized under the Diadochi and probably rebuilt. From 312 B.C. BC Marissa changed hands several times, Seleucids and Ptolemies ruled alternately, but the city remained the capital of the Edomites, who were now also called Idumeans in Greek . The place was founded in 40 BC. Destroyed by the Parthians and never rebuilt afterwards. This happened in the course of the power struggle between Herod , who was of Idumaean descent and enjoyed the support of Rome as a client king of Judea , and the last Hasmonean ruler, Antigonus , who was allied with the Parthians. The families of Herod and Kostobaros , his brother-in-law, probably came from Marissa.
The inner city was fully excavated from 1898 to 1900 and studied in greater depth than most of the other Hellenistic settlements in Palestine . Further excavations have taken place since then. The inner city of Marissa is only 150 × 160 m in size and surrounded by a wall. In the core there was a main street running east-west and several smaller streets. The plan is somewhat like a chessboard and shows a clear Hellenistic influence. Around this inner city there is the so-called lower city. The houses were often built over caves. Some of them were used as oil presses , another part apparently served as columbaria . Outside the city there is a necropolis with partially decorated tombs.
See also
Web links
literature
- John P. Peters, Hermann Thiersch: Painted Tombs in the necropolis of Marissa (Marêshah). Palestine Exploration Fund, London 1905 ( online at Internet Archive )
- Amos Kloner (ed.): Maresha Excavations Final Report. Vol. 1: Subterranean Complexes 21, 44, 70. IAA Reports 17. Jerusalem 2003. ISBN 965-406-150-3 ; Vol. 2: Hellenistic Terracotta Figurines from the 1989 - 1996 Seasons. IAA Reports 35. Jerusalem 2008. ISBN 978-965-406-201-5
- Amos cloner, Art. Maresha. In: David Noel Freedman (Ed.), The Anchor Bible Dictionary, Doubleday 1992, ISBN 3-438-01121-2 , Vol. 4, pp. 52-525.
Individual evidence
- ^ Avraham Negev and Shimon Gibson (eds.), Archaeological Encyclopedia of the Holy Land , Continuum 2001, p. 315.
Coordinates: 31 ° 36 ' N , 34 ° 54' E