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  • 21 Aug, 2019

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Beit Hilkia

Beit Hilkia (Hebrew: בֵּית חִלְקִיָּה, lit. House of Hilkia) is a Haredi moshav in central Israel. Located in the Shephelah near Gedera, it falls under the jurisdiction of Nahal Sorek Regional Council. In 2022 it had a population of 1,480.

History

The village was established in 1953 by former residents of Jerusalem and ma'abarot who wanted to combine a Haredi and agricultural lifestyle. It is named after Hilkia, the father of the prophet Jeremiah (Jeremiah 1:1).

It was established on land that had belonged to the depopulated Palestinian village of Al-Mukhayzin.

Archaeology

In 2015, a salvage excavation brought to light a prehistoric site near Beit Hilkia and the Revivim quarry, with findings from the Pottery Neolithic (Yarmukian), Late Chalcolithic, and the Middle Bronze Age IIA–IIB. Somewhat surprising was the discovery of a typical Yarmukian-style fired clay figurine of a fertility goddess, the southernmost such finding. Of 163 found up to that date, the vast majority had been discovered in the main area known for its Yarmukian settlements, in and around the northern type-site of Sha'ar HaGolan, with just two exceptions further to the south. This new finding led to speculations that much of the Southern Levant might have been inhabited by a contiguous civilization during the time (c. 6400–6000 BCE), with differences in pottery types being more significant to today's archaeologists than to people living back then.

References

  1. ^ "Regional Statistics". Israel Central Bureau of Statistics. Retrieved 21 March 2024.
  2. ^ Carta (1993). Carta's Official Guide to Israel and Complete Gazetteer to all Sites in the Holy Land (3rd ed.). Carta. p. 111. ISBN 965-220-186-3.
  3. ^ Place Names in Israel. A Compendium of Place Names in Israel compiled from various sources, p256
  4. ^ Bitan, Channah (1999). חמישים שנות התיישבות : אטלס שמות היישובים והמקומות בישראל [Fifty Years of 'Hityashvut:' Atlas of Names of Settlements in Israel] (in Hebrew). Carta. p. 10. ISBN 9789652204233. Archived from the original on 2023-08-17. Retrieved 2019-04-25.
  5. ^ Khalidi, Walid (1992), All That Remains: The Palestinian Villages Occupied and Depopulated by Israel in 1948, Washington D.C.: Institute for Palestine Studies, p. 398, ISBN 0-88728-224-5
  6. ^ Marmelstein, Yitzhak; van den Brink, Edwin C.M. (26 July 2020). "Bet Hilqiya: Preliminary report". Hadashot Arkheologiyot. 132. Jerusalem: Israel Antiquities Authority. Archived from the original on 26 May 2021. Retrieved 26 May 2021.