Adullam

Adullam

Khirbat esh-Sheikh Madkur / ʿAīd el Mâ
Pine-covered hill of Adullam, seen from northwest
Shown within Israel
Alternative name	'Eîd el Mieh (Kh. 'Id el-Minya)
Location
Region	Shfela
Coordinates	31°39′0″N 35°0′9″E / 31.65000°N 35.00250°E / 31.65000; 35.00250
Grid position	150/118 PAL
History
Founded	Canaanite period and successive periods
Abandoned	unknown
Periods	Chalcolithic, Early and Late Bronze, Iron Age periods to the Ottoman period
Cultures	Canaanite, Jewish, Greco-Roman, Byzantine, early Islamic, Ottoman
Site notes
Excavation dates	2015
Archaeologists	Surveyed by Y. Dagan, B. Zissu, I. Radashkovsky and E. Liraz
Condition	Ruin
Ownership	Jewish National Fund
Public access	yes

Adullam (Hebrew: עֲדֻלָּם, romanized: ʿəḏullā, Koinē Greek: Οδολλάμ) is an ancient ruin once numbered among the thirty-six cities of Canaan whose kings "Joshua and the children of Israel smote" (Joshua 12:7–24).^[1] After that, it fell as an inheritance to the tribe of Judah and was included in the northern division of the Shephelah "lowland" cities of the land of Judah (Joshua 15:35).^[2]

The connection between Judah and Adullam and its surroundings was actually already established in the patriarchal period, when Judah "went down from his brothers and turned aside to a certain Adullamite, whose name was Hirah" (Genesis 38:1).^[2] At the beginning of the royal period, in the days of King Saul, the area was close to the land of the Philistines, and thus David, fleeing from Saul, sought refuge in the cave of Adullam and made it a place of reconnoitering and organization, both, for him and his men (1 Samuel 22:1–2).^[2][3] Here, too, the episode took place when three of David's heroes brought him water from the well of Bethlehem and he did not dare to drink it, but "poured it out unto the Lord" (2 Samuel 23:13–17).^[4] It is also learnt from the battle of David and Goliath, which took place in the Valley of Elah directly adjoining the north-side of the ruin, as well as from the raid of the Philistines into Keilah to the immediate south of Adullam, that Adullam was a frontier city during that period.^[2]

The current site was formerly known by the Arabic appellation Khurbet esh-Sheikh Madhkur, 9 mi. (15 km.) northeast of Bayt Jibrin,^[4] and was built upon a hilltop overlooking the Elah valley, straddling the Green Line between Israel and the West Bank, and with its suburban ruin, Levantine Arabic: عيد الميا, romanized: ʿeyd el-Miye, lying directly below it.^[5] By the late 19th century, the settlement, which had been a town, was in ruins.^[6] The hilltop ruin is named after Madkour, one of the sons of the Sultan Beder, for whom is built a shrine (wely) and formerly called by its inhabitants Wely Madkour.^[7] The hilltop is mostly flat, with cisterns carved into the rock. The remains of stone structures which once stood there can still be seen. Sedimentary layers of ruins from the old Canaanite and Israelite eras, mostly potsherds, are noticeable everywhere, although olive groves now grow atop of this hill, enclosed within stonewall enclosures. The villages of Aderet, Aviezer and Khirbet al-Deir are located nearby. The ruin lies about 3 km (1.9 mi) south of moshav Neve Michael.