Pella (Jordan)

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Map of the Decapolis with Pella
Excavation plan

Pella , Arabic طبقة فحل Tabaqat Fahl , DMG Ṭabaqat Faḥl , is a village with ancient ruins in northwestern Jordan . Pella is located in the Jordan Valley about 85 km north of Amman and is about half an hour's drive from the northern Jordan city of Irbid .

history

The area has been inhabited continuously since the Neolithic Age. The constant water source in Wadi Jirm, which ensured a reliable water supply, contributed to this. Temples from the Middle and Late Bronze Ages have been preserved, as well as one from the Iron Age. For the first time in the 19th century BC Mentioned in Egyptian inscriptions as 'Pihilum' or 'Pehel', the place name was later Hellenized to Pella, probably in honor of Pella in Macedonia , the birthplace of Alexander the Great .

The Hellenistic city was followed by the Roman one, of which some remarkable ruins have been preserved. At that time Pella belonged to the Decapolis , a group of ten cities in Palestine that were centers of Greco-Roman culture. It was probably the place of refuge for Christians from the early Jerusalem community and has one of the oldest churches in Christianity. Three large basilicas have survived from the Byzantine settlement phase.

After the Arab conquest, Pella was an Umayyad city for about a hundred years until it was destroyed by an earthquake in 747 . After that Pella only existed as a small village to this day.

Web links

Commons : Pella (Jordan)  - Album with pictures, videos and audio files

literature

  • Frank Rainer Scheck, Jordan. Peoples and cultures between Jordan and the Red Sea, Ostfildern 6th edition 2011, pp. 140–147 ISBN 3-7701-3979-8
  • Stephen J. Bourke: Pella in Jordan 2009. Urban Origins, a Bronze Age Palatial Residence and Hellenistic Husn . In: The Near Eastern Archeology Foundation Bulletin (NEAF Bulletin) 54, Sidney 2010, pp. 3–6 online (PDF file; 1.31 MB)
  • Stephen J. Bourke: Excavations on Tell Husn, Pella in Jordan . NEAF Bulletin 52, Sidney 2008, p. 4–5 online (PDF file; 3.54 MB)

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Eusebius of Caesarea , historia ecclesiastica 3,5,2f.

Coordinates: 32 ° 27 '  N , 35 ° 37'  E