Khirbat Umm Burj was aPalestinian Arab village in theHebron Subdistrict, sometimes designated in modern maps asBurgin.[6] Its ruins are today located within the borders ofIsrael. It occupied an extensive site, stretching about 30dunams (7.4 acres) on the crest of a hill, rising some 430 metres (1,410 ft) above sea level, and commanding a good prospect of the surrounding region. It was depopulated during the1948 Arab–Israeli War on October 28, 1948, during the third stage ofOperation Yo'av under the command ofYigal Allon. The site is located 17 km northwest ofHebron.
The site was occupied from theIron Age. A large ancientnecropolis was here, including a church or synagogue, residential buildings and numerous agricultural installations.[7] Israeli archaeologists, Amir Ganor andBoaz Zissu, think that Umm Burj may be a corruption of the 1st-century Jewish village,Kefar Bish, a view earlier rejected byKlein who said thatKefar Bish still bears its namesake in the nearby ruin ofKhirbet al-Bis.[8][9] AJewish inscription, possibly dating from theBar Kokhba revolt, has been found in a hiding complex at the site; it mentions a "Shelamzion daughter of...".[10]
In the late 19th century, extensive Christian remains were noted in the area surrounding Umm Burj.[11] Finnish scholar, Aapeli Saarisalo, visited the site of Umm Burj in the early 20th-century, and described its ruins as being of Byzantine and Arab origin.[12]
In 1838 Um Burj was noted as village, located in the area between the mountains andGaza, but subject to the government ofel-Khulil.[13]
In 1863,Victor Guérin passed north of Khirbat Umm Burj, and described the village as being on a mountain, dominating the surroundings.[14]
AnOttoman village list from about 1870 found thatum-burdsch had a population of 150, in 25 houses, though the population count included men, only.[15][16]
Frenchorientalist and archaeologist,Charles Clermont-Ganneau, visited the site in 1874 where he noticed awell situated nearby, calledBîr Hârûn, surmounted with a rude structure, near which were troughs hollowed out in large stone blocks.[17]
In 1883, thePEF'sSurvey of Western Palestine (SWP) described Umm Burj as: "A ruined village, with a central tower; apparently not ancient; caves andcisterns round it, and a well".[18]Khalidi believed that the SWP assumption that the tower was not ancient might have been wrong.[19]
The village was settled in the 19th century by theAl-Husayni family, who purchased the land, that was initially proposed for purchase by Jews.[20]
In the1931 census of Palestine, Umm Burj and Sanabra, listed in the sub-district of Hebron, had a joint population of 119 Muslims, in a total of 26 houses.[21]
In the1945 statistics it had a population of 140 Muslims,[2] with a total of 13,083dunums of land.[3] Of this, 28 dunums were irrigated or used for plantations, 3,546 were for cereal,[22] while 15 dunams were built-up (urban) areas.[23]
The villagers used to obtain drinking water from three wells on the northern outskirts of the village.[19]
Themoshav ofNehusha was established in 1955 on land that had belonged to the village, west of the village site,[25] but collapsed in 1968. It was re-established in 1981.
This sectionneeds expansion. You can help byadding to it.(April 2019)
In the years 1995–2012, archaeological fieldwork was conducted by a team of archaeologists atKhirbet Umm Burj on behalf of theIsrael Antiquities Authority (IAA), among whom were Boaz Zissu and Amir Golan,et al., where they uncovered at the site two Byzantine churches, and a Jewish inscription incised on a doorjamb of an underground room in a hiding tunnel system.[26]
^abcGovernment of Palestine, Department of Statistics.Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p.50Archived 2018-06-23 at theWayback Machine
^Morris, 2004, p.xix village #326. Morris gives both cause and date of depopulation as "Not known".
^Boaz Zissu and Amir Ganor,Survey and Excavations at Ḥorbat Burgin in the Judean Shephelah: Burial Caves, Hiding Complexes and Installations of the Second Temple and Byzantine Periods, ʿAtiqot (publication of the Israel Antiquities Authority), Issue 58 (2008), p. 63;Zissu, Boaz (2008). "Survey and Excavations at Ḥorbat Burgin in the Judean Shephelah: Burial Caves, Hiding Complexes and Installations of the Second Temple and Byzantine Periods".'Atiqot.58 (58):60–64.JSTOR23464336.
^Samuel Klein,The Twenty-four City Councils in Judea (ארבע ועשרים בולאות שביהודה), Vienna 1933, p. 293 (Hebrew)
^Corpus inscriptionum Iudaeae/Palaestinae: a multi-lingual corpus of the inscriptions from Alexander to Muhammad. Vol. IV: Iudaea / Idumaea. Eran Lupu, Marfa Heimbach, Naomi Schneider, Hannah Cotton. Berlin:de Gruyter. 2018. pp. 843–844.ISBN978-3-11-022219-7.OCLC663773367.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
^Grossman, D. (1986). "Oscillations in the Rural Settlement of Samaria and Judaea in the Ottoman Period". inShomron studies. Dar, S., Safrai, S., (eds). Tel Aviv: Hakibbutz Hameuchad Publishing House. p. 376
.jpg)
1870s map.jpg)
1940s map.jpg)
modern map.jpg)
1940s with modern overlay map
![[icon]](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=https%3a%2f%2fen.wikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fFile%3aWiki_letter_w_cropped.svg)
_with_general_view.jpg)
