 Tel Kedesh | |
  Shown within Israel  Kedesh (Northeast Israel) | |
| Alternative name | Cydessa |
|---|---|
| Location | Northern District, Israel |
| Region | Upper Galilee |
| Coordinates | 33°06′42″N 35°31′46″E / 33.111638°N 35.529517°E |
| Type | Settlement |
| Site notes | |
| Condition | In ruins |
| Public access | yes |
Kedesh (alternate spellings: Qedesh, Cadesh, Cydessa) was an ancient Canaanite and later Israelite settlement in Upper Galilee, mentioned several times in the Hebrew Bible. Its remains are located in Tel Kedesh, 3 km northeast of the modern Kibbutz Malkiya in Israel on the Israeli-Lebanese border.[1]
The settlement is first documented in the Book of Joshua as a Canaanite citadel conquered by the Israelites and designated as a Levitical city and City of Refuge. In the 8th century BCE, it was captured by Tiglath-Pileser III of Assyria and its inhabitants deported. Jewish tradition holds that Deborah, Barak and Jael were buried near Kedesh. During the 5th century BCE, it possibly became the capital of the Achaemenid province of Upper Galilee. In the Hellenistic period, Kedesh was the site of battles involving Jonathan Apphus and Seleucid king Demetrius II. In the Roman period, Josephus records Jewish attacks on Kedesh during the First Jewish–Roman War, with Titus establishing a camp there. The site was later mentioned in Eusebius. Excavations from 1997 to 2012 revealed significant Persian and Hellenistic administrative buildings and a large Roman temple complex.
As Qadas (also Cadasa; Arabic: قدس), it was a Palestinian village located 17 kilometers northeast of Safad that was depopulated during the 1947–1949 Palestine war.[2][3] One of seven villages populated by Shia Muslims, called the Metawalis, that fell within the boundaries of British Mandate Palestine, Qadas is today known as the tell of the ancient biblical city of Kedesh.[4][3] The village of Qadas contained many natural springs which served as the village water supply and a Roman temple dating back to the 2nd century.[2]
- ^ Negev & Gibson, eds. (2001), p. 278.
- ^ a b "Welcome to Qadas". Palestine Remembered. Retrieved 2007-12-03.
- ^ a b Danny Rubinstein (2006-08-06). "The Seven Lost Villages". Haaretz. Archived from the original on October 1, 2007.
- ^ "The Hebrew University Excavations at Tel Qedesh". sites.google.com. Retrieved 2023-02-12.
A Shi'a village by the name of Qadas occupied part of the mound in the last centuries, and was abandoned in the aftermath of the 1948 War.
; "The Hebrew University Expedition to Qedesh in the Galilee". Archaeological Institute of America. 2021-11-21. Retrieved 2023-02-12.Tel Qedesh is one of the largest biblical mounds in northern Israel. First settled as early as the Chalcolithic period, the site reached its peak during the Early Bronze Age, when an enormous site (ca. 60 hectares), extending well beyond the main mound, emerged during this crucial phase of early Levantine urbanism. A Canaanite city continued to thrive on the mound during the second millennium BCE, to be followed by an important Israelite center during the Iron Age II, known as one of the Refuge and Levite Cities (Joshua 20:7; 21:32). Following its conquest by the Assyrian King Tiglath Pileser III in 732 BCE (2 Kings 15:29), it re-emerged as a Phoenician administrative center during the Persian and Hellenistic periods, and later as an important pagan town on the boundary between Tyre and Jewish Galilee during the Second Temple period (BJ 3:35–40). A rural cultic center, housing two temples and numerous mausolea (elaborate burial monuments), developed here in the Late Roman period, and an important market town is attested during the Early Islamic period. In the more recent past, the mound was occupied by a small Shi'ite village by the name of Qadas… the Arab village of Qadas, which was occupying the upper mound during the last centuries.