Ketef Hinnom

Ketef Hinnom
The area of Ketef Hinnom (just east of St Andrew's church) shown in a 1940s Survey of Palestine map

Ketef Hinnom (Hebrew: כתף הינום, romanized: ketef hinom, lit. 'Shoulder of Hinnom')[1][2] is an archaeological site discovered in the 1970s southwest of the Old City of Jerusalem. Archaeological excavations held at the site uncovered a series of Iron Age period Judahite burial chambers, dating to the 7th and 6th centuries BCE. It is famous for the Ketef Hinnom scrolls, which are the oldest surviving texts from the Hebrew Bible currently known, dated to 600 BC.

Ketef Hinnom is adjacent to St. Andrew's Church, now on the grounds of the Menachem Begin Heritage Center. It is located where the Valley of Rephaim and the Valley of Hinnom meet, on the old road from Jerusalem to Bethlehem.[3]

Reconstruction of the burial caves in Ketef Hinnom, Israel Museum
  1. ^ Barkay, G. (1984). "Excavations on the Slope of the Hinnom Valley, Jerusalem". Qadmoniot (in Hebrew). 68 (4). Jerusalem: Israel Exploration Society: 94–108. JSTOR 23676045. Retrieved 17 July 2021.
  2. ^ Na'aman, Nadav (2011). "A New Appraisal of the Silver Amulets from Ketef Hinnom". Israel Exploration Journal. 61 (2). Israel Exploration Society: 184–195. JSTOR 23214240. Retrieved 17 July 2021.
  3. ^ Menachem Begin Heritage Center, Lookout and Reich Archaeological Garden.