Kinneret (archaeological site)
Template:Short description Template:Infobox ancient site
Kinneret (Template:Langx) is the name of an important Bronze and Iron Age city of the ancient Levant situated on the northwestern shore of the Sea of Galilee. It was first mentioned in the 14th century BC Tale of Aqhat of Ugarit, and in also mentioned in the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament.
Older Bible translations spell the name alternatively Kinnereth or Chinnereth, and sometimes in the plural as Chinneroth.<ref name= hub>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name= Arnold>Template:Cite book</ref> In time, the Hebrew name became Gennesaret and Ginosar ({{#invoke:Lang|lang}}). The remains of Kinneret have been excavated at a site called Tell el-'Oreimeh (Tell el-‘Orēme) in Levantine Arabic and Tel Kinrot in Modern Hebrew.
Etymology
"Kinneret"
"Kinnor" instrument
One theory is that Kinneret is derived from kinnor, an ancient Israelite musical instrument, on account of the shape of the lake resembling that of the instrument.<ref>Montagu, Jeremy (2002). Musical Instruments of the Bible, Scarecrow Press, p. 15.</ref>
Talmud
According to the Jerusalem Talmud, Megillah 1:1, the name Kinneret is derived from the name of the kinnar trees which grow in its vicinity, explained by lexicographer Marcus Jastrow to mean the Christsthorn jujube (Ziziphus spina-christi),<ref>Marcus Jastrow, Dictionary of the Targumim, the Talmud Babli and Yerushalmi, and the Midrashic Literature, Peabody, Mass. 2006, p. 651 (s.v. כנרא)</ref> and by Moses Margolies to mean cane reeds.<ref>Jerusalem Talmud, Megillah 1:1 [2b]</ref>
"Gennesaret" and "Ginosar"
Adrian Room sees the origin of 'Ginosar' in a combination of Hebrew words, Template:Transliteration ('valley') and either Template:Transliteration ('branch') or Template:Transliteration ('to guard', 'to watch').<ref name= Placenames>Template:Cite book</ref>
The late-19th-century Easton's Bible Dictionary offers a very different etymology, by stating that the initial Hebrew name 'Kinneret', in the plural 'Kinnerot', was Hellenized to Gennesaret, with Ginosar an alternative transformation.<ref name= Easton>Easton's Revised Bible Dictionary, "Gennesaret"</ref>
Historical use of the name
The lake
Due to its prominence, the city gave its name to the lake (the "Sea of Galilee") for long periods of history, as the Sea of Kinneret, Kinnerot, Gennesaret, or Ginosar.<ref name= Easton/>
As other places around the lake rose to prominence, such as Tiberias and Qasr al-Minya, the name of the lake also changed to Lake Tiberias<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> or Lake Minya ("Bahr el-Minya" in Arabic).<ref>"Minnim (Khirbet Minya)" at carta-jerusalem.com, 15 May 2012. retrieved 18 December 2021.</ref>
Template:AnchorThe plain
The name has also been used for the "Plain of Gennesaret", which stretches south of the ancient city. The plain's modern names are Plain of Ginosar in Hebrew and el-Ghuweir in Arabic.
Modern settlements
The Israeli Kibbutz Ginosar derives its name from the ancient town, though it is not located on its precise site. The settlements of Moshavat Kinneret and Kvutzat Kinneret are even further south, on the southwestern shore of the lake.
Biblical and other ancient sources
Annals of Thutmose III
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Kinneret is mentioned as Kennartou in the 15th-century BCE Annals of Thutmose III at Temple of Karnak.<ref name = Gauthier205>Template:Cite book</ref>
Hebrew Bible
Kinneret was a town allotted to the tribe of Naphtali (Template:Bibleverse). The name appears in the singular form as "Kinneret" (Template:Bibleverse, Template:Bibleverse) or in the plural as "Kinneroth" (Template:Bibleverse).
New Testament (Gospels)
In the New Testament, the name appears changed to Gennesaret (in Matthew 14:34, Mark 6:53 and Luke 5:1; the latter refers to "the Lake of Gennesaret").<ref>Template:Bibleverse: New King James Version</ref> In Matthew and Mark, this city or area is a place where Jesus visited and performed healings.<ref>Template:Bibleverse</ref> In Luke, he taught the crowds there and appointed his first four disciples.
The Douay-Rheims Bible uses the form "Genesar" in its translation of Matthew 14:34:
- And having passed the water, they came into the country of Genesar.<ref>Matthew 14:34 in the Douay-Rheims Bible</ref>
Josephus and Babylonian Talmud
Flavius Josephus, as well as the Babylonian Talmud mention the lake by the name "Sea of Ginosar" after the small fertile plain of Ginosar that lies at the foot of Tell el-'Oreimeh, ancient Kinneret. Josephus refers to the area as having very rich soil.<ref>The Physical Geography, Geology, and Meteorology of the Holyand by Henry Baker Tristram 2007 Template:ISBN page 11</ref>
Identification and location
The site of the fortified Bronze and Iron Age city of Kinneret is identified with the mound known in Arabic as Tell el-'Oreimeh and in modern Hebrew as Tel Kinrot, halfway between Capernaum and Magdala.<ref name= Negev>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Lamar Williamson 1983 Mark Template:ISBN pages 129-130</ref> Situated on an important trade route, its elevated position meant that it also overlooked and guarded the Plain of Ginosar from its northern end.
The site has the ICS Coordinates: 200805-1252830;<ref name= Aharoni>Aharoni, Yochanan. The Land of the Bible, A Historical Geography. The Westminster Press, Philadelphia, 1979, p. 433.</ref><ref name= amudanan>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name= coord/> ca. 32.87000 N, 35.539312 E.<ref name= coord>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
According to Sugimoto (2015), the Iron Age IB (tenth to mid-ninth centuries BC) cities in the northeastern region of the Sea of Galilee, including Tel Kinrot, likely reflect the activities of the Kingdom of Geshur, mentioned in the Bible. Also, the later Iron Age IIA–B cities here are linked with the southern expansion of the Aram-Damascus kingdom.<ref>David T. Sugimoto 2015, History and Nature of Iron Age Cities in the Northeastern Sea of Galilee Region: A Preliminary Overview. ORIENT Volume 50, 2015</ref>
History of archaeological exploration
The tell was first explored by Paul Karge in 1911, with a main focus on prehistoric remains. Robert Köppel was the first to excavate (1932 and 1939), but only few results were published.<ref name= KRP>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
The premises of the future Mekorot pumping station and a number of spots at the foot of the hill were surveyed in the 1950s by Israeli archaeologists Gershon Edelstein and Bezalel Rabbani (published by Fritz, 1978). In the 1980s, Shan M. M. Winn of the University of Southern Mississippi and Jak Yakar of the University of Tel Aviv cut a small and deep trench near the shore, where they discovered the expected evidence of Early Bronze Age occupation (Winn & Yakar, 1984). Volkmar Fritz of the University of Mainz/Giessen, Germany, then directed the first systematic and continuous excavations: 1982-1985 at the peak ("acropolis"), and in 1995-1999 and 2001 on the lower part of the southeastern slope of the tell (Fritz & Münger, 2002).<ref name= KRP/>
In 2002, the Kinneret Regional Project (KRP) took over, continuing the work initiated by Volkmar Fritz on Tel Kinrot, as well as in the wider region around the site (Pakkala, Münger & Zangenberg, 2004). The KRP is jointly run by the Universities of Berne (Switzerland), Helsinki (Finland), Mainz (Germany) and Leiden (Netherlands), and is directed by Stefan Münger, Juha Pakkala and Jürgen Zangenberg.<ref name= KRP/> Since 2008 excavations on Tel Kinrot have been "temporarily halted", the KRP team dealing with analysis and publication while continuing the exploration of Horvat Kur and its surroundings.<ref name= home>KRP homepage, retrieved 25 Sep 2024.</ref>
See also
- Cities in the Book of Joshua
- National Water Carrier, whose Sapir Pumping Station is located at the tell
References
External links
Template:Sites of the Israelite Settlement Template:New Testament places associated with Jesus Template:Authority control